Interaction counts come from the archive's own aggregation. An interaction is one of four things:
- The account commented under someone's post.
- The account commented under someone's comment.
- Someone replied to the account's post.
- Someone replied to the account's comment.
That is the whole definition, and it is shown in the interface rather than left to inference.
What it does not mean
It is public reply frequency. It is not friendship, association, or a social circle.
Two accounts active in the same busy subreddit will accumulate interactions without knowing each other. A single long argument produces a high count between people who are not connected in any meaningful sense.
Why this is framed carefully
An interaction count is the kind of figure that reads as evidence of a relationship. Subdex shows the number and the definition together, and does not rank, cluster or label the accounts involved.