Reddit is updating how subreddit activity is shown by replacing the “Member count” metric with two new signals: Visitors and Contributions. These new metrics better capture the current vibrancy of communities by focusing on active participation rather than just subscriber numbers, which often reflected a subreddit's age rather than engagement.
What’s Changing
- Visitors: Measures how many unique users visited a subreddit in the past seven days, calculated using a rolling 28-day average.
- Contributions: Counts the total number of non-removed posts and comments made in the community over the past seven days.
Why This Matters
Member counts have never fully reflected true engagement because users don’t need to be members to post or comment. By showing active participation metrics, Reddit highlights real-time, meaningful engagement and distinguishes itself as a platform where real people engage in real conversations. This change makes Reddit one of the first major platforms to publicly display such active community involvement.
