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.
I agree with you completely, though would like to emphasize corporatizations always leads to this. Social spaces should be socially run as lemma is. Size will have it’s issues though so I understand the want. A smaller community allows you to see people you would only see once in the flood of millions. I do hope to see it grow but people will need to leave if they want the small community vibe. Sad, absolutely, but it’s worth it for a socially ran socially media. It’s a scourge that causes many of our issues. I hope another place opens for those who leave.