As far as presenting raw data goes, I’d be interested in seeing numbers on what percentage of subreddit subscribers are actual active users. If 90% of the 1.5m subscribers on r/rpg are bots and inactive accounts, then the remaining 10% of real posters is roughly equal to the 150k on Lemmy. That is, at least, assuming Lemmy doesn’t have any bots or inactive accounts. I’d be interested in seeing the numbers for that, too.

Both of these subs are 15 years old.

To be clear, I’m just presenting raw data, not making any inferences from it.

Like I said, it’s just some raw data. Process it however you see fit.

It also says there is 145 people online - Does that mean roughly 2/3 of active users vote stuff to hot? ~100 people holding up a niche community with a fraction of those the posters themselves.

For this, it’s important to remember that’s the number of people online at that very moment, but the vote count is persistent. Any number of those upvotes could have come from users who aren’t online presently, but had been online an hour or two prior. ~66%, in this case, is not the actual amount, it’s just the upper bound.

I always baselessly suspected that Reddit fluffs up the numbers to make engagement seem like it is much greater than it is, but this is 1000x smaller than the sub count suggests.

It’s possible, and very plausible, that they do this, but it’s much less plausible (though still possible) that they do it to that degree.

Again: just giving numbers. Make of them what you will.

This is true. Like I said, I’m not trying to make any implications; I’m just giving numbers for context.

For perspective:

r/GothStyle has 159k subscribers, r/tarot has 306k, r/cycling has 348k, r/rpg and r/political humor have 1.5m each, r/ExplainLikeImFive has 22.3m, and r/AskReddit has 41.4m.

Make of that what you will. I’m just giving numbers.

I honestly don’t know. Do you? If you can tell me what the percentage is, I can adjust the figures to take that into account.

Did you remember to include a gif of a hardhat worker with a sign saying “caution: this site is under construction”?

So it’s about the size of a smallish-medium subreddit, then?

Edit: 10% of the size of r/rpg. Or about half the size of r/tarot.

This is why the correct response is, “maybe somebody needs to put you in your place, whuddaya think about that, wiseguy?”

It’s the blank stare directly upwards that’s most relatable.

You remember when people were putting up their own static “front page” to the web? I mean, because the web was still small enough that individuals could still reasonably curate their own little corner of it? It was like if Reddit was just a little cottage tucked away in the English countryside, instead of some massive metropolitan bus station.

Did it feel like… half a dozen excited kids finding each other to explore a vast, empty, yet still interesting globe with @ symbols, virtual greeting cards and cool pictures of space stuff?

… more or less, yeah.

I was wondering about that! Thanks!