Context: Admiral Patrick replied and included this gem:
And might I add that not one person complained until db0 went internet Karen with his hissy fit because I took his toy away from him.
“Not one person complained about my explicitly obfuscated blacklists! Damn internet Karens making a big deal!”
Fediverse growth is stalled for the same reason every alternative stalls: there’s no one here, so there’s no reason to join. Add on that there’s no way for content factories to recoup the costs of content creation, no way to ensure their work reaches maximum eyeballs, and you pretty much guarantee a niche platform.
It’'s the whole reason I’m here. I’m not interested in bullshit engagement-bait or people competing for imaginary internet points. Administration is going to do whatever administration wants, but if they’re open and explicit about it, I can shop around for an instance that fits me. If they obfuscate their heavy handed administration, then I might as well go back to the algorithm.
Who knows, right now the small size may actually be a straight up benefit. Yes, there is almost no content compared to Reddit. But we’re also so small still that it’s not particularly worthwhile to have bots going here compared to Reddit. So there is a much higher percentage of actual human interaction here. The other place is almost all bots now, it’s actually unbelievable.
I’ve watched the consequences and damage which admin and mods have caused. They view the fediverse or their subs as theirs to control, case in point.