[nommm-nommm]

>it can be a distraction to focus on that early on when what's most important is user adoption...

Distraction?

The wrong kind of initial user adaption will create a toxic community that excludes later users. Any community that goes unmoderated for long enough inevitably turns into a cesspool.

The most important users are the initial adaptors, they form the basis of the expectations of the community.

[gallonofmilk]

yes exactly, and who were many of the initial users of reddit? I'm not saying it's not important, just that in the very early stages of a startup such as reddit was, it can be the wrong thing to focus on when you really need to get users first.