I’m picturing that one day people will need guides on how to “jailbreak” their own brains, because they want the be able to live without the constant advertising and recording. Their brains no longer belong to them but the companies

I had used Reddit for probably 11-12+ years. Which is why the slow death of the site was so sad. It was one of my favorite places on the net

I think it’s fine with small communities that very few people visit and interact with. In that case, it’s usually someone that likes to share about the niche hobby or fandom they enjoy learning about and spending time on. The bigger problems start happening when you get a bunch of users, or the moderators go on a power trip, or there is infighting, etc. I used to volunteer for a very small subreddit-- I wrote the CSS because I love visual design, basic rules because you don’t want the like 5 visitors you get to be assholes, etc. I did it because it was a tiny community on a topic I was autistically interested in and I genuinely love learning and teaching about things I enjoy.

Life got in the way and I left, coming back a couple years later to see things had snowballed into a moderator team that staged a coup against its other half, wild infighting in the community, and people power tripping just because they could. Thank goodness I could remember the subreddit as it used to be when I built it.

But I do want to say that I believe this is a problem with any platform, Lemmy included. That’s both the ugly and beautiful thing about community moderation… you can have wonderful and friendly experiences, or you can be beholden to the rule of the most abrasive dickheads you’ve met.