reddit got bad because spez (the reddit admin) restricted API access to the platform for third-party apps, such that people would be forced to use the official app or web UI, both of which display advertisement and collect user data (e.g. scroll behavior).

the reason why this happened is because reddit is a for-profit company and tries to extract money out of the userbase, at the expense of the users.

another example of a bad decision that reddit made was to push a lot of ragebait ("Am I The Asshole?") because company shareholders want to see "engagement numbers" go up, and if somebody writes an angry reply to a post, that's "engagement". but it makes you angry at the stupidity of the "Asshole", so it makes your day worse. that is another example how reddit makes money at the expense of the users.

size (number of monthly active users) is not what made reddit bad. commercialization is.

we should probably get rid of the "don't make lemmy grow, it will ruin the platform if we grow" idea.

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[–] Pratai@piefed.ca 1 points 9 minutes ago* (last edited 8 minutes ago)

The direction of democracy shouldn’t just be the direction I like- it should be the direction EVERYONE likes. And when there’s people yelling that both sides are the same and trying to convince others not to vote-

Yeah… I think the mods need to quit being so chickenshit and kick those assholes the fuck off the instance entirely.

.ml would welcome them with open arms. They can preach to the choir there all fucking day long.