FBI has weekly calls with every mayor.

Full agreement. It would definitely scare me, so I'm glad I came across Ovarit and was able to learn a lot just by reading. Such an open forum can help a lot in changing the consciousness of many people.

Both that site and the cekni site are apt to gatekeep themselves into oblivion.

As someone who's modded on various platforms - including as mod of a community that was a private offshoot of a bigger, more open forum - this is virtually guaranteed. Even in a less gatekept situation, if you've got 400 members, getting even 100 to actually participate regularly will be a miracle. Over time people drift away but the flow of new users you need to keep things active are not in sufficient supply, which creates a vicious cycle of people leaving because nothing's happening. With one or two people holding tightly to power in those situations, factions and resentment are inevitable and the sensation of not enough oxygen becomes a real issue. I understand that bad actors are a problem but I've begun thinking in the last few days that the paranoia is getting out of hand and whether it's really about fear of infiltration by stealth TIPs, or actually about cliques. I mean, all Ovarit asked of me when I didn't have the connections to get an invite code was to explain why I wanted to join. So IDK.

(Hello, everyone - my first post here. I've been around since the r/GenderCritical days and watched as this place and Ovarit came to be...but I didn't actually register for Ovarit until last fall. Unfortunately the lurch caused by the election sort of killed my desire to start talking, thus leaving me without the profile necessary to get invited anywhere. So I'm grateful this open forum exists.)