[paulpauper]

Perhaps the most significant problem of many that I have seen regarding my own participation in social media is that none of the large platforms seem to want me. In most cases, this is because I insist on posting links to articles on the Cheapskate's Guide.

you just answered your own problem.

Anyone can create their own social media site, but good luck creating the users, too.

[rektide]

I'd be interested to get more specifics on the bans. I'd expect that the author simply ran into anti-bot countermeasures. The word "insist" makes me think they might not have taken it gracefully- I know I definitely can be heated & zealous when I feel wronged, and don't always respond well. Not that all these sites even offer good ways to respond, which is a rather acursed aspect of this freshly mechanized era.

> good luck creating the users, too.

The post itself has this to say:

> I am not concerned with the number of users that a new site would draw, because I see value in small social media sites. As sites grow, Dunbar's number quickly makes real communities difficult. On giant sites like Reddit, the only real communities exist on small subforums. Small sites can produce worthwhile communities that large sites simply cannot--at least, not unless they artificially divide themselves into smaller groups of users.

I think thats sensible. It's somewhat at odds with the idea of posting yourself around, but we do need to be somewhere inbetween. We may want a small community, but we still need some means to get the word out. How online-centric communities can organically & healthily grow is a very real question, particularly when so much activity has subsumed & been folded into the very large sites.

I do hope we make gains, that more actual curators start to emerge in the world. Part of what was so exciting & thrilling about https://del.icio.us was finding people who were well tapped in, people who found good stuff. Surfing other people's feeds was excelllent. Today, the only site I know with a similar role is https://are.na , which is excellent & delightful.