Subs/communities work for categorization but are not really effective demarcation for containment since there is no real barrier for the users.
What will matter is the ratio of new users to the capacity of the site to induct those users to the established norms. The latter I think is comprised of the number of established users, the "confrontationalness" of those users, number of mods and the willingness of the mods to enforce rules. I think reddit containment failed because the chuds are more numerous and militant than the subreddit mods and the site admins are unconcerned with the quality of the site provided growth metrics are good.
Subs/communities work for categorization but are not really effective demarcation for containment since there is no real barrier for the users.
What will matter is the ratio of new users to the capacity of the site to induct those users to the established norms. The latter I think is comprised of the number of established users, the "confrontationalness" of those users, number of mods and the willingness of the mods to enforce rules. I think reddit containment failed because the chuds are more numerous and militant than the subreddit mods and the site admins are unconcerned with the quality of the site provided growth metrics are good.