I've always referred to that as the "elephant in the ~~room~~ fediverse". But yeah, I fully agree that's definitely a major contributing factor to the current environment. I even made a joke post about it the other day: https://dubvee.org/post/3789665

Here's the gist of the post to save you a click

Title: "We are not the same"

The first 6-12 months here (during/right after the Reddit API drama) were great. After that....not so much.

I still believe a critical mass of more ah, well-adjusted people can improve the culture, but that day gets further and further away as long as the existing culture remains in the state it is in.

Like I said in my shutdown/meta post, I want the concept of the fediverse to succeed. I really do. But exactly as you just said (and others have said and I have said), the more well-adjusted people need to arrive in a critical mass, and I don't feel there's an environment here to welcome them let alone attract them or entice them to stick around. Maybe that will change. I hope it does, but I'm not optimistic enough to stick around and find out.

I do feel we started out on the right foot back in mid 2023, but as we've grown, we've just turned into a refuge for people who have proven too toxic to remain anywhere else.

At the end of the day, aside from the people like you, ValueSubtracted, and other friendly ~~faces~~ names I've come to enjoy seeing around these last couple years, I'm going to miss the idea of this place far more than the place itself.