[Kinrany]

It's also possible that the average quality is decreasing but the quality of those that reach front page is increasing

[dahart]

Possible, sure. But likely? Increased submissions with no change in average quality can fully explain an increase in front page quality, as can increasing average quality, of course. And scores aren’t a quality metric, they’re are a popularity metric. The decrease in scores can also be fully explained by increased submissions. So there doesn’t seem to be any reason to suggest quality is decreasing…