IMO what really went wrong with Voat was that it was simply not very different from Reddit - the same issues Reddit has with the way it works and the way discus

IMO what really went wrong with Voat was that it was simply not very different from Reddit - the same issues Reddit has with the way it works and the way discussions are handled exist with Voat. The main difference between the two is the people but outside of that they're practically the same centralized, voting-based, hierarchical discussion subforums where discussions are (for all practical purposes) arbitrarily moved up and down and over time away from the viewers' eyes (unlike, e.g., a traditional forum where a thread can be active for months or even years - though that has issues of its own if you are not an active participant). So at the end of the day it all came down to the people. When Voat first came out i made an account there to see if things will be better, but of course nobody outside those who were forced out of Reddit went to Voat and those were a tiny minority. "Everyone" was (and is) still on Reddit, so i just stick to where "everyone" is to see new stuff and read what "everyone" things about matters. I remember being out with a friend and Voat was brought up - he also made an account and he also had the same thoughts: "nobody" was on Voat, so he stayed with Reddit. Often when it comes to Voat and similar sites people point out the hate communities, etc, but really those only happen because most people who are on Reddit simply see no reason to move anywhere else. If everyone (or at least the large majority) moved (or also participated) on Voat then the hate groups would be the same tiny minority that they were on Reddit. But they did not move because there was no reason to move, Voat simply didn't provide much of a difference to Reddit. (and no i do not think that being decentralized or whatever antithesis to the comparisons i made at the beginning of this comment would be a reason for everyone on Reddit to move - i don't know what would make people do such a move. If i knew i'd build it and be a millionaire).