The strongest theory I've seen for this killing reddit is that moderation quality goes down enough that being on the site is no longer fun. Even if Reddit replaces all the moderators who quit (which, yes, won't be hard), Reddit itself doesn't provide tools with the same power as what mods were using, to say nothing of the new mods' lack of experience and questionable motives and judgment (if you're smart and have good motives, you at least think really hard before going into a position left empty by mass resignation).
But yes, long term it's on We The People to fund our own communities.
>moderation quality goes down enough that being on the site is no longer fun.
I'd say that Reddit (and really the internet as a whole) hit that years ago. Another user said this on a different thread, but Reddit has this deep depression inside it that isn't really noticeable until you leave. Like, you don't ever really see happy people on there anymore, just people with varying levels of misery. I don't think that's really unwanted by Spez and Co, either. If there's something that the internet has taught me, it's that it's easier to retain audiences by keeping them miserable and afraid than it is by keeping them happy.
> but Reddit has this deep depression inside it that isn't really noticeable until you leave. Like, you don't ever really see happy people on there anymore, just people with varying levels of misery
Well put, I've also noticed this. Be it games, movies or sports. Whenever I enjoy something, I just know that the moment I go on Reddit (or Twitter), there will be a shitstorm complaining and crying about mundane details. And without fails those threads gain thousands of upvotes, while the positive threads die with 12 upvotes in new. Outrage seems to be the best way to drive engagement and clicks.
Not sure if this is something that scales with the current number of users, but the moderation quality appeared to be better before some of these powerful tools.
For example, things like automatically banning based on activity in other subs is not necessary a power that improves the site.
I suspect many of the more disappointing echo chamber effects (that steer something like a local subreddit into a political one) are due to over-moderation.
But yes, long term it's on We The People to fund our own communities.