[undersuit]

>you have a very large usebase to keep the sub alive.

I don't know about that. You have a large userbase of upvoters sure, but commenter were declining in quantity long before the June API changes on a number of subs that were more discussion based than meme or article upvotes.

https://subredditstats.com/r/conspiracy Conspiracy is a good example of a discussion sub, no comment on the actual discussions, driven by upvotes and were did all the commenters go before June's API disruption while the subscribers kept climbing?

[Loughla]

Like the other poster said. Conspiracy is less about the api and more (waaaaaaayyyyy more) about fringe politics becoming mainstream. It was one of the first subs to rot during the 2016 and then died during the 2020 American presidential elections.

[pixl97]

What happened with conspiracy has a lot more to do with politics.

[undersuit]

Well then where did all the politicers go? https://subredditstats.com/r/politics has a similar Subscribers to Commenters ratio decline that Conspiracy had.