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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 [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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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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[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 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.