I found the whole 'cake day' thing on Reddit a bit immature myself, kind of like a stale remnant from the excitement and exuberance of the internet before it was dominated by a few massive companies.

By the time i left reddit my feelings towards those traditions were like yours. They seemed a bit hollow, over-egged.

Times have changed, Lemmy and its user-base are a reaction to the dominant internet campanies. With that i'd hope we can be more thoughtful about building an online experience thats healthy and sober.

To that point, i think marking an anniversary has a certain importance. I'd hope on Lemmy this kind of thing is approached with a more subtle maturity though.

But at the end of the day, what one person takes away from text, and what another person takes away from the same text can be surprisingly different. So maybe I just read all those cake day messages in the wrong light.