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.

  • Hedup@lemm.eeEnglish
    7·
    1 year ago

    To me power user always meant someone who would go into .ini files and configure the program beyond what normal user would be expected to do through UI. It’s weird that this term is now being used in social media.

    • Pete Hahnloser@beehaw.orgOPEnglish
      2·
      1 year ago

      Offline, I associate it with someone who writes batch files or scripts. I suppose that’s changed a fair sight since the '80s, but it hurts my brain that installing Firefox throws one into rarefied air before uBlock even comes up. And still, that’s where I set the baseline for being online simply because I cannot comprehend the last decade-plus actually putting up with every ad served … I can’t even conceive the volume of time spent putting up with them, let alone inteacting.

  • davehtaylor@beehaw.orgEnglish
    2·
    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.

  • MentalEdge@sopuli.xyzEnglish
    2·
    1 year ago

    To me, powerusers are the ones that post the majority of content that actually gets engagement, and the ones that bother to comment beyond single words or sentences.

    The majority of users only upvote or downvote on the things that a minority posts. The powerusers are the latter group.

    There is no hard line where one turns from one into the other, I think.

  • Cyder@lemmy.oneEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    I use Brave. My most used extensions are:

    • Awesome Screenshot - takes partial and full browser window screenshots. It can also record screens. It looks like they’ve added “ChatGPT” into the name for some reason.
    • Bitwarden - password manager
    • VisBug - allows you to view webpage styles and tinker with the layout of live webpages.
    • Homey - a replacement for the default New Tab, which includes beautiful live wall papers and convenient access to bookmarks and other widgets.