That sounds exactly like my experience with MeWe. I investigated them as part of the team of Goodreads refugees who were looking for a new home after the Amazon takeover. MeWe functioned as a cult, and they were (are) a walled garden. Numbers were constantly urged to recruit, recruit, recruit.

But when search engines can’t see your community or your posts, and you can’t even share links except to members, there’s no future. Nothing you write will ever go viral. Nobody will ever stumble upon something great that you rode and decide to get involved or to follow you.