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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[–] CameronDev@programming.dev 1 points 1 hour ago

Woah, I'm not advocating for free speech absolutism, you've misunderstood my position. I want more empowered/activist mods as well, all I am saying is that it isnt simple.

The problem with "set the rules and enforce them" is that the assholes will rules-lawyer the mods into the ground. They'll post stuff that the flirts around the edges of the rules, and when punished for it, will harass the mods relentlessly via yepowertrippingmods.

There's no quick and easy solutions here.