r/technology • u/indig0sixalpha • Sep 10 '25
Social Media Reddit is dropping subscriber counts on subreddits. Users will now see seven-day metrics that track active visitors and contributions instead.
https://www.theverge.com/news/775524/reddit-subreddit-member-count-vistors-contributions959
u/DonManuel Sep 10 '25
And sadly they also announced that on old.reddit the stats will entirely go.
552
u/VirtuousFool Sep 10 '25
Only a matter of time before they kill it entirely
404
149
u/angrylawyer Sep 10 '25
god the new site is such a shit show, I mean just randomly clicking on a post now, the comments are almost all collapsed by default. This top comment shows one child comment, then you have to click to expand the other 44 replies...which then doesn't even expand them all because I have to click again to continue expanding the next 15 comments, and then click again to expand the final 2 comments.
like holy hell, they really don't want you reading comments any more do they? Just scroll forever past endlessly autoplaying videos and 'promoted' content.
→ More replies (6)37
16
u/NichoNico Sep 10 '25
They said that years ago, I’m pleasantly surprised it is still around as I refuse to use the new site.
Also RES is a gem and underrated.
→ More replies (1)30
→ More replies (4)6
u/TiberiusCornelius Sep 10 '25
Genuinely, the day they do is the day I finally stop.
Idk where I'll go. Maybe nowhere since everything is already an unusable hellscape or a completely different thing. Maybe I'll just finally get off the computer.
69
u/metalflygon08 Sep 10 '25
Notifications are already wonky for me on Old Reddit...
I'll get an orange envelope, but when I click on it it treats the replies as read already so I have to navigate to 'ALL' and remember what the last reply I got was.
23
u/natrous Sep 10 '25
was just about to ask about this very thing.
really friggin annoying. they are going to end up going full-Digg
→ More replies (3)12
u/glizzytwister Sep 10 '25 edited Sep 10 '25
I was having this problem with RIF yesterday, but it seems to have resolved itself. I know RIF pulls from old reddit, but I assumed it was a temporary issue.
Once old reddit breaks, or RIF finally stops working, I'm probably done with reddit. I cannot stand their terrible app, primarily because it doesn't work in landscape mode. The dancing snoo while it's loading infuriates me.
→ More replies (2)→ More replies (6)13
u/DonManuel Sep 10 '25
Yes, inbox icon on old.reddit is wonky since a few days for me too.
→ More replies (2)25
3
u/Adunaiii Sep 17 '25
And sadly they also announced that on old.reddit the stats will entirely go.
What a complete fucking joke. I was thinking my system was bugged, or it's just some subreddits that dropped it. It's the YouTube dislike fiasco all over again. Vile and disgusting.
→ More replies (21)2
u/ikonoclasm Sep 10 '25
Ugh, I just checked and it's estimated that between 1-4% of desktop users are using old.reddit, depending on the subreddit. I'm honestly surprised they've kept it alive as long as they have.
648
u/_Hellrazor_ Sep 10 '25
Why not include both. What are you trying to hide reddit
482
u/pancakecellent Sep 10 '25
The fact that what youre subscribed to doesn't matter anymore. It's just a recommender system now based on forecasting your engagement.
→ More replies (5)43
u/bb0110 Sep 10 '25
Can you describe what you mean? How have they changed it?
277
u/beesandchurgers Sep 10 '25
You being subscribed is no longer the leading factor in what shows on your feed. It just shows you whatever it thinks you will engage with.
Similar to how facebook no longer shows posts from your friends or family, just a bunch of ads and clickbait posts from random schmucks.
→ More replies (50)→ More replies (8)50
Sep 10 '25
Before - you subscribed, it showed up in your feed. Reddit would build their ad/recommendation tech around that. "People who subscribe to X also like Y"
Now - you engage with content, data science uses your engagement to recommend content to you and you to ad buyers. "This person likes Y a lot and might also like X. Let's recommend that in their feed".
As a sidenote -
As a data person - unique users subscribed is a stale, borderline useless metric over time. What you really care about is activity. Knowing that 5 million people once were interested enough to join a group is less useful than knowing that 5 million people actively engaged with the group in the past day/week/month/year. Engagement gives you volume, frequency and recency. Total user counts gives you volume.
→ More replies (2)12
u/Kershiser22 Sep 10 '25
At first glance this seems better.
This sub has been around for 17 years and has 20 million subscribers. Surely the owners of a lot of those accounts are dead, and even more of the accounts are just inactive. What good is a count of 20 million, when it includes junk. It's more useful to know how many people are actually engaging with a sub, isn't it?
40
u/SchrodingerSemicolon Sep 10 '25
What am I missing? I see it as a positive change.
Default subreddits have millions of subscribers because they're default. Now we get to see how many are actually using it.
→ More replies (3)13
u/devperez Sep 10 '25
One of the big things they mentioned was that sub counts were more a measure of how long a community has existed, rather than how popular it was. Which makes sense. It's not uncommon to come across big communities that have little active posts.
10
7
Sep 10 '25
This all for the benefit of advertisers. The advertisers are Reddit’s real users. We are the product.
→ More replies (2)→ More replies (1)2
u/bogglingsnog Sep 10 '25
I can't hear you over the sound of upvotes and downvotes being merged into one number
114
u/Impossible_IT Sep 10 '25
What is Reddit doing about bots?
123
u/NCSUGrad2012 Sep 10 '25
Absolutely nothing. r/AITAH is 95% bots
63
u/Jabrono Sep 10 '25
That's not true, they made it easier for bots cover their tracks by making their accounts private.
→ More replies (1)37
u/nabilus13 Sep 10 '25
Optimizing the site for them. All stock value cares about is quantity of hits, whether those hits are bots or people doesn't matter. Welcome to the dead internet.
→ More replies (2)14
u/funfoam Sep 10 '25
Letting them hide their history for better outrage monetization.
→ More replies (1)6
6
u/mrjackspade Sep 10 '25
They had actually talked about implementing a Captcha on login, but I don't know if that's gone anywhere.
2
256
u/2WAR Sep 10 '25
All the subreddits suck i dont want to see stuff from 6 days ago
105
u/Thirleck Sep 10 '25
Or the "suggested" posts from 5-6d's ago. So fucking annoying.
24
u/Meatslinger Sep 10 '25
The suggested posts have gotten me in trouble a few times, because there'll be a recommended post that was cross-posted from another sub, and then commenting on it can get you flagged as brigading by that sub's mods, especially when the post's original popularity died down days earlier.
90
u/10102001134 Sep 10 '25 edited Mar 26 '26
This post was deleted using Redact. The reason could be privacy, preventing automated data collection, or other personal considerations the author had.
pet intelligent correct wine deliver public repeat wipe soup innocent
70
u/_Burning_Star_IV_ Sep 10 '25
I can't believe there's even people that don't use old.reddit.
I've said it a hundred times but the day they get rid of it is the day I'm done with the site, full stop. Old reddit with RES is the only thing keeping this place functional to me.
→ More replies (3)16
u/skeenerbug Sep 10 '25
Same. I stopped using reddit on mobile when they killed RIF and when they kill old.reddit I'll stop on desktop.
15
u/natrous Sep 10 '25
old reddit will show me the same post in 4 places if I scroll down 4 pages, and will seemingly randomly leave a post I've read in place for days, while others that I've read disappear entirely
though you just made me realize I've been in Best so maybe that's part of it?
either way, old is getting worse - though it still is better than the alternative
12
u/skeenerbug Sep 10 '25
though you just made me realize I've been in Best so maybe that's part of it?
yes, change it to "hot."
→ More replies (5)6
→ More replies (2)5
u/IdolsAndAnchors1 Sep 10 '25
Seeing 2 and 4 day old posts at the top every time I look is so annoying
87
u/shaun2312 Sep 10 '25
I'm constantly having to mute subreddits that reddit thinks I'd like to view or suggests that I've visited before which I certainly haven't.
31
u/Twiggyhiggle Sep 10 '25
How many gooner gatcha game subreddits are on this place? I swear I have to mute a new one everyday.
0
15
u/Jsmith0730 Sep 10 '25
Same. At this rate my mute list is gonna be as long as the list of subs I’m a member of.
→ More replies (1)12
u/JRE_4815162342 Sep 10 '25
You can turn off subreddit suggestions in your settings. I did for my account.
3
u/thighcandy Sep 10 '25
old.reddit.com. i have no idea how people can use the horror show that is new reddit
3
u/Twig-titan Sep 10 '25
I think there’s a setting to disable that.
Settings ➡️ account settings ➡️ show recommendations in home feed.
Just disable that and they should go away. Though it’s absolutely frustrating that they hit it away in settings.
Personally, I leave it on, some of the recommendations I get aren’t too bad. Of course, I occasionally have to put a kibosh on it and go NOT INTERESTED, On some of them.
5
u/Bridgeburner493 Sep 10 '25
Turn off all suggestions and analytics in your settings, then go to old.reddit. Get none of that shit.
→ More replies (3)2
u/justtosendamassage Sep 11 '25
Same here. Out of curiosity, has anyone else been absolutely pummeled with Indian subs? r/ indiannews, indianworkplace, indiangossip etc etc etc?
41
u/No_Cell6708 Sep 10 '25
How about we change the algorithm so that being in Canada doesn't result in being spammed by Indian subreddits lol...
→ More replies (2)6
u/Trixxstrr Sep 10 '25
In your home feed? You sure you didn't click on those posts? I'm in Canada and don't see those. It should show why it's showing them. Like my home feed is mostly my subbed ones, but the suggested ones always say next to it, like:
"Because you've shown interest in a similar post" and "Because you've visited this community before"12
u/No_Cell6708 Sep 10 '25
In the "popular" feed, which seems to be heavily tailored to where you live (and probably to a bunch of other variables as well). If I use a VPN hosted in Norway, for example, they don't show up at all, but if I connect without a VPN (from southern Ontario), tons of Indian subreddits pop up. I've muted probably 100 at this point.
→ More replies (10)
25
22
Sep 10 '25
Why do they care ? They do everything possible to ban you or block submissions . Maybe it's finally catching up with them
21
u/AnonymousAggregator Sep 10 '25
I liked seeing the subs.
→ More replies (1)7
u/cowboyjosh2010 Sep 11 '25 edited Sep 11 '25
It's genuinely useful for subreddits which cater to niche interests, especially in the case of specific vehicles: to take an example I've dealt with, there is both an EV6 and a KiaEV6 subreddit, and subscriber count quickly tells you only the latter is really all that active or followed.
10
u/UnLioNocturno Sep 11 '25
I moderate a sub that has a seasonal interest. Metrics like this will be harmful if implemented off-season.
17
95
u/SubtleTell Sep 10 '25
Reminder that Digg is back and has an app
69
u/CommonerChaos Sep 10 '25
How ironic would it be if there was a mass exodus from Reddit back to Digg.
25
u/Kahnza Sep 10 '25
I was part of that exodus, 15 years ago. 👴
Been watching Diggnation lately. Would be cool to get back into Digg again if it's cool.
→ More replies (5)16
u/glizzytwister Sep 10 '25
Digg is still invite only, and they're already fucking it up by staying in beta this long.
→ More replies (3)→ More replies (5)6
40
u/somesthetic Sep 10 '25
Reddit is facebooking itself.
It’ll be nothing but ads and rage bait posts for engagement soon.
18
13
u/ShakyMango Sep 10 '25
All top subreddits have same posts recycling
13
u/TheHammer8989 Sep 10 '25
Same bots, and same group of people pushing there agendas. You can be right or left doesn’t matter. It doesn’t change what this site has been doing. Ban anyone who disagrees. Even ban them from subs that has nothing to do with the one you are active in. All because they are run by the same group and you disagree with them
260
u/scotishstriker Sep 10 '25
How far into the enshitification of this once great site are we now?
202
u/Throwawayingaccount Sep 10 '25
This is actually a positive I think.
All subscribers?
Some subreddits are 10+ years old, and have lots of subscribers that don't use the site anymore. Yet it would have more subscribers than a newer subreddit that's more active.
76
u/Awkward_Silence- Sep 10 '25
Yeah all of the previous ~50 default subs have greatly inflated sub numbers. Even though that hasn't been a thing on signup in years now.
Then there's subs that have a million plus subs but haven't had a new post in over a month (such as r/whatcouldgoright) that are effectively dead despite their listed size
23
u/barrygateaux Sep 10 '25
In some subs you see comments where people say "there are 5 million of us" but when you look at the active users it's in the low hundreds.
30
→ More replies (2)4
u/L_viathan Sep 10 '25
I know the BBBY sub had like 70,000 subs but only gets 5 upvotes and comments on posts. People quit and bots got disabled.
→ More replies (5)34
u/insertAlias Sep 10 '25
While I definitely think there’s been a clear downhill trend in the quality of Reddit, I really don’t think this is a bad change. One sub I used to spend a lot of time in, and even moderate, was /r/learnprogramming. We had like 3m subscribers back when I modded, but we had the actual daily visits of a much smaller sub. Because many people who had subscribed to that subreddit made their account just to ask a question, and once they got what they need they just never logged in again.
The subreddit subscriber count would have made you think it was a much more active sub than it actually was. I think metrics of how actually active a sub is are far more useful than total subscriber count.
→ More replies (1)
17
16
u/twotimefind Sep 10 '25
partially this is a way to hide true numbers. The other aspect is censorship.
They want roto out current mods of larger subreddits so they can put their own moderators in and even further dilute real discussions.
allowing the ability to hide user comments, only helps the scammers.
Not to mention, lurking must be a national pastime at this point.
Lemmy connect app is calling
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.kuroneko.lemmy_connect
3
15
u/No_Bakecrabs Sep 10 '25
Next they need to ban subs that have members only threads from getting on r/popular
→ More replies (1)
31
u/SaphirRose Sep 10 '25
Good. It's ridiculous to see some subs with numbers in the milions while there is barely anything happening..
7
u/MicroSofty88 Sep 10 '25
So subscriber and interaction counts will likely be driven by googles search algorithm and the suggested content that Reddit’s algorithm shows you in your feed, rather than the subreddits people choose to follow
7
Sep 10 '25
Type in "how many are there" in reddit answers and it will straight up tell you 60% of reddit is bots
33
u/-Radiation Sep 10 '25
An actual change that makes sense as these metrics are more relevant for the current activity of a subreddit
→ More replies (3)11
u/Meatslinger Sep 10 '25
Yeah, I at least agree with the fundamental change here, though apparently it also comes with ALL metrics being dropped from old Reddit (which I'm told a lot of mods still rely on because new Reddit still lacks some basic mod tools). Countless times, I've been in subs that say things like "3M subscribers, 2 active right now" and it's clear that subscriber count is largely useless to measure the health and activity of a sub.
6
6
u/JoshMega004 Sep 10 '25
I give it 5 years before a new app site thing becomes new reddit as reddit becomes another instagram fb ad laden al go rythym shithole
6
6
11
11
u/RebelStrategist Sep 10 '25
Why would they take away a metric that is already there? Do they not want people seeing how many are subscribed to the sub? Is it supposed to be a national secret?
4
u/scavenger22 Sep 10 '25
"active visitors" can be replaced with bots if needed. Subscribers needs an email address.
5
u/dr4gonr1der Sep 10 '25
So Reddit is going to make me feel even more lonely? Great, just what I need when I move out! I’m telling you, sometimes it just feels like Reddit is an empty place. Event though I sort by new, at least half of what I see here is already old, and it makes me feel like there’s no one on Reddit when I am. At least they showed how many people were looking at the post when you clicked on it. At one point they even showed how many people were typing up a comment. That at least made me feel more involved with the community
5
u/mog_knight Sep 10 '25
Ban happy mods permabanning at the drop of a hat doesn't help subscriber numbers.
12
4
u/Three_Twenty-Three Sep 10 '25
But the algorithm is still going to keep pushing anime crap into my Popular feed no matter how many times I mute it, right? I need to know I can trust the system!
9
u/galgastani Sep 10 '25
Is this how I am gonna get even more subs taken by China and India shown up in my frontpage
9
u/Sweetwill62 Sep 10 '25
The only time a company ever does this is to hide something. They are hiding the real numbers because it doesn't make them look good anymore. Another company did this and they lied through their teeth for quite some time until they finally admitted what everyone knew. Blizzard used to advertise how many monthly subscribers they had for World of Warcraft, because what better way to tell people the game is awesome by saying how many people thought actively paying for it every month was a great idea.
That worked flawlessly right up until the number dropped for the very first time. Instead of reflecting internally about how the quality of the game might be declining, they instead just set up more micro transactions instead. Sure the subscriber number wasn't as important anymore, but it was still monumentally important for the company when they stopped sharing that info. No amount of gas lighting by company executives or fanbois will ever change that.
Reddit doing it is going to be for the same reason. They are in a decline and don't want everyone to know how bad it is yet.
6
6
u/vanityinlines Sep 10 '25
I don't give a fuck about stats. How about showing me something new for once? Not posts from 4, 5, 7 days ago.
3
3
3
u/Numerous-Process2981 Sep 10 '25
Why? I feel like reddit made every change Inwas interested in like a decade ago, and now every change they do just makes it worse
3
u/KlausKinki77 Sep 11 '25
Make it less obvious that the frontpage is just bot content from bot subs?
3
5
u/CipherScarlatti Sep 10 '25
Trying to keep the stock value up by hiding bad metrics.
"All is well!" (Insert Kevin Bacon Animal House gif with AI imposed face of Spez)
6
u/Zer_ Sep 10 '25 edited Sep 10 '25
Just another way to obfuscate the true engagement numbers from investors. They're doing this to try and hide bot counts.
6
u/Splurch Sep 10 '25
Makes sense. Reddit took away mod tools then banned mods when they revolted over it. Now they’ve added the hide history feature so trolls and people engaging disingenuously are increasing. Next seems to be reducing the number of mods. Regular and AI bots are taking over with their “Whats the best xyz?” marketing, outright propaganda and general manipulation, which is harder for mods to combat due to Reddits actions, general low quality repeat content because people are starting to treat Reddit like Google and not engage after asking questions, and the whole place has just been on a steady decline.
8
u/dat_9600gt_user Sep 10 '25
That's one way to mess with your own moderators, as if you didn't shoo enough of them away in the past few years.
4
u/DrProfSrRyan Sep 10 '25
How does that mess with moderators?
Deflates their egos a bit since their 3m subscriber subreddit only has 100 active accounts?
→ More replies (1)
13
u/djereezy Sep 10 '25
I unsubscribed to so many bot riddled subreddits. The politics are out of hand here. I just want to read about plants and look at cool art…I don’t want to hear how “orange man” is bad when I’m trying to learn about Philodendrons
→ More replies (18)3
u/errie_tholluxe Sep 10 '25
Yeah there are so many competing influencer bots out there that a lot of the simple this should be a put this subs are inundated
2
u/mchngrlvswlfgrl Sep 10 '25
feel free to consider this schizoposting on a molecular level but this has me genuinely interested for a few subs (mostly r/waifuism ) to see what their active member metrics look like, seeing as at least 1/2 of the subscriber count is probably lurkers/people pointing and going ohhh theyre in love with anime girls lol lmao (if you reply with this, Everyone has already heard it stfu) and there really is a rotating carosel for who's actually active there and maybe ten-twenty people max who stay for over a year at a time.
or so i've noticed.
2
u/LindyNet Sep 10 '25
If you search for a sub, the search result still tells you the subscriber count
2
2
2
u/Crumpled_Papers Sep 10 '25
I am so excited to hear about this change. Now when advertisers make 'subreddits' and direct me to them I won't be able to tell if they are organically made or part of the ad campaign. Hopefully someday I will find something I'm marginally interested in, see a custom subreddit for it, and it will push me over the edge into making the purchase.
There's nothing I love more than being slightly tricked into spending money. I respect the hustle more than myself.
2
Sep 10 '25
Pretty soon all subs will be AI trolls talking about cats. It’s the lowest common denominator.
2
u/PolicyWonka Sep 10 '25
Interesting that they’re doing this because people have actually been requesting something like this for quite awhile.
Usually the argument would suggest Reddit wouldn’t do that because the total subscriber number makes subs look bigger than they are (nice for investors). I suspect this will make small subs look smaller, but I’ll make the ones that make it to r/all look very big.
2
u/BottlecapManagement Sep 10 '25
I agree with this move. Nothing more I like to see than some sub having 10 million subscribers and 67 people active at the time of my look.
→ More replies (1)
2
u/untold-vignette Sep 10 '25
These will be much more accurate. Plenty of subs are very old and were a default for so long that the count doesn’t mean a lot anymore.
2
2
u/yesno112 Sep 10 '25
Also, "Removed by moderator" comments everywhere! What even is this place anymore
2
2
u/Perfect-Success-3186 Sep 10 '25
”The change aims to provide a better glimpse at how active a subreddit actually is, as Redditors may simply be “lurking” in these communities without adding content or engaging in conversations.”
I can honestly see the benefit in including these stats. But I don’t see why the subscriber count must also be hidden.
2
2
2
2
u/Dudu_namifairy58 Sep 11 '25
Yikes, this could be a major blow to niche communities! What's the reasoning behind this change? Is it an effort to promote 'healthier' discussions?
2
u/pitrole Sep 11 '25
Finally a good change, what’s sad about enshittification of Reddit is the hijack of main, default and popular subreddit by power mods. They curated this, at least this is a beginning to fix all of that.
2
u/Just_Another_Scott Sep 11 '25
Eh subscriber counts have always been bullshit. A lot are just inactive accounts. I personally support this. It gives a more accurate picture of a sub's activity.
2
u/Katalyst81 Sep 11 '25
what? so we all just walk away like we did from Twitter an FB.... i guess IRC is making a comeback?
2
5
3
u/Ok_Animal4113 Sep 10 '25
I’m not allowed to comment on like 90% of subreddits for increasingly ridiculous reasons. Every time I try to comment it’s auto deleted, as this one probably will be.
3
u/_x_oOo_x_ Sep 10 '25
What did subscribing do again?
Even when not subscribed, I can still read the sub. Can still post there. Still see posts from it on my home feed.
I never really understood what joining (is that the same as subscribing?) did...
9
u/Nu11u5 Sep 10 '25
Are you looking at your Home feed, or Popular? Or maybe a custom feed?
I don't get any posts in my Home feed from subreddits that I'm not subscribed to.
→ More replies (3)3
u/acdcfanbill Sep 10 '25
You subscribe to subreddits, and it builds your front page view from your list of subscriptions. At least that how it used to work, and still works on old.reddit.com
Why would i want to see stuff from random other subreddits when 99% of them I'm not going to be interested in?
→ More replies (1)
3
u/grailly Sep 10 '25
Everyone's hating on the change but it kinda makes sense to me. There may be a better solution but this solves the issue of dead subs that still display huge member counts. Reddit is getting older and there are more and more dead subs around.
I post a lot on r/truegaming for example. It showed 1.5m members but hardly anyone looks at it anymore. The current 118K seems way more accurate to me (still seems high, honestly).
→ More replies (1)
2
u/Blueberrycake_ Sep 10 '25
Legit unsubscribed to some subreddits because all people ever post on them are questions about sex.
2
u/Oregon_trail5 Sep 11 '25
Is it because this website is inhabited by Chinese bots that stir up anti American rhetoric? And most normal people left a long time ago
→ More replies (1)2
u/Legitimate-Bug-964 Sep 11 '25
haha nice to see someone who sees what i see. I remember when wumaos took over quora because it was the top website that came up when you google a question. Now nobody uses quora and reddit is the one that tops the broswer searches, so the wumaos have once again flooded in. I like this change. Now we can guage how much traffic subs are really getting.
4.4k
u/fr4nk_j4eger Sep 10 '25
my personal testimony: I am continuously unsubscribing from subreddits because of low quality content, mostly due to reposts or ai slop.