A certain class of idealists definitely feel this way, and it’s why many decentralized efforts are fragile and fall apart. Because they can’t meaningfully construct something without centralization or owners, they end up just hiding these things under a blanket rather than acknowledging them as design elements that require an intentional specification.

I tend to agree. “No gods, no masters, no admins!” should never mean no assembly and no organization around constraints. Admins jobs isn’t just to be capricious. Admins are there to set a tone and maintain it. There are places for random group chats of noise but honestly, pruning, as in gardening, is how you maintain organization. It doesn’t feel great to be on the end of pruning but like seriously it should rarely be taken personally when we’re talking about something like social media.