It seems the fediverse is continuing and growing again. Line go up is probably good!
https://fediverse.observer/stats&months=50
Total users are huge now.
There are many websites out there that pull data from the fediverse. So take that with a grain of salt. But anecdotally I am seeing a small rise in people using the various platforms as each get more mature and servers somewhat stabilize.
The problem is that Lemmy is trying to be Reddit instead of being something better. Reddit's model was always flawed: a central feed of endless content where the community is secondary to the algorithm and the upvote chase. That model rewards outrage, spam, and bot farms because those things generate engagement.
The old forums worked differently. A forum was a place you went to for a specific topic or community. The content and the discussion lived together. You knew the regulars. Moderation was local and accountable. There was no algorithm shoving rage bait into your feed because there was no feed in the modern sense.
Lemmy instances should be built like those old forums. Each instance should feel like a real site with its own culture and purpose, not just a node in a Reddit clone. The posts and the community should be the reason people stay, not a firehose of engagement bait.
Splitting the forums away from the content sites was the mistake. We need to put them back together.