Almost! At the time of this post, lemmy.world has a whopping 25733 users and is growing fast.
Since my last post yesterday, it has added 4000 new users, making it the clear second-largest lemmy instance out there. Also quickly catching up to lemmy.ml's 36000 (not taking new signups).
beehaw.org (3rd largest) sits at 12500 users, partly because of more restrictive registration requirements.
Source: https://lemmy.fediverse.observer/list
Exciting to see all this growth!
It really does feel like a shift. Of course it doesn't have to be anything near as big as Reddit and that's alright. This can be its own thing, which I'm pretty happy to be a part of.
Definitely know what you mean on the old school vibes though, I wonder if part of it is because "reddiquite" feels so unnecessary here, you don't have to post in fear of a slew of downvotes.
Agreed.
I’ve never really experienced that so much since I didn’t actually engage with Reddit but I understand what you mean. In the forum days, we used to do ‘Post Exchanges’ or other events with other communities (shout-out to ye old: https://www.theadminzone.com) to try and increase engagement. This federation system is the perfect evolution of that, its like having all of these forum communities but we can all see and interact with each other.
My only concern is that like most things, if/once it gets popular it will start attracting more of the worst of the internet (and humanity). Right now people flocking here are usually more technically inclined or those willing to put more effort into trying something new. But hopefully this is were federation can help some as its much easier to have separate communities that make it less effective for bots, trolls and other degenerates to overtake, thus keeping the content appealing and interesting to engage with.
You said it all!