It’s me! I’m one of the new joiners! I’ve been enjoying the content and discussion here in the last day since I created my profile here. I have noticed a bit of lag and issues with things loading. I know there was a software update and obviously a sudden influx of new users. As frustrating as it was to have to move apps and communitie and despite the obvious growing pains, I have been happy to find a new community that is friendly and vibrant as this one!
Lemmy is the only decent alternative I’ve seen, besides the other ActivityPub federators. There was literally nothing else besides Mastadon (I had heard of this before and considered it) and kbin (only know about this since I joined lemmy.) Lemmy had the right combination of features, and a cuter name, so it won the most of us (I believe that’s a big part of the reason.)
Every other alternative to the big social media is too niche, and often dominated by a particular world view or specific community grievance. Lemmy picked up a broad sample of users that reddit just suddenly and indiscriminately cut off without a moment for second thoughts. We’re not a monoculture the only thing we have in common is we used alternative apps for reddit and we were too stubborn to move to the official app. That gives us a lot of diversity in the community and an edge on passionate eccentricity.