What I like about lemmy is how often I come across account names and think oh I've interacted with you before.
Familiar faces resurfacing is nice and only possible on a smaller sized platform. Or clicking someones profile only to see a post I previously saw or commemted on.
Yeah, me too. I may not be comfortable speaking a lot so this is all one directional, but running into Stamets and Picard Maneuver outside of Star Trek subs always makes me go "hey! I know this person!"
It’s a taste of the real world need we have for second-order relationships, i.e. neighbors. I grew up in a close knit homogeneous small town three hours drive from the nearest proper metro area. It was simultaneously suffocating and comforting to have real neighbors.
I recently became active in precinct-level party politics (im in USA) precisely to meet some IRL neighbors. I stick around lemmy for an online taste of the same thing. It fills a basic social need.
I've thought the same thing multiple times. But that also means we don't have enough users or content yet. I've seen multiple communities that interest me, but sometimes (too often) I quickly learn it's a ghost town.
Yeah ghost towns are an issue, but the fact that the sub exists means that there is atleast one more imterested person there. Ive been poting in the taskmaster sub now to try to get some traction and atleast 2 or 3 people are there and I'm hoping it can grow. I suggest the same, shout in the town square to make sure there isnt a drunkard passed out who you didnt miss.
But that also means we don’t have enough users or content yet.
This may very well be the case currently, but it isn't necessarily the indicator for such. A critical mass of people using the fediverse can still result in smaller communities due to the local-first nature of the space. If we had 10 million users interested in a given subject, but they're spread among 2000 communities called 'interest' spanning 2000 servers, that's not actually a problem. That's a situation where the global ecosystem is rich and lively, but people are still seeing the same names over and over again in their little interest pocket.
Back in forums, it was pretty cool to see the usuals.
"Hey Mudbutt69, what's up ToeFetish, how are you Shoves_sharpies_there..." but then it often came like a extreme echo chamber. Or sometimes you see the same names and immediately upvote/downvote.
I always did like the 4chan approach, but that anonymousness just led to jerk behavior.
Yeah I am amazed by the personal interactions and connections that I've formed here, they've been the most rewarding part of Lemmy for me. There is not a single redditor who would recognize my reddit account after 10+ years on the platform, but I'm sure there's a good number of Lemmings who already recognize me, and indeed know me, or at least the personality I express online.
Treasure these times, because someday Lemmy will outgrow this phase if we start getting much larger.
Huh, maybe I need to be more proactive about deleting and recreating accounts here. On Reddit, I would do it about every year or two, and that seemed to work pretty well.
I value my privacy online, which is why I'll never again have a Facebook account (deleted mine years ago), and why I never used a valid email on Reddit. I guess this means I'll probably need to recreate my account every few months instead of years.
What I like about lemmy is quite different, I like that there's no incentive to get popular here. Karma isn't a thing, there are no awards, and the audience isn't big enough to attract as many narcissists.
Anyway, I hope to earn your votes with whatever my account is in the future.
Sure, and since most apps and instances don't show it, it likely has less of an impact on people. I've never particularly cared, but it seems enough people do to make the experience worse.
agreed, it's my favorite part of lemmy. when i see CatadoraStalinism i'm like, hey, thats the guy that asked me if i was a Trotskyist that one time. if your reading this, i am not anymore by the way.