Yep. But then, I'm paying $0 to host a 10,000 strong community, so you know, swings and roundabouts.

This sounds like a bad way of saying things. If everyone agrees Reddit isn’t a great company then the optics of saying you pay nothing to host on a platform/company that isn’t that good doesn’t seem user focused etc.

The other persons rationale make perfect sense. Any one can justify anything they want as much as they want, profits still went to Reddit.

I stopped modding Reddit by 2019. My politics evolved. I didn’t think it made sense to provide Reddit with free labor.

I'm not providing my labour to Reddit, I'm providing it to the community of users.

Stop kidding yourself: You're providing it to both.

That's fine. You do you.

But it is what it is.

Life is not zero sum. You can structure an exchange so that both sides benefit. Many (most?) Reddit mods believe that was the setup, but it’s being lost now.

As is also the case with Twitter, for example.

Maybe the lesson, here, is that private platforms cannot and should not be seen as the "town square" or a place for "community", and that if you make that choice, you need to be ready to move if the platform turns in an unfavourable direction.

Of course, what we're seeing with things like Bluesky is that, unfortunately, for many, that lesson continues to remain unlearned.