this post was submitted on 17 Jun 2023
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to me lemmy has taken a big dip in activity the last couple days, particularly in the more niche communities. hopefully it grows back over time, but I'm not that optimistic.
To me both lemmy and kbin got a very important push, it showed the potential of the fediverse to sustain communities.
The dip in activity is something expected, the platform is still in its infancy and will get more refined with time, eventually being able to retain non tech-savvy users.
I'm literally not tech savvy at all, and I'm here. Lol.
Yeah I don't understand why people are complaining so much. I really wouldn't describe myself as tech savvy at all, I can only Google my way out of tech issues sometimes. But I went here, picked an instance I liked, signed up, downloaded Jerboa and I'm here and done.
I honestly couldn't even tell you how I made my account, which tells me it was super easy, because if it frustrated me I would remember it, lol. I needed my husband's help with a printer issue, and literally all I needed to do was open the settings and select "fit to paper" ๐ and I couldn't figure out how to change the paper thickness on the printer at work to use cardstock. But I've been on Jerboa for a few days now, and while I'm still discovering some features, it's not hard or frustrating, and most everyone in the community is friendly and helpful.
It boils down to the fact people generally don't want change, but they don't want Reddit.
Some people complaining about Lemmy want it to be "Reddit 2.0" where Reddit 2.0 is the same and better than Reddit without realising that work has to be put in to make it better, and that better inherently means it cannot be the same. They want their cake and to eat too.
As for me, I'd prefer to think of Lemmy/kbin/fediverse as the next step, not the same as Reddit, but serving a similar purpose. And because we're just getting started, as a developer I know there's going to be more kinks that need to be worked out, so I stick with them.
I'm not expecting Reddit to fully disappear either - many people just won't care, they want to be where the people are, and currently Reddit is where the people are. They won't move untill there's enough people, and by then the platform should have already stabilised. You'll know when Lemmy hits the mainstream when it's mentioned regularly in passing in news articles as a source, not like this "what is Lemmy or what is the fediverse" article barrage were getting currently.
I would expect the big jump to come when people who are barely engaged with this whole thing try to open Apollo or Sync or whatever in a few weeks, seeing it doesn't work, then spending 5 minutes trying to use the official app before getting frustrated and googling "reddit alternative"
then they'll come to Lemmy and be just as frustrated with a confusing new architecture, buggy website, and apps in their infancy.
Maybe, but I think people overstate this. Reddit's desktop UI and official app still confuse and upset me. Frankly the on-boarding to Lemmy is easier if anything
I found it as an alternative and haven't had any issues on a mobile chromium browser. Sign up was fairly easy too. Maybe that's because I was directed to a federated offshoot with less logins.