No, but are power users necessary? Most of the front page subreddits are just “post whatever you want here” and they have more than enough 14 year old posters to keep the site saturated.
Power users are more likely to use more server resources and less likely to see ads. They probably specifically do not want them.
It would basically transform into a Facebook platform if anything, so it’s easy to see how it can begin it’s very slow decline.
Reddit is already Facebook 2.0
The glory days of the site are quite behind it. And that’s not just me being nostalgic or moody about the current climate. Reddit had an enormous influx of Facebook and Instagram users over the years and the content started to reflect that. It’s specifically apparent on the default pages with looser rule-sets like r/Pics. Like, selfies without context became normalized.
It’s funny hearing about the decline of Reddit so much this past week because I was mostly ignorant of any of it. I’m pretty quick to prune any subs where I wansn’t enjoying the content coming across my feed, so I wasn’t subbed to many of the big subs. (And the big ones I had were very narrow in scope, which helps.)
I guess I noticed the decline in quality in specific subs, but my general experience with quality on-topic comments has remained fairly steady.
Actually, I remember the decline in Reduiquette was really noticeable about a decade ago, but that’s old news.
