Excerpt:

Most major subreddits show a decrease of between 50 and 90 percent in average daily posts and comments, when compared to a year ago. This suggests the problem is way fewer users, not the same number of users browsing less. The huge and universal dropoff also suggests that people left, either because of the changes or the protests, and they aren’t coming back.

    • ribboo@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      Is this data really accurate? The difference is insane for every subreddit I checked.

      • Hamartiogonic@sopuli.xyz
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        1 year ago

        Well, the site says it shouldn’t be used for serious purposes, but I would say it’s still safe to consider it semi-quantitative. If you see a drop like that, there really is a drop. What the exact value was before or after might not be that reliable, but it’s not even important in this case.

      • tobbue@feddit.de
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        1 year ago

        I think so, all the older data points make sense (you can clearly make out the begin of COVID and the Ukraine war). It’s really insane, 50-90% less activity is no exaggeration.

    • Corgana@startrek.website
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      1 year ago

      I feel like this is by design. Reddit never wanted to be a discussion board. It wants users to keep scrolling so they see more ads.

      • Hamartiogonic@sopuli.xyz
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        1 year ago

        Oh, that is a good point actually. However, drop in comments is probably also associated with a drop in quality posts and the number of people who upvote them.

    • Lazylazycat@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Wow, that’s a serious drop off! I looked at a few of my old fave subreddits and they’re all the same. It’s like one of those old towns in the US that was once on a main highway before a new route was built. Once bustling, now dead.

      • Hamartiogonic@sopuli.xyz
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        1 year ago

        Every sub I cheked got totally nuked to oblivion. No wonder why people are complaining about the quality. Hardly anyone is there to comment or vote.

        • The Picard Maneuver@startrek.website
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          1 year ago

          I opened reddit on desktop yesterday for the first time in a while, and I had received a survey from the Admins.

          I’ve never received something like that before. The questions made it seem like they’re trying to figure out why people are unhappy.