Most people who leave Reddit in dust-ups like this are the ones disheartened by the community. It isn't so much a "I demand my free speech" crowd as a "I don't want to be associated with these vile chuckleheads" crowd, particularly as the most vocal users of Reddit during any controversy tend to be the ones most "oppressed." The trolls aren't leaving Reddit, they're demonstrating (quite amply) that Reddit can't do anything about them. It's the ones that don't want to put up with the hassle of a troll war that leave.First, the people leaving reddit are shitlords who want to harass people.
I disagree. In this instance the ones who are angry enough to leave aren't those disaffected by the hivemind. This is happening as a result of banning and shadowbanning a lot of users. There's a lot of wack-a-mole. They've tried going hydra on subreddit creation and been shut down as soon as their posts appear on /r/al/new, they've tried invading other sites, they'll soon - in my view - turn on the circlejerk/SRD crowd having a good laugh at their expense. But ultimately they'll leave. This isn't a case of reasonable heads drifting away because of shitty behaviour, this is people leaving as a result of being banned for shitty behaviour. Normally people leave in search of better content. In this instance people are leaving looking for a platform. The difference is obvious.
You are mistaken. The angry ones are mostly staying. Have you modmail to check? A default sub to maintain? And when I check /r/all, what I see is a bunch of scrambling to quell the rebellion. There's no good way to have this discussion without it turning into a dick measuring contest so I'll simply say this: I don't see what you see and you don't see what I see.