You're absolutely right but that doesn't mean those small subreddits didn't have an impact, /r/fatpeoplehate and /r/imgoingtohellforthis were increasingly showing up on the frontpage.
Neither of those were small when they started to show up on the frontpage. /r/fatpeoplehate was definitely growing very quickly in the six months leading up to it's demise.
jtuente|10 years ago