TBH, I don’t really think of them at all either… /s

Not saying they are bad but IMO sites that require invite-to-join (tildes), application-to-join (beehaw), or lock their content behind a login gateway (discord, many of the more mainsteam sites) are not very good for true freedom of expression. Reddit had many, many flaws but one thing I always liked about them was the ease by which one could create a throwaway account to voice an unpopular opinion without having to risk bans/downvotes/other repercussions on their main account. Yes, I know that taken to extremes, this could be abused but for the most part, it seemed to work fairly well and I saw it used to good effect many times.