"Paradox of Tolerance."

EXACTLY! So if e.g. the rules of !lemmyshitpost@Lemmy.World include "5. No Enciting Harassment", then that's their decision whether to remove something or not? Someone could make a new community like lemmyshitpost@midwest.social, and then they could say whatever they wanted?

Instead, they complain here, and I stated how I stand with those who choose to serve the community by making instances (admins) and communities (mods) work, rather than those who would tear it all down simply to watch it burn or in a highly short-sighted attempt to get their way and "win", at whatever cost.

Contracts are only meaningful to those who read them, understand, or in general care i.e. act in good faith.

So if someone wants to make memes glorifying violence - then do it? But that's not what we're discussing here: the topic as I understand it is why people are okay to "merely" complain about why others won't simply do as they say, even when the former don't bother to expend any effort on their own behalf, i.e. to make a new community that will allow such content.

I wouldn't have recommended reddit to everyone I knew 10 years ago, just like I don't recommend Lemmy to everyone I know now, only those who understand all the asterisks that come along with it.

I don't know if Lemmy will survive in anything close to resembling its current form. Many seem entirely okay with that, but I'm just saying that it is what it is. Lemmy.ml for instance has lost many of its subscribers, and they have migrated over to other instances. Now with non-extremists being turned away by the "leaky" nature of the communities here, which have rules but they are not enforced, it will harden further.

Our userbase is already shrinking. Last year I had 1 account, today I have 3 different ones that I actively maintain, so as of now I count for 3x active users, or 4 total. But I am only 1. Thus, I don't believe the stats showing our monthly active users remaining static - if people leaving Lemmy.World and making alts as they move to other instances are likewise either in transition during the time period of the measurement or possibly check back with their old account (to receive notifications on older content, and messages, etc.) then they too will be counted multiple times. How to reconcile the growing number of total accounts with mostly static number of "active" ones, except that our total actual non-bot user numbers are shrinking.

Again, some large fraction of the userbase here seems to think that's okay. But some of us had hopes that this could be a Reddit replacement. For those of us in the latter camp, we feel disappointed now to find our hopes dashed, as mainstream normal people simply are not coming here - nor are we even comfortable inviting them in the first place.