This place has potential but is currently inactive, because there is little understanding of what to expect. Given the current stakes of censorship, that is dangerous because it means this "lifeboat" is not viable. Yet promoting the site is a "tragedy of the commons" in that sense, there's little motivation for any person to use this site when reddit is available.

How can this be changed?

I propose changing this with incentives and ideas.

First off:

Expectations are key to preventing demoralization. People trying to grow the subs activity will be much more immune to demoralization if they can form a realistic expectation, rather than hoping the sub magically grows. The quantity of posts/comments needs to be on the path toward a critical mass. I'd define the "critical mass" as 10% of the organic size/activity of the parent sub is a good goal for a sustainable forum

When you factor in that Reddit has a ton of shills (producing completely nothing), we can modify the "critical mass" goal to be even lower.

The main sub has a few hundred posts per day, with comments pretty variable.

So then let's consider the 1% rule:

https://medium.com/@ramykhuffash/the-1-rule-and-why-it-still-matters-ba0e40bbbffb

http://archive.is/75sbM

The 1% rule and why it still matters A look into the old rule about online communities, and how relevant it still is today

Ramy Khuffash Follow

Apr 1, 2014 · 4 min read

That means that out of wotb's relatively large 80,000 subs, only 800 or so are consistent posters and commentors.

This particular sub is actually quite large at 20,000 people, but has only a fraction of the activity.

WOTB has a few hundred posts per day, this sub has had a handful of posts over the past few weeks.

Proportionately speaking, this sub would try to get close to 100 posts/day

If we consider that to be the end-goal after long-term growth, then the critical mass equivalent is just 10 or 20 posts per day

Second off:

On-reddit integration can be promoted. The main sub can generously sticky threads from here, and people can be encouraged to make parallel accounts mirroring their on-reddit personas.