Squabbles, another recent reddit alternative, seems to be taking the doomed "free speech" path

I joined Squabbles in June and liked it until the "free speech site" announcement.

I loved the lack of content ranking and downvoting so someone suggested Beehaw.

It seemed to me that the developer/admin jayclees was your basic tunnel visioned coder ignorant of news/current events. I got the feeling that he isn't politically invested. He just wanted to be left alone to code, so he changed his rules taking away the justification for messaging him. Posting on the site really slowed down. It looks like he lost many of his active users and kept his lurkers. I guess he figures it is worth the price of being left alone and that he will eventually get regular active posters again.