• Lvxferre [he/him]@mander.xyz
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      6 months ago

      I know I’m ‘arguing’ a troll, and that the troll has been banned. Still, got to say something about this number chasing:

      The population here is like a tiny slice of what it is on reddit, there’s no one here

      In other words you can recognise individual posters here. And there’s a sense of belonging and community you won’t find in a faceless mob like Reddit. It’s comfy.

      And yet people keep babbling about growth, growth, growth, as if it was the ultimate goal. Is it? A larger userbase has its pros and its cons.

      (I also happen to remember Reddit before it was overgrown. Spoilers, it was a thousand times better.)

      • OpenStars@piefed.social
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        6 months ago

        Treating it seriously, I think that people are interested in growth because:

        1. if we aren’t growing, then due to attrition we are slowly dying
        2. people seem to want a little bit more content, especially about niche topics that currently we have to keep going back to Reddit for bc that’s where it is at
        3. solving the problems inhibiting growth may make us better overall and our experiences here more enjoyable not only for new people but the existing userbase as well - so here growth is the diagnostic indicator of deeper phenomena

        So it is not to feed the advertising machine and stockholder valuation, but even with the profit factor removed there are others that remain.