Still, monthly active users are goin down.
I think people don’t like having to figure out what federation means and run away without realizing that they didn’t need to know what it means to participate.
My favourite type of posts is the ones by people signed up in one instance, posting in a community hosted by another instance about how they don’t understand how they are supposed to make use of federation. And then often still not getting it when people from all over the web tell them that they already are.
It makes sense though - federation is sold as a feature for users, but when done right the users should hardly notice it at all. So of course people end up a bit confused.
I wonder sometimes if the numbers are wrong. For example a server I host is up quite a bit in user count and posts, but according to the site the numbers are down considerably. It’s strange but it’s only a less than 20ish users setup. Plus not all federated services act the same.
Some have sub/supersets of the protocol implemented. For example, bookwyrms way of working with posts are wildly different than mastodon and hashtags will work one way and not the other.
I think it ultimately means that number may not be as accurate for a while while all these different servers figure out what it means to be federated.
- Takes a bit to get set up with something passable. The default Lemmy UI is kinda shit and you have to figure out which apps to use to make it work for you. It can feel a little unpolished initially.
- Niche communities just aren’t there yet. There is a lot of effort in creating them, but low engagement. It also doesn’t help that federation can mean communities on one topic are divided.
- Content can get a bit stale. I feel I see fresh content for about an hour a day and then have to wait another day before the next batch. When I browse throughout the day I start to notice the same stories popping in my feed over and over. Sometimes this happens for days on ended with one story just kinda coming back.
💯 on all your points ESPECIALLY number 2 I’ve created so many non political communities but it seems like no one here has interest in anything non political. Low to no engagement or participation.
Lots of ppl say ‘niche’ I agree but can you give me like two examples ? Only asking because I’m trying to understand and maybe even create some of those on our instance hilariouschaos.com to fill that need. In hopes ppl will engage and participate. Even if they are communities I might not be interested in.the thing is I don’t know what they are though
It sucks. I hate the constant politics. Our instance, HC, has a lot of non political fun communities wish more people joined them. The only political communities we have (hopefully not leaving any out) are
You are right. In the graph there is a rise, but inside “Total MAU” pill it says “-47,901 since last month”.
Interesting, the other numbers all match the graphs, but that one is wrong.
I would report it to them but it seems like you need a github account to do that.
Oh thank the bunnies!
I don’t know why the numbers were trending down the past few months:
-when there are more third party apps than ever before and they are excellent and feature packed
-the servers have become more stable
-Lemmy is more well known
-there are many more communities now.
