> too much moderation

> rampant bot abuse

You can't solve the bot problem without thorough, labor-intensive moderation. These two of your goals are at odds with each other.

I will also say that almost 100% of the value of reddit is the moderation. After Musk eviscerated Twitter's moderation, it became more of a cesspit and people have been leaving for better-moderated networks.

> I want to make sure all political content is restricted or super duper limited

How are you going to do this without moderation?

What's your definition is political? Is discussing climate change political? What about health care?

If filtering certain topics or moderating a social network were a simple problem, bigger companies (like Meta) would've solved it without armies of human moderators.

Which also begs the question: how would you keep CSAM off your network?

I have found several use cases all trying to go on at the same time.

1. People with important group communications needing a large audience; i.e. scientists sharing research, organizations needing to contact people, special interest groups like Ham Radio (cuz they can't broadcast on their gear), photographers, musicians and so on.

2. Hot news feeds. These were added not to share news, but to lock people in with echo chamber news.

3. People simply wanting to communicate privately with friends and family and so on.

4. Local information of interest and need. Some is quite urgent, as in evacuation alerts; Some is important, like road closures and events, and some is caustic bullshit as in community gossip and flame wars. And LOCAL advertising can actually be useful and not just the "sports talk radio" carpet-bombing of tax attorneys, divorce lawyers, dick stiffeners, and house flippers.

5. Politics. I find that this is best in affinity groups that are heavily moderated. Trolls and bots gonna troll.

6. Probably more.

The more you address, the more diluted the product.

And the money model?

You need to carefully consider what you truly want and the realities surrounding those desires. How large do you envision this social network becoming? Do you aspire to be the next Reddit, Hacker News, or Lobsters?

Large social networks need to grow to survive, and growth requires funding.

Are you pursuing a commercial venture or a non-profit one?

If it's commercial, you will likely need to seek external investors. They will expect a return on their investment and will exert influence -- often in the form of ad revenue or otherwise increasing costs to your end users. It almost always ends this way, unless you stay a small bootstrapper.

If it's non-profit, you will still need to secure funding through various fundraisers and donations.

It would help to brainstorm (to yourself, at least) what you want to accomplish in lucid detail. This post is not it.

I obviously don't know your reasoning but IMO you're already going political