Ruqqus looked pretty promising when it started up. For one thing the interface was easily the best of all of the so-called Reddit clones I'd tried. But also, and more important, it claimed that is was all about Free Speech. Looks good, sign me up.

But right off the bat you couldn't enter certain words in comments. I forget what I was commenting on but the forbidden word was probably nigger or something similarly 'incorrect'. The point being that the site was restricting speech right from day one AKA right speech is what we say it is. I'm all for a certain degree of moderation, because otherwise the place can turn into a fucking zoo for anyone trying to have serious discussions. But it's a thin line to walk and not easy at all to execute well.

I hung around for a month or so just out of curiosity but the place just got lamer and lamer. At there start there were some good posts and comments, but any illusion of edginess and "this is a reflection of the real world" went away pretty fast.

Apparently there was a lot of drama behind the scenes but I wasn't interested so didn't bother to try and get involved. When Ruqqus closed down it was no surprise.

Reddit gets away with claiming to be for free speech but then moderating the fuck out of the place only because it's been around forever and has fostered a huge user base that supports that shit. Any site that wants to start today with the same approach is going to die long before it is large enough and perverted enough to be self sustaining.

A place like notabug generally has good content. But if you say anything that goes against the group think you'll be downvoted to invisibility pretty fast so you know where the community in general stands. But at least the moderators don't get involved. So I don't bother to comment on posts on notabug, but I can still enjoy the content.