I for one have stopped posting any content to lemmy.ml communities.
I was rejected when I first tried to sign up (when I was entirely new to lemmy) and they’re turning at least one user away now
Ah, they do it now? When I signed up there (~3y ago) there was no such thing.
Anyway, it’s still a problem because most users interacting with .ml content are from other instances.
3 years ago were there any other instances with traction? Agreed on your second point.
Lemmygrad.ml is 5 years old, and hexbear.net is 4 years old.
Who knows? Lemmy gave very little feedback messages then. I found a good instance to stick with.
Edit: it would have been around when I made this account (i.e. couple days before blackout protest and maybe they wanted to encourage signups at the several others that had recently popped up.