[datasage]

In any situation like this, the most vocal will be a minority of all users. But that is not a good way to measure the sentiment of the entire user base.

In addition, those that are most vocal are some of the most important users on Reddit. They make the community what it is. If you loose them, then rest will leave soon after.

[duaneb]

Actually, the most vocal subreddits are also by far the subreddits least worth anything. My entire reddiy experience has been utterly unaffected by this drama and I don't know anyone who seriously thinks that Pao is bad for Reddit.

[glogla]

I don't think subreddits like r/askscience, r/art, r/history, r/books or the titular r/iama are not worth anything.

Some peole are doing what they can to make this incident appear as being the same as the fatpeoplehate banning outrage, but this is different.

[duaneb]

Ask science is basically "ask someone who may think they know about science". I have never heard of /r/art. /r/history is a complete joke compared to /r/askhistorians. /r/books is "here is a meme about this book we all read in grade x".

So yes, I 100% see the shit collecting where the shit already is. I had literally no idea there was drama until I came to HN.

[exstudent2]

Actually a lot of those that participated in the blackout are some of the largest subs:

http://redditmetrics.com/top

[rspeer]

That doesn't really contradict what duaneb said.

Most of these are the largest subs because new users are subscribed to them by default. Default subs are just faceless crowds that don't have much of a community. You're defining "value" in terms of the aggregated number of eyeballs looking at ads, which I suppose is one measure, but the value of a site to a user is what it shows to them. They get this value from the subs that they choose to subscribe to.

For example, the sub that was directly affected was IAmA, a default sub which in its current celebrity-focused incarnation is no more a community than the audience of The Tonight Show is a community.

[ObviousScience]

But what about things like /r/askscience, which most people agree provides high value content?

That they're also unhappy and have the same list of complaints strongly suggests that reddit isn't doing a good job supporting their communities.

[duaneb]

Look at /r/askhistorians, which is probably one of the highest quality subreddits on the site. They moderate the subreddits tightly and decline being a default subreddit. With effective mods the friction with Reddit goes away. It is easy for me to see that community mods are terrible, especially on the default or topic subreddits.

/r/askscience is comparatively poor quality. Wrong answers are often given with no repercussion. Answerers are often entirely unqualified to answer question. This is arguably worse than no answer at all. I would not consider it a quality subreddit.

What you see on reddit is: people blowing gossip out of proportion on the subreddits who allow it. Those that "went dark" are probably the reasonable ones to avoid to avoid poor content.

[iaw]

In addition to the most broadly covered in the media. I think this individual is confusing their anecdotal experience with that of the Reddit user base.

[dageshi]

"least worth anything" on a personal level to you, but in terms of monetary value probably the most valuable?

[rblatz]

As a counterpoint, I don't know anyone who thinks she has any business running reddit. She has shown time and time again that she doesn't understand the reddit community, or even internet culture.