I'm taking this out of the reddit thread to discuss it directly.
Kienan was moaning about how .win is less searchable than reddit and how searchability is somehow vital to the success of sites.
This is patently false. Search is not what determines the success or failure of a site. Having a compelling, active community that people want to participate in and spread word about is what makes or breaks a site.
Every time a person types in communities.win, or selects it from their bookmarks, that was a LOSS for google. A loss for reddit. That was traffic that reached us, without them. IN SPITE of them. A net lost customer to them.
That is the power of the internet.
The power to look at any site and decide "you're dead to me", walk away, and deny them all power and go directly to the sites you actually WANT to use.
To those of you who still use reddit: I doubt your commitment to the great work of defeating reddit. In my eyes you are a failure by your own choices as a consumer. You give them power OVER YOU by your continued patronage.
The only answer is to walk away, make this the best we can, use it for everything, and BE THE CHANGE WE WANT TO SEE.
I am giving up things for the cause.
There are a couple dozen subreddits ENTIRELY unrelated to this culture war, that I walked away from, because I believe in this cause. Despite there being no equivalent here or anywhere else.
Because I believe in the principle of what we're trying to do. Because I believe the only way THIS will get better is by getting bigger, and the only way this gets bigger is by people not using the alternative.
It's hard to dislike you after this comment, but at the same time, sperging at people - let alone one of the most respected members of the community - doesn't do any good.
Look at what kowtowing to reddit got you?
Nothing.
The only answer is to walk away. To tell other people to walk away, and to forget about those who choose not to follow.
The community is still there.
No one is obliged to obey orders from me or to 'follow'.
But you can blow up the infrastructure behind you, lock it down so they have to choose between staying with the kia2 community or using reddit. But the community must move. If that means most of the "community" is proven to be fairweather friends, SO BE IT.
I'D RATHER LEAVE NO VESTIGE BEHIND AND LOSE FAIRWEATHER NUMBERS THAN SEE THE ACTUALLY COMMITTED COMMUNITY BE DIVIDED.