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No? This place as a site definitely has a smaller network effect dominance than it did as a subreddit. And if it went down I have no doubt it would be replaced by something else nearly immediately, probably advertised via CWR and the SSC subreddit/forums (or maybe a new site for CWR itself).
The fact that the defenders of this place's mods can only ever argue by spewing bad faith bullshit like this speaks volumes.
The main suggestions I've seen about the moderation here in this subthread are that mod communications should be more professional, more detailed about their particular issues with any given post, and more standardized/less subjective. Absolutely none of this has anything to do with people demanding they be exempt from "the most minimal level of self control imaginable" or wanting to "wage unrestrained culture war" or whatever other insane strawmen you people constantly toss out because some have the audacity to think that occasionally popping in to type "This is not we're looking for here. Don't do this again." isn't actually God-tier moderation. (I'm not even saying terrible. It's not nearly as bad as it's been in the past or I wouldn't even be here. I just also think it's hardly the ideal sage wisdom of the rationalist masters either, despite the mods here seeming to be incredibly offended by any suggestion otherwise.)
Ironically enough if this site's rules were enforced consistently and comprehensively, the mod team and their defenders would be some of the most cited, warned, and banned for how they insist on behaving in response to even the mildest criticisms. I don't think I've ever once seen a single moderator here go "You have a point." or "You know what, you're right, and we'll work on that." in response to anything a user has ever suggested (unless maybe occasionally if it's stated in the mildest, most non-committal fashion while tickling the mods' balls the entire time) as opposed to immediately jumping into "Obviously you want the rules to change so you can wage the culture war and create anarchy in our perfect garden of neutrality!" shit.
I guess we users here must just be the dumbest motherfuckers on the planet then, since none of our suggestions are ever any good and we are all just trying to tear down the grand edifice of discursive order so we can go ape, except somehow there'd also be no site without our posts. We probably are dumb for putting up with it but that's how social dynamics go: the first "solution" tends to stick and becomes a Schelling point despite its many flaws and then you have dozens of cultists who feel like they have to defend it against all criticism no matter how trivial and no matter how bizarre and nonsensical their unhinged reactions to those criticisms are because it's the Schelling point. (And, yes, I know I'm free to leave. I in fact gladly will if things go back to how they were on Reddit. I'm bringing it up in the first place in the hopes that it doesn't.)
Even when Hlynka was finally removed after being allowed to go on a rampage of terrible mod abuse for ages while being defended by the leadership here, I still don't think there was ever any particular "mea culpa" posted about that. Was there? I sure didn't see it. It sure didn't happen quickly if it ever happened. (I went probably a year, maybe more, without even looking at the sub, so I may have missed it, but I bet it just never happened.) It was just brushed under the rug like it never happened without any acknowledgement that the critics were right, any attempt to give them any sort of restitution or reevaluate past bans, etc. If anything serious were run like that, there'd be heads on pikes in a week. (And of course the mods, particularly Zorba, will insist this place isn't that serious but then also get mad at you if you don't take it seriously enough when posting. It's serious when a user's post is too "Boo outgroup"-y or whatever catchphrase of the day they want to use to ding someone, but when they let a crazed cowboy run wild on the userbase for over a year then it's just a cute experimental community and you shouldn't take it that seriously.)
Anyway, I've wasted this much time responding to your shitty ad hominem post which could have been entirely replaced by a loud, vulgar sucking noise (yes that's ad hominem too but no worse than what you and Amadan are both guilty of so if I get a bad boy warning for this I expect to see one for you and him too), so you can't accuse me of not pretending you could possibly give me value in a conversation. Enjoy.
You do realize that both the post and the response can be not that great right? It's not either/or, they're both strangers, and you don't owe either side anything other than what you choose to delude yourself into believing you do. The post obviously isn't the only issue anyway. Any discussion like this is going to be tied into a more general airing of grievances.
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Nope. It has volume because of the network externality, same as reddit on the whole.
I don't know if "network darwinism" is the same term as "network externality". Network externality is "I'm here, because that's where everyone is", which hinders splitting and competition.
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