They changed the algorithm on Dec 7, 2016.
Before: https://web.archive.org/web/20161206000344/https://www.reddit.com/
After: https://web.archive.org/web/20161208000333/https://www.reddit.com/
Best guess, based off the vote count differences of those two days, is that if you see a vote with 100,000 count, it’s likely closer to 20,000 count (divide by roughly 5 or so).
There was a post about it by KeyserSosa on Dec 6, so it’s not some conspiracy or anything.
I figured YSK.
I figured most people here knew about it, but also just as many probably forgot about it, at least deep in the memory banks. ;)
Your explanation says that a post with 100k actually has 20k. What this guy is saying is that it does actually have 100k.
It’s impossible really to say. This was their official code citation:
I mean on the face of it, maybe they were telling the truth?
But they are a for profit corporation, and that year forward was when the enshittification really began. I guess I just have little reason to believe that they didn’t just alter the algorithm to make it look like there was more engagement than there was.