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Why are so many people so fixated on Lemmy's growth? (lemmy.ca)

submitted 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) by AstralPath@lemmy.ca to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world

126 comments fedilink hide all child comments

...relative to Reddit's size?

I see so many posts and comments voicing disappointment with Lemmy's lack of massive expansion.

I too want to see Lemmy gain more users, but I do not want it to grow to Reddit's size. If Reddit is the yardstick, I'd say that a population that large attracts a lot of negative behaviours; degeneration of discourse, amplification of echo chambers and hive mind behaviour, etc...

I started on Reddit in 2010 and found that by 2016 things were really bad in comparison. A fun and engaging site was experiencing an obvious devolution that persists to this day, accelerated by Spez's enshittification of the platform. Obviously the fediverse insulates us from that occurring here but I think you get what I mean.

Do you you think Lemmy is too small? I don't. I've been here since the great migration last year and have had a really good time. I see a lot of familiar names in the comments on a daily basis. It actually feels like a community here. I guess I just don't understand the fixation on the size of Lemmy's user base. Curious to hear your thoughts.

[EDIT] Thanks for all the responses, everyone! Lots of perspectives I hadn't yet considered.

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[–] MagicShel@programming.dev 10 points 1 month ago

Reddit has the same dynamics. Smaller niche communities there were awesome, the massive ones were full of toxicity. Here, the large communities are the size of small Reddit boards, which is good, but many niche communities here are unfortunately too sparse to thrive.

I don't think Lemmy must grow. In fact I like the relative obscurity that tends to make it a better quality of user. But at this size, it's less of a one-stop shop than Reddit. I miss the Reddit cigar community. They aren't really in favor, particularly with the left, and there isn't the critical mass to sustain that here. So I just don't talk about them which unfortunately leaves me less informed about what's going on in that world.

That so being said, I agree with the thrust of your post which is that Lemmy is just fine at this size. It is.