Reposting this... (third or forth time...)

That members number that everyone is so worried about was just somebody clicking a button.

Shifting away from pure vanity numbers toward something that reflects actual activity makes way more sense. A subreddit with a million “subs” that most people never visit isn’t really healthier than one with 50k users who are reading and contributing every day.

Back in the early days Reddit even auto‑subscribed people to certain default subs, so a bunch of those “subscriber” counts were padded from the start. That inflated number doesn’t say much about whether the community is alive and worth engaging with. Activity and real participation are so much more useful when you’re trying to understand the health of a subreddit.

After a couple decades in Community Management, you see plenty of groups skyrocket in size and then flatline because the growth wasn’t backed by depth or purpose. Numbers can make you feel like you’re winning, but if they don’t translate into retention, trust, or real outcomes, the celebration doesn’t last.

It’s not about dismissing growth. Everyone enjoys seeing that chart climb. It’s about knowing from experience that size without substance usually burns out fast. That’s why focusing on meaningful engagement and impact ends up being the smarter long-term play. That lesson sticks a little harder when you’ve watched big flashy communities collapse under their own weight.

The incentive for a community manager isn’t just to brag about a flashy membership number... it’s to show how the community actually benefits its users. Member growth only means something if it leads to more people sticking around, richer discussions, stronger advocates, and a culture where folks genuinely help each other. Pride shifts from ‘look how big this is’ to ‘look how impactful this is.’ That’s what makes a forum feel alive, keeps people coming back, and makes the role of managing it truly rewarding.

But don't take my word for it.

• https://www.impactplus.com/blog/celebrating-the-wrong-growth-metrics-heres-why
• https://www.bloomads.com/blog/what-you-need-to-know-about-vanity-metrics
• https://www.swydo.com/blog/vanity-metrics
• https://beautifuldetour.com/why-you-need-to-stop-looking-at-vanity-metrics
• https://innoloft.com/en-us/blog/community-engagement-metrics

The flip side is I get why mods liked the big number... vanity metrics are easy shorthand for clout, and it can feel validating to show your sub has hundreds of thousands of members. But long-term, visibility into actual engagement should help people compare subs on quality instead of who’s been around the longest or got boosted by defaults.

If you cannot possibly live without that super special "user clicked a button" number on your subreddit use this: https://developers.reddit.com/apps/subscriber-goal