So, I’m going to stick with Lemmy. But I did check out Reddit the other day out of curiosity. I was disappointed/envious over the many active posts in my former favorite subreddits, and realized how much I miss that level of engagement. At the same time, I was also appalled at how terrible their mobile site is. I couldn’t even read comments because of how terribly they were displayed.

Ultimately, I’m hoping that Lemmy catches up in some capacity. I refuse to go back to Reddit, but really do want that type of community discussion again.

I have not had that experience. Reddit has more users than Lemmy, sure, but I went on Reddit literally yesterday and most of the content was trash. Lemmy has some trash, but a lot less than Reddit. A much bigger ratio of good:bad on Lemmy than Reddit has been my experience.

I wouldn't call what reddit is doing "thriving". The experience of what used to make Reddit, Reddit (the deep focused communities) is already quite decayed and has been decaying for some time.

Curate your Lemmy communities better and make an effort to interact as much as possible. Lemmy always feels super dead if you don't actively look for new communities and instances to subscribe to, because the Fediverse is inherently in a changing state of flux of where the activity is. Lemmy does not auto populate your feed with a bunch of algorithm crap, you have to MAKE it show you what you want. I've built up a nice list of 40+ subbed communities and see lots of content.

It's not dying. It's smaller for sure but a social network doesn't need to be big or have a ludicrous number of users to be healthy. Many of the posts I've made have gotten 10x more engagement than equivalent posts on Reddit simply because there's less for it to get lost among.

Personal opinion, but I think generally the users here are nicer and more chill than Reddit. Again, simply because the sheer number of trolls is lower and I don't think bother as much when there's less people to piss off

Reddit is certainly busier. But is it better? Every time I peek back into Reddit I'm overwhelmed by ads and karma-farming reposts. Was it always that bad, or did I just not notice when I was immersed in it? Either way, I'm happier here.

Not really I think. Lemmy losing users in a slow manner may be true (probably is, if https://lemmy.fediverse.observer/dailystats is a representative site) but Reddit thriving, I'm not so sure. I'm only seeing that Reddit is in stagnation currently and I don't mean this in a negative way, it just didn't get new followers. If someone is more active on Reddit, please educate me about your experiences, because I'm only visiting just 1 subreddit basically for some minutes and that's all.

Personally, I think that Lemmy hit rock bottom relatively shortly after the main Reddit exodus in early July, and has steadily improved since. And more than anything else, I attribute that to users leaving.

The thing is that at least some significant part of the people who have left are people who couldn't or wouldn't appreciate the threadiverse for what it is and instead spent their time whining about the ways in which it isn't the same as Reddit.

And honestly, good riddance to them.

There are always going to be people who can and do appreciate the threadiverse for what it is. Those who are already here will stay and at least some of those who haven't discovered it yet will, and will move here. And I wouldn't have it any other way.

i wouldn't know, i haven't been back to reddit

if you want a 1:1 replacement for reddit like .world seems like it wants to be, cloning the interface (https://old.lemmy.world) and the subreddits (e.g. this one) then of course you you will find it lacking, it's the same thing but with only a fraction of the users. lemmy was not made for that, it was for disgruntled communists, you are on their turf

Let me prop up my complain. I look for an English community where I can ask questions about the language, and I found one. I put several questions there and have received zero answers in span of a month. Given that it is the largest such community here, I have no options as to turn to Reddit.

I really am missing the communities for specific games.

Isn't it?

Nope.

You can leave

wouldn't say so