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It takes time for network effects to build up and I suspect they (the entrenched, the silos) know that
You can fuck a community and it takes years to recover
My latest complaint about Reddit: old reddit (old.reddit.com) is so broken that clicking on your inbox doesn't make the notifications go away
Endless VC hype cycle. Fuck your users, returns are all that matters
I came here during the Exodus. I just did a search on similar sites to Reddit. Lemmy was at the top. Been here ever since.
Exactly the same with me.
I'm here because I like the way the upvote/downvote feature works on here better than Reddit. Theoretically you could have equal upvotes and downvotes on a post on Reddit and it would look like there is almost no engagement at all. Here it's far more honest.
popular
How popular is it?
more popular
How much more popular are you thinking of?
website
Just the one instance?
but most people that use reddit havenβt heard about it.
Phew! ;)
Why should it be? Embrace this moment when it is both active and not yet destroyed by the mindless masses. For me this is the perfect size of community
Well it's not all that great here let's be honest. "Why aren't more people under the bridge doing crack??? It makes me feel so alivee!!!"
We like it this way. Please stop pulling this thread.
Itβs almost exactly a copy of reddit
The magic of reddit isn't just the structure of the website, it's the fact that there are so many people posting to diverse niche subjects. Although one structural thing lemmy is really lacking is the wiki and post flare components; those help give experts a reason to make effortful contributions as they do not fade into the ether after a few days.
That said, if reddit was new in 2025 or 2020, I don't think it would take off as much. It gained popularity in a previous time of the internet and is now coasting off that.
Reddit greatly benefitted from the DIGG implosion (Reasons include issues with power users, censorship, redesigns, etc.) around I want to say 2012 +/-. Similar to how this site benefitted from the Reddit API implosion the other year. For social media applications, success usual comes from a halfway-decent platform + lucky timing. (This is all from memory, so apologies for any inaccuracies and generalizations.)
I don't know, but I like it this size. Feels homey. Except for the large communist presence.
π» spooky scary communists! π»
Hey I'm not a communist !
you should really fix that
The joining process is too cumbersome and a few things like cross posting across instances are way too complex for people to easily understand.
I think a "join default lemmy instance" should be an option. Let the people experience the fediverse and have time to pick the instance that best fits them.
Like the early internet. It gatekeeps by requiring a certain level of technical know how. I like it, it keeps out a lot of stupid.
Not sure why you're getting down voted... These things are true. Maybe amended to "way too complex for most people to easily understand" would be less controversial.
The vast majority of people's relationship with technology ends with an email address and a credit card. Here on Lemmy there tends to be a more sophisticated understanding of social media and the underlying social and technical aspects. But the idea that you have to do anything more than decide to join something and at most you need an email and a credit card would be a significant barrier to entry for most.
Or they see .ml and downvote or all those that hate the user because Geneva isn't liberal
Most people downvoting probably haven't ever questioned how Lemmy works.
For example: posts are duplicated across instances. But usernames and accounts are not.
The hard-core leftist/communist/anarchist slant scares a lot of people away. Im a left leaning liberal but not a leftist. If I were conservative I think this site would drive me crazy.
β Join us! β
You are a conservative.
And youβre what drives them crazy. I doubt theyβre a MAGA Trump supporter, they probably get tired of the βcapitalism badβ/βeat the richβ rhetoric that constantly gets thrown around.
If I were conservative I think this site would drive me crazy.
Good
Yeah that's a positive feature
Reddit removes (or at least did at one point) any lemmy links or posts trying to get people to switch to Lemmy.
My posts and comments linking to Lemmy have stayed up, and received comments.
Maybe it's true for some subreddits as a mod choice, but it isn't true for all subreddits.
Not yet during the api blackout thing. I saw Lemmy posted everywhere. I kind of thought a lot more people would move over.
This isnβt an issue of Lemmy itself, but I realized after I made the switch that I personally am a bit burnt-out from the Reddit model in general at this exact moment.
Iβm using other Fedi apps more at this moment in time. Iβll probably be more active later in the year, but itβs a nice little break being on the smaller Fediverse apps where things are a bit more personal with the people Iβm interacting with, which has been fun for me.
I think Lemmy/Piefed will grow to get more Reddit sized with time. Personally, I get like 10x the engagement on comments and posts here than I ever did on Reddit, which to me makes it much more joyful to be around.
I'm feeling the burn out as well. It's refreshing to see that there are actual discussions on here compared to sifting through all the joke comments on Reddit.
On top of the myriad of things others have mentioned here, it hasn't gotten bad enough/inconvenient enough for the average redditor to switch platforms en masse.
The API fiasco moved the needle a little bit, but not by enough. The multiple ban waves moved it even less. Theres still millions of people on reddit and that disincentivizes anyone to make the first move.
My hope is that when they get rid of old.reddit, it will cause another mass migration that could tip the scales a bit more, but I'm not holding my breath. Because now, reddit has hundreds of thousands of bots creating fake engagement that simulates human activity to those unaware of LLM-pattern speech. So that's another unknown unknown.
Here's to hoping, though.
This is the main reason I think. Enshittification of Reddit hasn't fully happened yet so people aren't looking for an alternative.
I think that those who would tolerate the additional "effort" of solving the puzzle of joining Lemmy have already done so. Reddit may drive more people away but unless Lemmy becomes somehow more accessible there won't be an influx, IMO.
That said, I think it is a good thing. I know I don't want Lemmy to be a clone of Reddit. I like the smaller communities and the higher quality interactions I get with Lemmy users. The Reddit "circle jerk" meta was fun but got tiresome and felt like it was spiraling to a lowest common denominator.
Because in my opinion people are used to reddit, and is the biggest one, baiscally everyone else is there, why changing for a platform where you have evem to choose " an what? An instance?"), with a fraction of the users.
I stopped using reddit after the api rules changes, i quit twiitter as sson as that nazi guy bought it.
The main socials I use are mastodon and lemmy.
How many of my friends are on madtodon? 1 or 2, how many of them are active there? 0. And i think my nbers are even higher than wjat i think they should be because most of my friemds works in the IT
People unfortunately just wants everything quickly, without hassle, and are not prone to change.
A question on reddit? Probably you'll get an answer in few hours. On lemmy? You are luckynif you'll get one.
I have a small crafting page, that I'm trying to spread using only mastodon, it's much harder. These are the reasons I think.
And most people don't even care about the content of if their timeline is 85% ads and suggested pages.
They will just scroll. Algorithms are shitty, but who cares. Everyone is there...
Amongst stated reasons, "signing up" is more difficult here. Its not as straightforward a process and content isn't as spoon fed to you as other platforms. The tech literacy needed to get here isn't high, but as I learned the average tech literacy is abysmal.
About 10ish years ago when I was 14, I helped some people print something. They tried printing something from a computer plugged into the printer, an error popped up saying "printer not connected". I thought, thr printer must be, yknow disconnected. Some 6 people had gatherd trying to troubleshoot this but were stumped. I pointed out the error message that kept coming up, didn't click. I followed the cables from the pc to the printer, it was disconnected, I plugged it in and reported back. They where stumped on how I possibly knew what was wrong or how to fix it.
I am not good with technology, but im good enough to know im not good with technology. I have found most people, even those younger or same age tend to not be tech literate.
Finding the application and filling it out for any random federated instance may seem like nothing but it requires an ammount of literacy many Americans dont have.
Reddit is bigger, more established, and Lemmy is smaller and more unknown. As reddit gets worse Lemmy will get bigger.
As long as it stays semi-obscure, the powers that be won't notice it much so maybe it's a blessing and not a curse. Reddit didn't start as a shithole, you know. π
The powers that be have had their eyes on us for a few years already. Previously. Previously. Previously.
Many people stick with what they know and often won't or can't change unless forced to. Being first to market creates a persistent market majority.
The network effect. It's big enough that small forums get enough posts to stay active which keeps more people using it.
For example Lemmy has a 3d printer forum that has a few posts a week. Reddit has forums not just for 3d printing but for every specific model of printer and each gets a much activity as Lemmy's generic forum.
If I'm searching for something, Google will show Reddit content but not Lemmy because there isn't an answer on Lemmy.