[css]

t_d at its peak was almost as big as politics, now that was not something I expected. Before SandersForPresident was archived when he lost the nomination it was about the same size as t_d.

Would be really neat to select a single sub or group of subs and generate a line chart of the same data.

[Mahn]

A lot of what goes on in t_d is artificial, so the actual size of the community is probably a lot less than what it appears here.

[css]

[citation needed]

[FilterSweep]

http://archive.is/qIDX7

This deleted post outlines the catastrophic degree of astroturfing that riddles the sub.

The post had to be archived because of drama around the original post when the user presented his research to administration.

[rcpt]

Not proof of bots but that subreddit definitely exhibits some unusual voting patterns

http://ryancompton.net/2016/08/07/upvotes-over-time-by-subre...

[geowwy]

Probably not bots. In those days they actively encouraged upvoting everything as a way of gaming the front page algorithm.

[Karunamon]

A more charitable take would be they encourage upvoting everything to counter an infestation of downvote bombing.

[css]

That data is pretty interesting. I am not sure how surprising it is since in the election days the t_d discord was pretty good at vote brigading their own posts, which might explain that difference. I wonder if the sub still follows that pattern.

[edaemon]

It's interesting that it peaked at 1.5m comments/mo in late 2016 and it's shrunk to 820k comments/mo. That's a huge drop. It sort of makes sense, seeing as the election ended, but that activity decrease is far larger than any other subreddit, even political ones.

[Perceval]

r/the_Donald was "quarantined" by the admins, so it cannot be discovered by users in the same way as other subreddits. That cut off a lot of the organic growth that you would normally see, and it cut off users who might normally see r/the_Donald on the r/all or r/popular wander in to comment/argue. People who are not already subscribers just no longer even see anything at all from r/the_Donald.

[akshat_h]

I don't think r/the_donald is quarantined.

There was some issue with sticky threads not rising as much to the r/all that impacted r/the_donald, but otherwise, I can still see posts from that sub on the front page though I do have to scroll quite a bit.

[edaemon]

Where did you see that it was quarantined? As far as I know their sticky posts can't appear in /r/all anymore and it was excluded from /r/popular.

[Karunamon]

I think he’s using “quarantine” in the practical sense rather than the Reddit-specific terminology sense.

The only distinction at this point is that the subreddit doesn’t have the yellow banner or verified email on account requirement. It is quarantined in the ways that count, such as inability to hit the front page regardless of popularity.

[spookthesunset]

> r/the_Donald was "quarantined" by the admins

I wish. That subreddit is an absolute cancer that infests the entire site.

[jhpriestley]

A lot of the activity on the_donald was intended to push propaganda to the front page. These tactics became ineffective after the reddit admins changed their algorithms around.

[AcerbicZero]

I also found it interesting that post-election, the tone of the content started to shift dramatically. t_d has turned into a mirror of r/politics, and in the process lost their entire original style.

[css]

I’m not sure comparing a sub for a specific candidate to a sub about all politics makes a ton of sense.

[edaemon]

(I think you meant to reply to a different comment.)

[css]

Your comment:

> that activity decrease is far larger than any other subreddit, even political ones

[edaemon]

Sorry, I thought you mistook it for the person talking about /r/politics.

I agree that a direct comparison of activity levels isn't all that sensible. I was just surprised that TD has lost nearly 50% of its activity while the rest of Reddit has grown, even growing in the subject area TD is a part of.

[nerdponx]

/r/politics leans left, so it kinda makes sense.

[beatgammit]

It more than just leans left. Most comments and posts from a conservative position get downvoted, and many libertarian ones do as well, while almost anything positive for liberals gets upvotes, even if it's not newsworthy.

I'd really like something like HN, but for political discussion. There are a couple okay subreddits, but it's just not worth it anymore IMO. I just want quality discussion about issues, complete with evidence. PoliticalDiscussion is okay so far, but then again, so was politics a couple of years ago.

[nerdponx]

/r/media_criticism has been pretty balanced, and nowadays has mostly political content.

[swebs]

"leans"