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> have maybe 20% of the activity they used to, before the API fiasco Is that really true? I have been on reddit since day 0 and have noticed 0 change, absolute

> have maybe 20% of the activity they used to, before the API fiasco Is that really true? I have been on reddit since day 0 and have noticed 0 change, absolutely nothing. Some communities went through a "we're now on lemmy" phase. But even that went nowhere. Reddit is still plagued by mods and all the other things, but the userbase is as powerful as ever

bombcar 3y ago
I used to be a heavy user, I rarely read it now and then. I certainly never post, and my accounts are deleted or inactive. It still turns up in search results for me but it’s certainly no community I’m using. If there is a stereotypical Reddit user, then they’re stagnating.
seanhunter 3y ago
Anecdotal of course. I used to read for hours each day and post from time to time - I haven't even looked at it for months except a couple of days ago where I had to prep for a business meeting where reddit was relevant. I had been feeling for a long time that it was declining and also that my social media usage wasn't really adding anything positive so the API thing was just a convenient excuse to rip off the band-aid.
diggan 3y ago
Maybe it's because my user is "only" 12 years old, but there is definitely a big difference in quality of the discussions and the activity today compared to 2-3 years ago, at least in the communities I hang around mostly (music production, 3D, animation and adjacent creative areas).
- rd 3y ago
  Quality discussions and activity don't drive normie usage, and that's what Reddit's optimizing for at this point. Feels like they want to be TikTok, but for links and images, and even the links part is slowly dying. I wouldn't be surprised if you ran an analysis of the makeup of hot-page content across the biggest subs, if links used to make up 90%, that that number has slowly been dropping for the past 5 years to now be mostly images.
SpecialistK 3y ago
I used to be a mod on a large tech subreddit, and Reddit's mod dashboard actually did show user traffic analytics. In the time between the API meltdown and my finally deleting my account, visits to the sub fell by about 30%.
pixl97 3y ago
>but the userbase is as powerful as ever Sure about that? Start looking for bots that repost other peoples comments and we may find that questionable.
- bun_terminator 3y ago
  Sure the bots are a problem, but that didn't arise with the API changes in my experience.
CM30 3y ago
As someone who's used Reddit for a while, it definitely seems like there's less interesting stuff being posted there, and that things are a lot quieter than they used to be. A lot of the more technical/in depth subreddits seem to be near dead in comparison to how they were prior to the API fiasco. But it probably depends on tastes too. If you went to Reddit for pet photos or sports discussions or political debates the difference is likely minimal, while if you went there to talk about astrophysics or history, it's probably a lot more noticeable.

bombcar 3y ago

I used to be a heavy user, I rarely read it now and then. I certainly never post, and my accounts are deleted or inactive. It still turns up in search results for me but it’s certainly no community I’m using. If there is a stereotypical Reddit user, then they’re stagnating.

seanhunter 3y ago

Anecdotal of course. I used to read for hours each day and post from time to time - I haven't even looked at it for months except a couple of days ago where I had to prep for a business meeting where reddit was relevant. I had been feeling for a long time that it was declining and also that my social media usage wasn't really adding anything positive so the API thing was just a convenient excuse to rip off the band-aid.

diggan 3y ago

Maybe it's because my user is "only" 12 years old, but there is definitely a big difference in quality of the discussions and the activity today compared to 2-3 years ago, at least in the communities I hang around mostly (music production, 3D, animation and adjacent creative areas).

rd 3y ago
Quality discussions and activity don't drive normie usage, and that's what Reddit's optimizing for at this point. Feels like they want to be TikTok, but for links and images, and even the links part is slowly dying. I wouldn't be surprised if you ran an analysis of the makeup of hot-page content across the biggest subs, if links used to make up 90%, that that number has slowly been dropping for the past 5 years to now be mostly images.

SpecialistK 3y ago

I used to be a mod on a large tech subreddit, and Reddit's mod dashboard actually did show user traffic analytics. In the time between the API meltdown and my finally deleting my account, visits to the sub fell by about 30%.

pixl97 3y ago

>but the userbase is as powerful as ever Sure about that? Start looking for bots that repost other peoples comments and we may find that questionable.

bun_terminator 3y ago
Sure the bots are a problem, but that didn't arise with the API changes in my experience.

CM30 3y ago

As someone who's used Reddit for a while, it definitely seems like there's less interesting stuff being posted there, and that things are a lot quieter than they used to be. A lot of the more technical/in depth subreddits seem to be near dead in comparison to how they were prior to the API fiasco. But it probably depends on tastes too. If you went to Reddit for pet photos or sports discussions or political debates the difference is likely minimal, while if you went there to talk about astrophysics or history, it's probably a lot more noticeable.