We don't actually want online communities to get too big, from a users' perspective. After a certain size, they become difficult to maintain any sense of respon

We don't actually want online communities to get too big, from a users' perspective. After a certain size, they become difficult to maintain any sense of responsibility to the established culture, become targets for coordinated manipulation or misuse and end up requiring constant moderation just to be usable. But taking venture capital means you can never restrict growth, even if in the end it kills your service. I'd love to see a Reddit that caps its communities to a thousands or even hundreds. Once that cap is hit, either form a new community or join a waiting list. But it's clear that a hundred passionate users often produces a much better discussion than millions.