Yeah, I quite agree with most of your opinion
TimtheEnchanter, apart perhaps from a point noted below.
> It is full of people trying to sell you something
I do not have a big issue with people wanting to sell things or promote projects when that is done transparently and without dishonesty (as some do). I think it's legit wanting to give visibility to our ideas, ambitions, and projects, provided they do not hurt others and provide some real value. After all, a life without wanting to build something is quite empty
> Twitter is still hot
This is as social as I tried, and, to be frank, I never really liked it. The whole idea of having to "
tweet" instead of explaining things with proper insight, it's something that repels me and seems more suitable for people with a
big ego and an inane sense of
self-importance. It may be my personal perception, but it never "convinced" me. And lately will all the Musk's big ego flood, I really avoided even logging in. Well, I admit I may just have a wrong preconception on this.
Also, since, to me, the message layout is fundamental, that is an additional and important reason to dislike it even more.
> I hate FB, but I still use it.
Yes, FB is somewhere where I refuse to even think to create an account. For some strange reason, I have a bad vibe about it, and feeling like something really "low-level", like a thing for exhibitionists without depth. Again, just a personal perception, of course.
> Good luck creating your own that will stick...Trump tried it and failed
Ah yes, for sure. Surely, if I start it is not something of which I could ever see the possible "success" (if any) in my lifetime, as my remaining time is obviously not long. However, this will not prevent me from starting to work on it. After all, I have been doing that all my life. Starting new things and continuously working on them

)
Success or not, it is not really important: let's enjoy the journey with an attitude to provide real value and service, and what comes, comes...
> You cannot create a quality community without guidelines, i.e., censorship.
Well, I believe that guidelines and censorship are two
distinct things.
For instance, if I tell you not to post
explicit porn on the site, that is a "guideline" and if you violate it, I am going to remove the post, and probably ban your account, if you really insist on doing that. The reason is that I need to take into consideration the
rights of other users too, who do not want to see that on the social medium. (Well, unless the site is explicitly for that kind of stuff. But that is another matter...)
However, if I start systematically eliminating or making difficult all the posts that try to explain Putin's reason and Nato expansion, and only give space to the posts that promote sending weapons to Zelensky, that, of course, is a form of
censorship. And in this case, I would be violating the most important rule: violating the right of a large part of users, and the right to the "truth", whatever it may be.
Same thing, if I insert (
occultly promoted) posts of fake users, saying what a
genius is a such and such person, while it is pretty evident the person is either a notorious idiot, a sociopath, or some crook looking for aggrandizing his ego and scamming people and shopping for his "reputation". It's still disrespectful to users and their
collective intelligence. And these are things for which
sooner or later you pay the bill.
> I was kicked out of Quora
Yes. Quora is another social with big problems. A lot of
fake posts and questions and retarded automation.
The whole "atmosphere" is a complete sense of high
frustration felt by the participants. With all those idiotic questions about
IQ, about Feynman, Einstein, or if Mike Tyson or some MMA fighter is stronger than a gorilla or a chimp

) , and so on ... And the Advertising is
horrific and very low level (just a
little higher than porno, I'd say, but I am not sure

).
Especially all the nonsense spread by
trading-related scammers. And if you say something to
expose them,
they are fast to kick you out. Pretty bad situation
> And attracting posts and contributors is hard
Absolutely. But think about it. In life, you do not need millions of friends. You just need a handful of good ones. What is the point of boosting large numbers, when it's mostly
all fake, immorality permeates it, and
everyone knows it?
Just keep it real and be satisfied to talk with a few worthy people who can give us real value and insight. Life is not that long, it's just a flash. At least let's make it right and meaningful

)
I am very active on social media (FB, Twitter, Reddit, and LinkedIn, plus some others); however, I cannot for the life of me see the value in LinkedIn. It is full of people trying to sell you something. Very few people are looking for services. I am also a very old user of ET, but I must say the traffic on ET has been abysmal from the early days when I started posing. No offense Baron.

For visibility, Twitter is still hot after the bloodletting of the Woke. Reddit is quite active, I hate FB, but I still use it.
Good luck creating your own that will stick...Trump tried it and failed. (like him or not, he HAS a name behind with a cult-like following) It takes a lot of mojos, time, money, etc., but of course, you own the content and traffic.
P.S. You cannot create a quality community without guidelines, i.e., censorship.
And attracting posts and contributors is hard. I have been there and done that! I was kicked out of Quora, so we have that in common.