[rcxdude]

Communities rarely want to maximize growth: at most, they want a slow and steady growth, and at least they may wish to shrink. You'll find most long-lived communities that actually still have a sense of identity and norms have some form of barrier to entry: whether that be obscurity, extremely aggressive moderation, a strong set of norms which are actively policed by members, or a culture sufficiently toxic (at least superficially) to keep most people away. Often a combination of all of the above. I think for most moderately sized communities too much growth is more of a problem than too little.