Part of me wonders if another thing that helped Discord do well was the fact the communities on it were invite only and private by default. Yeah, I don't like

Part of me wonders if another thing that helped Discord do well was the fact the communities on it were invite only and private by default. Yeah, I don't like this walled garden aspect of most sites either. But let me explain: Basically, on sites like Reddit, if a community gets controversial, it almost certainly will get media attention, and potentially get banned or censored because of that. Similarly, if someone says something controversial on Twitter, that could mean losing their job or what not too. That can't happen as easily on Discord, since you need the invite link to join, and can more easily keep out snooping journalists, moral guardians, etc.