This lifecycle has a name now and it's enshittification :the cycle of internet platforms starting out as open seamless spaces of discourse to lure users and then welding the gates shut to then appease advertisers and shareholders drastically lowering the quality of life and discourse
Took a few minutes to make in Krita, feel free to repost and distribute around.
This troll used an admin name with one more letter. How do we deal with admin identity theft? Should instance admins reserve usernames preemptively? This troll will likely try u/Desssalines or something similar next. Maybe mod/admin flairs should be more flashy to avoid such confusions?
Return in all aspects to how it used to be in 2014 or earlier, but it will never happen because enshittification cannot be reverted.
That includes the bloated inefficient new design that includes an intentionally hostile mobile website that shits the bed on 3G connections, the echo chamber machinery, random layout shifts, NSFW login walls, automated censorship and shadowbanning, the privileges for the big subreddits and the big sponsored powermods.
Yeah, it's rotten to the core sadly. For all I care archive the important info and let it burn...