Lemmy already has all the issues that Big Social Media has except the profit and monetization drive expectation by a commercial management team. Bad mods, bots, whatever. The difference is that we’re still small enough via instances that it is possible to segregate truly problematic instances or users by other users or instance operators. So in that way we have an advantage, and IMO unless there are some dramatic changes in how the fediverse operates I think it makes it unattractive to the people seeking to commercialize and/or manipulate Social Media. While it’s not impossible for those changes, it’s just unlikely.

the nature of lemmy means there can be indiscriminate growth without the inherent issues that come with it. The real issue is that should lemmy grow really big, corporations will become interested. Maybe they see it as something to colonize and try to claim, maybe they see it as threat if they cant control it.

That is what we need to be ready for, not the people that are unwittingly being oppressed by those corporations.

I, for one, do not wish to see Eternal September ever again.

I don't understand when people say "normies" this and "normies" that. What makes us any different than when we were on Reddit?

How many people were actually even using Lemmy only before they were using Reddit? I rarely used it before but when they got real shitty, I decided to move here.

So what does that even make me? What creed do I need to follow to be considered not a "normie"?

The fediverse is about offering an alternative to the monopoly power and political control of the large corporate sites. The more people are here, the less control those have. That is a good thing and far more important than any kind of elitist snobbery people here like to indulge in.

I'd take "normies" any day over people who classify others as "normies".

Yes, because it will fail otherwise. If only Linux nerds and tankies hang out here, than every community is just a slightly differently flavored tankie/linux community, and we'll die on the vine. We want normies to see the value in the fediverse, because then they'll start to ask why they should be giving all their privacy to big corporations.

No.

No.

I don't see why we would want to gatekeep the fediverse. If more people decided to use it over centralized social media, I think that'd be a positive development.

And as you know, the fediverse is far from homogeneous. I expect there will always be some very big general purpose "normie" instances like lemmy.world, and smaller, more niche ones for specific communities.

Just what do you think you are, mack?

The benefits vastly outpace the negatives. More people.

as long as we have enough options to curate our feeds it should be fine.

One thing late-stage Reddit really had going for it is that, for any niche topic or hobby, you could find a sizeable active community.

I still have to visit that place from time to time, but I’d rather be on Lemmy.

Depends. I wish there were more normal people here myself. Because I'm not an extremist looking to live in a hugbox and I enjoy diversity. I genuinely take joy in learning other people's thoughts and perspectives on topics when they are expressed in a peaceful and thoughtful way. But I'm in a minority.

As for needing to 'grow userbase'. Not really, but if you want more content and more niches you need more users, plain and simple. Most folks here miss there niche communities from reddit.

You're asking this on .world, the normie instance. .world is the watered down version of lemmy.

But to answer your question, yes, ideally all people should move to foss versions of corpo software, if only to devalue digital data trading and advertisement space. Yes that means more instances going further right wing, and some instances choosing to no longer federate with the larger, more 'normie' ones; but the overall good to society is worth the cost.

A slow growth would be preferable at the moment. Getting Lemmy to be regularly used by at least 250k people would allow more niche communities to take off.

I do not see a big problem regarding people feeling being drowned out by rising user count. There's always the possibility of going the way BeeHaw did, to curate the instances you want to federate with, allowing smaller, more isolated nodes to exist to provide safe spaces and to avoid context collapse .

I’d like to see more sensible liberals here to offset the extremism of the far-left crowd.

If I may, I'd like to challenge the idea that "regular, everyday people" exist. Most everyone is deeply educated and passionate about something. Tech projects like Lemmy tend to start out by attracting people who are passionate about technology (for obvious reasons). That's fine and logical, but to lump everyone else into the category of "normies" is to discount the people who couldn't care less about tech but are instead experts in art, or history, or athletics, or any other dimension of human endeavor. People only become normies when they feel compelled to sand down the sharp edges of their passions in order to better fit in with others who have different passions, even as those others do the same.

I hope that Lemmy never becomes a place for normies, not because people who aren't into tech get scared away, but because they feel safe and encouraged to be their own special kind of abnormal. Because they will hopefully find others who share their specific passion, but will at the very least find a community that celebrates and encourages passion in all its forms.

Reddit doesn't have voice calls as far as I know, but I haven't paid close attention.

Sure, I think Lemmy could have an instance or two for the normies.
And then a dozen or so for the weirdos.