Unfortunately as is always the case with every popular social network/forum in the history of the internet when the "slimy runoff" says they are leaving what they actually mean is they are going to spend all day on in the same place talking above leaving and how shit the current site now is.
Reddit would be a much nicer place if everyone who threatened to leave over last weeks bans actually left.
Tell that to the ghost town that is slashdot or Kuro5hin. To be honest, I see the same thing happening here already. So many posts on the front page with no comments, so much less comment activity than before. Feels like HN is emptying out.
Slashdot lost its userbase because new sites like Digg offered more frequent stories/variety and a better experience than the curated and infrequently updating /.
I was never a user at Kuro5hin and only checked it infrequently but I thought it was more due to lack of management than over management that led to the initial decline.
Digg changed the way the site worked.
I've been here a fairly long time and it seems busier than ever to me. I think a lot of the shitty pointlessly mean comments are gone now which just improved s2n even if it means less comments in total.
Reddit would be a much nicer place if everyone who threatened to leave over last weeks bans actually left.