I know some things.
As a new community we need to identify and stamp out bad actors immediately and thoroughly (spammers, selfservers, ads disguised as posts, brigading, illegal content, racism, you get the idea).
We can’t control if they create their own instances, but we can isolate them.
I like board. Communities is too long, and coms sound like communication which armies use, magazines/mags is a bit odd and may be mistaken with the obvious gun reference. Forum is like the pre digg forums (like hardforum.com).
I have no clever thing to say except it seems Spez is, without joking or being mean, clinically insane.
The dedicated content creator userbase is long gone, and it shows. The casual content creator is leaving. The lurker and occasional poster will have nothing to read, except the thinly veiled ads pretending to be organic posts. It’s quickly becoming a digital wasteland. Fun to digg through maybe, just like we leaf through an old book sometimes.
You’d be surprised how many jobs just requires you to sit in a chair all day looking busy.
I do my dayjob, in an office with the screen not visible to anyone else, and when there is no work to do I go ahead and do some of my independent work. I look busy as heck all 8 workhours. I get no extra reqests to “help out”, or last minute critical whatever.
I make 2.5-3x my job salary.