I didn't vote, but based on a glance at the ruqqus front page, it looks like (and this is my attempt at being charitable) it may have fallen into the usual trap for 'free speech' platforms.

They initially attract some combination of 1) principled free speech absolutists, 2) ordinary people annoyed by the political leanings of the dominant platforms (maybe because they are on the opposite side, maybe because they simply want more free discussion and less groupthink), 3) genuine extremists (of the kind that the average person would not be comfortable sharing even a virtual space with), and 4) people unwelcome elsewhere less for political reasons than because they are dedicated to being extremely obnoxious. If you begin with too many people from groups 3 and 4, they pretty quickly cause an exodus of groups 1 and 2.

edit: and even if it doesn't go to that extreme, you can easily end up with at least as bad an echo chamber as the ones you were trying to escape, only with the polarity flipped.