Please indulge a few shower thoughts I had:
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I wouldn’t worry about Lemmy having as many users as reddit in the short term. Success is not just a measure of userbase. A system just needs a critical mass, a minimum number of users, to be self-perpetuating. For a reddit post that has 10k comments, most normal people only read a few dozen comments anyways. You could have half the comments on that post, and frankly the quality might go up, not down. (That said, there are many communities below that minimum critical mass at the moment.)
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Lemmy is now a real alternative. When reddit imploded Lemmy wasn’t fully set up to take advantage of the exodus, so a lot of users came over to the fediverse and gave up right away. There were no phone apps, the user interface was rudimentary, and communities weren’t yet alive. Next time reddit screws up in a high profile way, and they will screw up, the fediverse will be ready.
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Lemmy has way more potential than reddit. Reddit’s leadership has always been incompetent and slow at fixing problems. The fediverse has been very responsive to user feedback in comparison.
It’s not really just about reading, it’s the engagement. I can read something from a couple of hours ago, comment now, and then somebody might read it in a couple of hours. And then comment back. But then I’m barely interested in the conversation because I’ve moved on.
But I’m just nitpicking. I know it’s going to balance out. Or it won’t and we’ll move on to something else that does LOL. Or I can always spend more time outside. Gasp.
Being outside is dangerous, it has fresh air and sunshine. :)