It’s not that some hobbies are based on exclusivity or even some other hipster rationalization, but there definitely is a period where a shit load of new people come in, read half a wiki page, then proceed to argue and talk down to people who have been at it for years. It ruins communities if the audience widens too much at once. I’ve been online long enough to have seen it happen multiple times.

It also sometimes a cringe ass youtuber sudden gets into a thing and introduces an extra fifteen thousand 12-15 year old who are just now realizing they have self agency and enough anonymity to spam bullshit without consequences. Or 4chan decides to troll the national news and makes your community a hate symbol.