The lack of niche communities is one thing, but the real long term drag is the fact that most of this place is just c/Linux or c/linuxmemes even if it's just c/memes or literally any community.
Can't go anywhere without some "Microsoft bad, Chromium bad" content or comments clogging everything up. Keep that shit in the places it belongs or you're going to see more people abandon the site as they realize it's all just the same people with the same three interests in every place.
That and it really feels like the worst of reddit came here, I've seen people get downvoted to hell over obvious misinterpretation of their comments by people who have almost zero reading comprehension skills.
Oh I understand why but as someone who uses Linux and doesn't really put any data into social media, it's fucking exhausting to constantly have people act like they understand the one extra little key thing that'll save you from the government or private entities. Most of them just regurgitating random bullshit they hear and don't know a fucking thing about.
Oh you gotta have a DNS pihole, you gotta have Linux on everything or you like sucking Gate's dick, no not that distro! Arch/Debian/Mint! Why do you need tab stacking/side bars/whatever else Firefox doesn't have? Chromium based browsers bad!
It's clear why people hate Linux users, they're insufferable. Truly the vegans of the internet.
So many tankies, and an unhealty obsession with foss and anything foss related (if you don't live off the land, you're part of the problem yadda yadda).
Disc: I love linux, Firefox, etc and use them everyday (but also use chrome, amazon, etc), but ffs stop the preaching and shaming.
It's also why so many of the memes are boomer memes. I'm sorry, but a lot of the Linux userbase are 40+. I'm close to that myself, so I'm not criticizing or saying millennials shouldn't be welcome, I'm just saying we also need an infusion of younger people here to keep things fresh and make sure the stale stuff gets tossed into the garbage where it belongs.
I mean it's possible, but we don't have the population to really support the effort IMO. That kind of stuff usually sticks to the places it can get the most eyeballs and the quarter of a million lemmy users ain't the place.
I think you believe lemmy is larger and more important than it is.
There's a reason everyday people don't get hacked, because bad actors aren't seeking out bill and his $1740 bank account, they're going after Microsoft or coca cola.
Russian bots? Sure. On reddit. With millions of people. Not lemmy with like 15 comments and a few hundred upvotes.