That is certainly one of the conclusions in The Man Who Killed Google Search.

But you can no longer be sure you’re getting unsponsored human opinions there. It’s already been ruined by bots and management decisions. Seems totally fair for the original content generators to salt the earth on their way out.

I recently showed up here from Reddit and it’s pretty disappointing. I found a few interesting-to-me niche communities, but most of them seem to have a dozen or so posts from 8 months ago and then nothing. That timing coincides with Reddit’s API changes, so I’m left to assume there was a burst of activity driven here at that point but that it fizzled out quickly.

The infrastructure and UX here seem ready, but the network effect is very slow for a long time. Without a lot more real users (and diverse niches), it will be difficult to attract and retain a lot more real users. The initial confusion about federation and technical concepts also needs help to get them started, but the niches are needed for retention.

Tldr, I don’t want to read about technology and Star Trek, I need cast iron and Costco, 3D printing and landscaping, cycling and idiots in cars.