@dangoodin @Bellingcat I'm sympathetic to your argument, but I think this is more of a collective action problem having to do with who their audience is and where THEY live than with Bellingcat in particular.

If you look at Christo Grozev's account you'll even see he tried to bail after the purchase closed. Problem is, his audience didn't. I imagine that Bellingcat had to weigh values vs maintaining an audience, and in this case, I don't think they actually care about the public so much as journalists. Journalists who, by and large, have stuck by the platform (for stupid reasons, IMHO). So if they want press coverage, and I assume they do, the bird site is the place to be. For an example of the real loss of coverage, note how a certain former president's rantings receive much less coverage on a non bird media site. He rants at least as often, with rants at least as crazy as 4 or 8 years ago, but many fewer articles are written on it.

I applaud your own move, BTW Dan! I have to wonder though, how many of your colleagues are still at the bird site?