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I have a suggestion @theoretical, (and I was also an very active user that went quiet...and more than any other emotion, I feel sad too. So sad. Lots of potential, squandered for all the reasons you listed)

But .. onto my suggestion. I have no idea if this could work or not, but I've suggested it for steem before and ... well... LOL maybe you can/will use it!

I kinda love how discord let's everyone use it for free, but then for extra features, lets people pay to upgrade .

As for steem,I understood why it was necessary to introduce RC's into hardfork 20 - but it was such a harsh and jarring jump...it killed the FUN of commenting and socializing. Especially for all the energetic, new accounts that brought all their "new, starry eyed" contagious personalities. We lost so much when we lost them.

I wonder if having other cool "paid for" upgraded features would lure people to invest for fun reasons...instead of making them feel "punished" for not spending more money.

I've played phone games before that I swore i wouldn't pay for - but I had so much fun playing...it became easy for me to pay for the in-app upgrades over time.

I think if you give people options, and show them what they're missing out on...over time, more people would "spend" their earnings/investments on upgrades and special features

Plus...it creates that sense of healthy competition too. Wanting to 'level up' with their friends... Showing off their new upgrades to the community... Etc.

This way people who are new can still enjoy the basic interactions in a relatively unlimited way because the more powerful accounts pay extra for extra features.

There are more ideas that can kinda spin off of that, but I've written long enough lol so..if you like it, take it and run with it :)

Really interested to see what you develop!

Take that sadness and turn it into the power to make something new, different, and worthwhile!

Following you :)