Atko started Voat.co, formerly Whoaverse, in 2014. It become possibly the most popular reddit alternative to date. Maybe lemmy has reached a comparable scale. No other reddit alternative has been able to reach close to the scale of Voat in its peak. But Atko stepped down in 2017 and handed the keys off to PuttItOut, who himself stepped down three years later. What make Atko lose motivation? Atko has since made another reddit alternative, https://flingup.com, which isn't nearly as successful as his first run at making a reddit alternative.

What made a once in a lifetime chance to really compete with Reddit go sour? What could people of done to prevent that?