Yes

If someone replies with just the words "that's not dull", I interpret it as more of a gatekeep-y response. The ones I naturally read as compliments usually have a little more flair, e.g. "Way too interesting to post here" "this is more of a c/extraordinarygentlemensclub post"

well I should start by saying this is not really a shower thought and would make more sense in ask lemmy but for myself its kinda a compliment.

I've only seen it in a you're selling yourself short fashion.

As long as it's something you did, people seem quite relaxed about what gets posted.

Not a shower thought

Mostly a compliment. You can get a gut feeling from comments that just say: "Not dull." or similar.

Depends if it's truly dull or not

We're jealous.

They're admitting how dull they are.

This guy’s a total shower.

Most likely they are pointing out that you lack a certain subtlety of understanding and have made a mistake.

/c/wrongcommunity

it's like the unpopular opinion sub, technically you have to upvote stuff you don't like

Both

both

Depends

Matters of taxonomy.

I count that as gatekeeping. It's the reason my contribution to that community has degreased over 90%. If it was just "men's club" then I'd have a ton of stuff to post there but nowdays I just consider it all too interesting to post there but not interesting enough to post anywhere else so I just don't post it anywhere then.

There is the other option, that the post was so underwhelming as to have lost any meaningful attribute allowing categorization as something that could be described as dull.

Which again could be utter insult or the highest of praise. 🤷

I think you should take all of it as praise