The problem with that study is that it doesn’t take into account the different user types.

When I talk about Reddit I break userd down into four groups.

• lurker: no comments, just browses occasionally
• chatter: comments frequently
• poster: posts content to the site
• mod: actively moderates the site

The changes Reddit implemented only impact the last three types, which are also the types that actually generate content, the same content that the first group The majority in this case goes to the site for. If the mods are leaving the platform because they lack tools to do their job, the posters and the chatters are leaving the platform because they no longer have a decent user interface, there’s no one left to provide content for the lurkers to enjoy, meaning that there’s nothing else for them to do.

This happens rinse and repeat through a website’s life. Chatango used to be a super popular browser based chat service, if you went on a website and it had a live chat chances are it was using to chatango.

But nowadays you hardly ever hear of the platform, because the platform had a falling out with its user base they stopped providing updates they stopped adding new features and a lot of the websites that the platform ran on stopped providing content that kept bringing the users back, with no reason to come back the only people that remained were the ones that had formed friendships with others in the chat. But that only works for so long the ones that really knew each other just added each other on at the time Skype so they ended up moving off platform

That being said I do think that they know what they’re doing, I just don’t think they have a real choice in the matter. They missed their IPO window and it’s now devaluing, which requires drastic measures to not lose what they put in. I personally think that they’re using u/spez as a scapegoat for the changes otherwise they would have pushed him out by now