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Edgy retards that drive away regular folks.

Many things. The internet is a completely different place now. Getting that initial userbase is the hardest part and is what kills most attempts these days. Back then there was less knowledge and less people into programming, so just just building something would intrigue people's interest. "If you build it, they will come" was true. Not so today. These days, especially with chatgpt, anyone could build something similar. That in itself is no longer special or interesting like it was back when voat started. Then the hyper-propaganda and censorship kicking in around 2015 really damaged the essence of the internet. People became closed minded and tribalistic. The left started to frame free speech as a bad thing, and anything that didn't cater to their whims was shit. Even if a site caters to leftist ideology, because it doesn't cater to their specific beliefs then it's shit. As far as the right, most people are happy with twitter or gab. Having a website with both left and right discussing and debating is no longer possible. The reddit-style site is outdated according to most, who prefer a curated algorithms matched to their preferences. The tricks these big sites use to reel people in work well. Then there's the trust issue. People are used to corporations taking/selling their data, so they think all sites are like that. Why sign up for a random website and take that risk? Then there is discord... I could go on.