Comment on Reddit is dropping subscriber counts on subreddits

someguy3@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

• lvxferre@mander.xyz ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  It is not an “either this or that” matter; they could show both pieces of info. And they should.

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  • someguy3@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Why should they show subscribers of dead accounts? I think they only kept that to “prop up” numbers before the IPO.

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    • lvxferre@mander.xyz ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Why should they show subscribers of dead accounts?

      Because the number of subscribers gives you a better idea of the size of the community than a vague “visitors” - that includes every single clown who stumbled upon the subreddit after googling or clicking a random link.

      Also note the issue of the number including dead accounts could be easily solved.

      I think they only kept that to “prop up” numbers before the IPO.

      I think they’re actively trying to hide the number of lurkers, by conflating it with casual visitors.

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      • someguy3@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        Because the number of subscribers gives you a better idea of the size of the community than a vague “visitors”

        I say it’s literally the exact opposite. Subscribers from dead accounts aren’t active, they aren’t part of the community, they aren’t discussing. They are dead accounts.

        The people that ARE in the community are the actual users that show up on a regular basis. THAT is what shows the actual size of the community. Not that it was once a default sub for hundreds of thousands of accounts that are no longer active.

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    • scintilla@crust.piefed.social ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Because there is a level of stability in subreddits with >50k ish subscribers that subs smaller than that just don't have. You might have a lot of MAU because a sub hit r/all multiple times but goes back down to a much smaller number following that because it's out of the news.

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      • someguy3@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        The point is they don’t actually have 50k subscribers if 30k of those are dead accounts. They have 20k. Showing 50k accomplishes absolutely nothing. What stability? Stability in use? No. Stability in shown numbers? Yay but it’s fake. Any and all default subs that are auto subscribed have pumped up numbers when users leave.

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