Had Google had kept Plus running, they’d probably be reaping the rewards right now, being seen as the obvious refuge for disgruntled Twitter users to migrate to instead of what exists now, which is dozens of small, fragmented, networks. Much the same way Reddit provided a natural home for Digg users after the botched v4 release.

Plus was intended to defend against Facebook, but turned out to be more like Twitter without the arbitrary character limit.

It seems unlikely that Google will attempt to re-enter the social market with a new product that competes with YouTube comments.

Why would anyone want to build a replacement and inherit all that content moderation mess? It's an unsolvable problem, and companies are now steering clear of social media for easier to monetize products.

post.news has been good for me thus far

Google and Meta (sorry, Facebook) already tried.