I got in on reddit super early. Every few weeks I get a message from someone referencing a comment a decade old, now either featured in some youtube video or coming up in their google search. It's unnerving shit and I check my politics there a lot more than I do here. Just as a matter of user safety it's good that our posts disappear after a month or whatever. Maybe it's eventually a few months or a year, but if we ever return to the normal model of forums preserving everything forever it's a big infosec risk.
I agree that online spaces are good at convincing people who are already primed for a Marxist analysis, such as well-meaning liberals. I'm not saying we should abandon 'The Net' as a recruitment tool, just that we must be realistic to its potential. There are only so many well-meaning liberals online, it cannot be our primary means of growth. Certainly, it could be our primary means of growing. But if there's one thing I've learned growing up alongside the internet, it's that groups that grow quickly online are just as quick to fall apart. Any successful project needs people with common material circumstances who can coordinate amongst themselves. We have to give the fresh faced, well-meaning Marxist an honest appraisal of the work ahead of them.
Better, I agree. But I think fear of growth is unhealthier than pursuing it and simply seeing what happens. The best we can do is try. Forge onwards and keep moving forwards or some shit I don't know that's what the old socialist propaganda would say.