this post was submitted on 16 Jun 2023
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Technology

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What do you consider a "power user" in the context of online communities? (beehaw.org)
submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by Powderhorn@beehaw.org to c/technology@beehaw.org
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Pretty much every news story about the Reddit situation that also touches on migration to other services throws out "power user" as distinct from "mods" as though it's an established term with a clear definition.

As far as I'm concerned, it's not. And a search on the term shows wildly different definitions, from X amount of karma, to users whose posts are upvoted simply by virtue of their user name, to people who actually post instead of lurking or commenting.

If after a decade on Reddit I don't understand the term, I can't imagine what it means to the layperson and thus fail to see the utility of the term in news stories. I can't fix journalists using the term, but it would be nice to at least learn what others understand it to mean.

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[–] davehtaylor@beehaw.org 2 points 1 year ago

Power user has a very different connotation in social media than it does for general software or hardware usage.

Power users are the ones who submit the most content, post the most, run the most communities, etc. they're the people who post literally hundreds of times per day, mod 20 subs, etc.

They're essentially content farmers who've been given a cutesy name to make it seem like what they do is good.