since this keeps being passed down as fact.
while it's clear that the apollo guy is a bit awkward, he did clarify in the recorded conversation, that this was intended as a joke. [0]
I read it as he was trying to point out sarcastically how ridiculous the numbers were.
[0] https://gist.github.com/christianselig/fda7e8bc5a25aec9824f9...
Replicate the api and link structures.
If legal, copy the existing content.
Give existing users a migration path.
Of course, you wouldn't be importing the info, the users would be doing it themselves.
I think this would make moderation worse. As a volunteer function, people do it for love of their community. As a job, there’s no competition and even more shenanigans for controlling large communities.
I think the direction should be toward making moderation take less and less time so more people are willing to volunteer.
Rearchitect the app to point it at the new site instead of reddit.
Model it after Wikipedia's monetization. Never advertise, maybe some monetization through reddit gold style status things you can buy but mostly keep the lights on by begging for money a couple times a year.
Make it nonprofit like Wikimedia foundation.
Keep reddit's structure of subdirectories. Replace the UI with what the app looks like.
Keep costs low initially by having videos and images hosted off site, text only.
Hard to say if this would make enough money to keep the lights on but would be interesting to see it attempted.