[nemothekid]

>For example, a small group of friends could easily run a social media network for a small town of a few 1-10ks.

Why would anyone do this? What's the incentive? Could someone run a social media network and either (1) do it in their free time or (2) make enough money where they could run in it full time. I'm confident the answer to both questions is no.

In other words, there is an incentive to run large social media networks (ad money) that it makes sense to try and attempt content moderation, but there is no desire to run smaller ones. I would even take offense to calling it cheap; playing social arbiter can easily be time consuming and mentally taxing.

[plastiquebeech]

Same reason that people run community gardens, or set up trusts to maintain local trails. Because they care.

Maybe some things, like human relationships and communication, are better off without a profit motive.

[MichaelZuo]

There is still a profit motive there, the dictionary definition of profit isn't limited to just monetary profit.

[andrewflnr]

This is dangerously close to equivocating on "profit motive". "Profit", as actually used, is almost always meant in the strictly monetary sense, not as a synonym with "for a benefit", which is very broad. When the "benefit" becomes "I personally feel good about helping", comparing it to making money is inaccurate at best.

[MichaelZuo]

It's possible to discuss things according to their dictionary definition.

[andrewflnr]

But more often it's useless. If you're trying to communicate with someone who's clearly not using the dictionary definition, it's probably only good for detangling their actual usage, aka meta-argument. In this case, certainly, you did not address the substance of their argument with your objection about the definition of "profit".

Also, I don't know what dictionary you're looking at. These all seem pretty money-focused to me. https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/us/definition/eng... https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/profi... https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/profit

[MichaelZuo]

If you closely inspect a dictionary you can see that there can be multiple meanings for a given word.

Visiting your last link for Merriam-Webster, you will see a '1 of 2' and a '2 of 2' beside these distinct meanings.

[plastiquebeech]

Fair enough.

I would still rather have a diverse ecosystem of power-tripping moderators than a few unavoidable ones, though. There would probably be more calm tidal pools like the one that dang cultivates here.

[MichaelZuo]

If the average community size was smaller, wouldn't the average 'power-tripping moderatos' within each community need to behave more strongly over fewer folks to maintain the same level of satisfaction?

[krapp]

There is a desire to run smaller ones if you want to maintain quality, or focus on a niche subject, or literally just want people you know or a small circle of friends and associates. It's basically what small forums used to be, and what private discord servers are now.