Reddit: You can't see member count on subreddits anymore
What's the story
Reddit has decided to remove the member count metric from subreddit pages. The change, which was announced by the platform, is aimed at focusing more on real-time engagement rather than just passive membership. The member count will now be replaced by two new metrics: visitor count based on a rolling 28-day average and contribution count for each subreddit over a seven-day period.
Engagement
New metrics
The new visitor count metric will show how many users have visited a subreddit, based on a rolling 28-day average. Meanwhile, the contribution count will indicate how many contributions were made in that time frame, excluding deleted posts or comments. The aim of these changes is to give Redditors a better understanding of actual subreddit activity as opposed to just membership numbers.
Platform perspective
Member counts don't tell the whole story
Reddit has defended its decision by saying that "member counts don't tell the whole story." The platform explained that in most cases, users don't need to be a member of a community to post or comment. This means that member totals have never fully reflected true engagement. By focusing on active participation over passive membership, Reddit hopes to highlight real conversations among real people.
Moderation enhancement
Changes to moderation
The recent update is also part of Reddit's plan to improve moderation on the platform. The company believes that permitting users to moderate an unlimited number of large communities isn't sustainable. As such, visitor counts will be used to limit how many busy subreddits each moderator can oversee, capping them at five communities with over 100,000 visitors.
Access changes
User reactions
While moderators can still see the total number of subscribers by looking at subreddit insights, regular Reddit users won't have this information. The changes have received mixed reactions from users on Reddit's post on r/modnews.