Lemmy total number of users last month (very close to 1.5 M users)

active users are declining

The issue is how to bring people to use lemmy. People go there it can find interactions, comments, and contents. Lemmy due low number of users... it's complicated.

For example, I'm from Italy and from Italian communities, and you find very difficult posts with comments or upvoted. It's obvious that you'll see that the environment is not so alive.
- I was always surprised by how small the Italian community seems to be on Lemmy. Of course Germans are the most active, but French are doing okay.
  
  Have you guys tried talking about your instance on some smaller subreddits? The geodefault is probably strongly against it
Insane to start the plot at 45k. The rate of decline is rather minimal
- In the last 3 months it went down by about 10,000 users. Comparing with the rate of increase in total Lemmy users, active user rate should have at least been stable. I guess we will have to wait for reddit to fuck up again for another influx. And Lemmy is only getting better with time so probably on every influx more users are going to stay.
  
  I try to get people from niche subs I follow to move to Lemmy but every time I do I get downvoted. Could be automated by reddit idk
- The starting point is just so you can adequately see trends for both plots shown and is quite sane. I also don't know if I could call an ~5% decline and clear trend minimal either.
The same plot with a more reasonable y-axis:

Active users (monthly is what you should be looking at) is very slowly declining, however we are still above the level that we were before the most recent influx.
- Gotta ask why it seems to slowly decline after each influx, tho, rather than slowly rise or stay stable.
  
  Seems at least some of these people are not liking what they find.
- I'm probably missing something, but what are the two bumps in December and Feb from?
- Very interesting, thanks!
- They'll be back.
It used to be a much more significant decline, it seems to have leveled off mostly at 45k, so those who are left are pretty dedicated. I'm sure we'll get another influx if Reddit messes up badly again.
- if when
What counts as an active user? If you are a lurker do you still count as an active user?
- You count as active if you post, comment or vote.
- If you vote, post or comment, you count as active user.
I've BEEN saying this for a while now. How Lemmy users need to welcome new people with interests that are different than their own. People from different generations than their own.

I've given ideas how to make starting an account easier. The concept of picking a home instance for someone who's never heard terms like "instance", "federated" or "decentralized" can be quite intimidating to start. And if you fuck up, and randomly choose the wrong instance? You have to start over. All your comment history gets left behind.

So people are going to choose the most active instance, trusting the idea that OTHER people know what they're doing.

I gave the idea that Lemmy needs to adopt standards across all instances so you can push a button and move your account. All your data would come with you.

Instead I was given a list of technical reasons why it would never work. The basis of these reasons came down to "it won't work because it would be a lot of work".

I hear a lot of people on here complain about corporate greed, and enshitification, but you gotta admit that they do get shit done.

In 2010 Steve Jobs was reviewing the new iphone prototype. Jobs said he wanted it slimmer, and wanted it airtight. The developers said it was pretty airtight, and there was no more room inside to make it slimmer.

Essentially telling Jobs that his demands were not going to be met because it would be a lot of work. So Jobs stood up, grabbed the prototype, walked to a fish tank, and dropped it in. It sank, and bubbles came out. Thus destroying it.

He said "See that? Bubbles. There's air inside, which means there's room inside. It also not airtight. Make it smaller, and make it airtight." Then he left the room. When it released to the public, the final design was smaller, and airtight.

Not saying it WON'T be hard work to make true account migration a reality, but it IS possible. The developers just figuratively need their prototype dunked in a metaphorical fish tank.

Because until this process is easier, and users are greeted with a friendlier userbase, people are just going to sign up, realize they fucked up, realize the experience isn't great, and leave. If they have access to reddit, they will leave.

It seems everytime I search for a topic all the results are from a year ago. Which suggests to me that reddit fucked up, users exploded here, gave it a chance, disliked it, and left.

Meanwhile, I point out just SOME of the glaring problems. But instead of embracing the problem and starting a think tank on how to fix it, my posts are instead turned into an echo chamber of how wrong I am. How the ideas will never work, and the problems presented persist to this day.

All because I'm thinking from the perspective of the normie 95%, and not the linux minded 5%. Which really places an artificial self installed glass ceiling on top of you.
- I think your idea is a good one, and I'd like to see that happen someday.
  
  I would point out though, that Apple was a behemoth company with large teams and massive budgets (essentially unlimited resources). Whereas Lemmy is just two guys barely scraping by a living wage from donations while slowly tackling an endless list of bug reports and feature requests.
  
  Tossing Lemmy in the equivalent of a fish tank to motivate the devs would, most likely, just cause extreme burnout and a throwing up of hands. They are resource and time limited to a pretty extreme degree considering how popular Lemmy has become, and that should be appreciated and taken into account.
- but you gotta admit that they do get shit done.
  
  I opened Reddit again today to have a look at my local city sub, where I'm an (inactive) mod, the interface to moderate now offers a terrible experience. Bloated, clunky, slow. So I'm not so sure they get things done.
  
  All your comment history gets left behind.
  
  What's the big deal with you leaving an old account behind? Lemmy has no karma, if you keep the same username (and even more with the same picture), people are going to recognize you, you can even add links to both accounts in the bio to make sure. I'm on probably my 10th alt, people still recognize me from time to time, whatever the account.
  
  Instead I was given a list of technical reasons why it would never work. The basis of these reasons came down to “it won’t work because it would be a lot of work”.
  
  As @[email protected] pointed out, the 2 main developers have limited time and resources. What is the community supposed to do, threaten them to leave will the vast majority finds account migration a non-critical feature?
  
  The concept of picking a home instance for someone who’s never heard terms like “instance”, “federated” or “decentralized” can be quite intimidating to start.
  
  Here's the post I made a few days ago on /r/RedditAlternatives: https://old.reddit.com/r/RedditAlternatives/comments/1fmuk7o/post_to_address_the_usual_criticism_about_lemmy/
  
  Federation is confusing, people want a single website they can go to
  
  Go to https://lemm.ee/
  
  Have a look around, see if the content and the formatting is appealing to you, register an account if you want to be able to curate your feed further
  
  Go to https://lemm.ee/c/[email protected] to see communities (equivalent of subs) that might be interesting to you.
  
  Use Voyager as a mobile app: https://www.lemmyapps.com/Voyager. When they ask for your "instance", use "lemm.ee"
  
  If you want more choices for apps, have a look at https://www.lemmyapps.com/
  
  Email has been working on a federation model for decades. People have to remember if they use Gmail or Outlook, but that's it. It's similar here.
  
  There is a whole community here who has no idea what an instance or federation is, but they still use this community, and post 100 comments every 3 days. The platform is similar enough to Reddit for them to use. And I can tell you very confidently none of them (between 100 and 150 monthly active users) use Linux.
  
  It seems everytime I search for a topic all the results are from a year ago.
  
  [email protected]
  
  [email protected]
  
  [email protected]
  
  [email protected]
  
  [email protected]
  
  Of course if you ask questions on a very niche topic on a dead community nobody will answer. That's what [email protected] threads are for, to make active communities emerge.
  
  There is even https://quiblr.com/ if people want more tailored suggestions
- I agree with your argument, but not what you've applied it to.
  
  "Federation" isn't the main feature of Lemmy, and we don't need to focus on it. It's enough that it exists. When selling a house, would the first thing you focus on be the insurance rates if something goes wrong?
- I agree with you that the onboarding process is complicated for a user that doesn't want to invest time into learning how the fediverse works.
  
  I think that is a positive thing.
  
  The good thing about the Fediverse is that it isn't profit driven, it isn't necessary to grow without end, and because of this it also isn't necessary to appeal to the mass of users who don't want to learn how things work here. It's a filter, weeding out the people who aren't open to new structures - that often comes paired with the inability to have open minded discussions.
  
  I do agree with you regarding the missing transfer options, but since karma isn't a thing here, a simple import/export function for subscribed communities and blocked items should suffice, and shouldn't be too hard to implement.
Again the interesting thing is that a lot of other sites have a huge difference in numbers. But they are all saying the same thing, "Active" users are declining or getting close to equilibrium but number of users are increasing. Strange.

I personally think that piefed/mastodon/other servers federating with lemmy might be messing up the numbers in some way. Both pumping up the numbers and making others "go down" in different sites and how they are pulling the data. Like if I respond via my mastodon account, is that a "new" account? Does that make it pop up as an active user? If I dont repost it via the mastodon account for a while, will I now be an inactive account, even though I still look at lemmy with it? Im not sure.
Bit discouraging tbh
- Nice post on 3D printing
- You could have a promising career in finance
The decline might be because instance owners have strengthened the account creation process. I remember in "the early days" how there were an insane amount of bots, but now it seems like most of them have been banned or mitigated.

It's amazing to me just how hassle-free it is to use Lemmy as opposed to reddit.

Rddit just feels like it's actively trying to get you to leave it.

Reddit is like the late Roman Empire. It looks fine on the outside, but it's corrupt all the way down, powered by unpaid labor, and the lead pipes are slowly killing everyone.
- No, no, the pipes are fine (mostly). They have calcium buildup that prevents lead leeching.
  
  The REAL major source of lead poisoning in the Empire is much stupider - knowingly making wine syrup in lead pots because the lead makes it taste sweeter. Despite knowing that lead is toxic af.
  
  There's probably an apt comparison in that to Reddit as well.
- That's late stage capitalism baby. 😎
The latest annoyance is that they will AI-translate posts and stick those into search engines.
Interesting. May I ask how?

Because with old.reddit and RES it really doesn't feel much different (apart from the vibes in the communities)
- Yeah, old.reddit is like a dam for users that will flow with the fediverse sooner or later.
- Vibes are def getting worse the more folks flock in from reddit.
Bad moderation is still an issue here. Like allowing people posting pictures of text or low effort meme content on comms that aren't for memes
- Feel free to create Meta posts about that.
  
  And if you reasonable meta posts gets removed, post on [email protected]

I migrated over to Lemmy a few weeks ago when the piece of shit Reddit app refused to load any posts but continued to load ads. I have found this community to be far more interactive, kind, and enjoyable to discuss pretty much anything with. I haven't found a reason to return to reddit at all.

I have found Lemmy the most interactive of all the social networks I am a part of. It is my main home now.
- Its my home too. Does this make us flatmates?
I haven’t been to Reddit since the API debacle and don’t plan to
Welcome!

I started using lemmy because of the reddit api fiasco and the platform really feels more alive now. Or maybe the bots got smarter.

I'm sure it's little of column A and a little of column 01000010
As an AI language model, I fully agree with your last point.
- Sure! I can find agreement between AI language models and actual users of lemmy decentralized communication systems with your last two points..
  
  To find agreement with your last two points, AI language models would need to agree with both of your last two points.
  
  First, AI language models would have to agree with your first point.
  
  Next, AI language models would have to agree with your second and last point.
  
  In summary you would need AI language models to agree independently to each of your two different points so that it can agree to both.

I don't care about "number go up".
Lemmy now has enough users to provide plenty of content, and really interesting new communities I've never seen on that other website are starting to pop up.
It also has its own memes and culture already.

You don't have 1000 comments under every meme post, but the comments that are there are usually worth reading.
It's not a reddit replacement - it's much better.

One of the nice things about Lemmy is that you actually get replies under your posts/comments and it's not just repeating phrases to earn as much karma as possible. There's always a sweet spot of engagement in online communities and I feel like we're pretty close to where it begins. Other sites just make you feel like you're shouting into the void.
- Actually being a part of conversations is great
tl;dr - We don't want the most users. We want the best users.
- Fair, but I do like seeing the federated model thrive and prove itself as a viable alternative to main stream social media. My utopian dream would be that profit driven internet would fall apart against what we have. I hate how much power is given to so few.
There is still not enough people for niche topics.

It is the eternal struggle as more users come niche communities will improve or even exist, but general communities will get worse.
- Maybe not every niche needs a dedicated community.

I feel like lemmy is in a decent place right now. The main page is busy enough with a good amount of OC and alright discussion. It's a lot to ask for 1000+ active niche communities. I have a few things that bug me and I'm not sure ballooning members would fix it: reddit-like anti-social behaviour, excessive reposts, and posts about MAGA people. I've blocked a lot of communities, some users, and very few nsfw instances.

I was one of them.

I also was one of them. Still am, but also was
- Actually...I was two of them. me.world and me.ca
- I order the club sandwich all the time, but I'm not even a member, man.
I think I was 4 of them
- With my alts I might be contibuting to 3-4 in this graph aswell
Nerd.
- Heh.

Lemmy is one of the most harmful platforms I've ever been on.

Not even on Reddit have I spent so much time on here. Quality content and engaging conversations taking so much of my time and doomscrolling. I love you guys, keep it up.

Least harmful you mean? Lol
- Bro is not touching grass because of Lemmy
- Mostly harmless? I've brought some fish.

I really hate graphs that start at 99% and top off at 100%

The gain is really next to nothing in the 2 months shown in this graph. It goes from ~1,456,000 to 1,468,000.... which is a 00.8% increase, less than 1%.

Yep we’re gaining 1’000 new accounts every couple days, maybe every week. Which is pretty cool given we have an average of 40’000 active users. But nothing compared to the total of 1.5 million accounts. The vast vast vast majority of which are dead. Made one year ago to check out lemmy and never came back.
- There's also lots of people who made an account in multiple instances before realizing that you don't have to do that

Are we sure it's counting 1.5 M users and not 1.5 M memes posted by picard, pug, and squid?

Just wouldn't want any newcomers to the history communities to up and think the place was dead! Lemmy cannot live on Linux alone 🙏
- Oh shit you mean like AskHistorians? Is there enough density now for that?
- are you entirely a human? you post really often
I don’t think lemmy would be what it is without the contributions of any one of these three- let alone all of them.

Lemmy at first was Abit barren but I'm super happy with it now. Let's hope we don't see reddit collapse and the masses turn their attention here like the digg event

My biggest complaint is it's dominated by memes, and in a distant second is news, and that's kinda it. We need so much more diverse content still.
- Be the change you want to see!
  
  Anyway those are probably the lowest effort content which is why you see it most. Over time though the other forms will come. Most of Reddits front-page is memes and news for the same reason.
- Feel free to have a look at [email protected] for other active communities
- What I do to get around that is: subscribe to communities that are not memes, news, or tech, then read new posts by "subscribed" and "scaled". When I run out of those, read "all" to find new communities to subscribe to.
- Sort by "active" that's where the most discussion is happening
- Memes are the key
- I'm only but one person.
I hope Lemmy doesn't become overrun with reddit's far-right psychos after reddit collapses.
- We can't stop them from using Lemmy either. They'll come.
  
  But this time we can defederate from servers that tolerate intolerance.
- Like Facebook, Reddit will probably just become a cesspool of conservative morons. I'm fine with them staying on Reddit. I don't think it's gonna "collapse" anytime soon.
- i'm not completely confident that those far-right psychos are even real people for the most part. Reddit is probably the most botted place on the internet.
- I imagine that many will flock to right-wing friendly instances that end up widely defederated. Most of them though will go back to 4chan and other similar sites.
- They'd get sent to Exploding Heads, most likely.
- So long as the Israeli bot networks stay off of here. I don't like how China is discussed here but it's a function of the type of people this place attracts, i.e not fans of authority.
On one hand I think it's very positive that everyone starts using decentralised platforms that don't run on profit, that work for their users and not their shareholders, but on the other hand having a space mostly without conservatives is great.
- Politics is so stupid and bipolar

The interesting thing to note is each website I go to that looks at the total number of lemmy users is wildly different. Im wondering if there is some sort of blocker/defederated instance occurred a couple of months ago? Im not sure.

Either way, number of users are up.

I think counting fediverse users is about as difficult as counting e-mail adresses.
- Your probably right. And if an instance defederates with others, it may look like the number of users dropped without actually dropping.

We need more femboys

Femboys, cats, and femboys dressed as cats. The foundation of any healthy forum site.

I'm a super happy new Lemmy user. Last week, I created an account on Reddit for the first time ever. I replied to 3 posts in a polite manner and right on topic (in a Linux-related community, someone asked for a book recommendation. The other two were answers to technical questions on Rust and Linux). A couple of hours later, I was reading about what shadowban meant. I waited a few days, sent some messages to admins / support but to no avail. Then I searched for alternatives to Reddit and landed here. It's been 4 days, and I absolutely love it here. Lemmy seems to have that spirit of the Internet of the 90s, which I thought was long gone. Also, my assumption is that Lemmy users are of a higher quality than those on Reddit. It's very easy to end up on Reddit / IG / Facebook / etc. On the other hand, to become a Lemmy user, one actually needs to apply some effort and do at least some research. Or to have a cool friend who can recommend becoming a user here (if you have a cool friend, that makes you kind of cool too, right?). I should probably start telling my friends about Lemmy 🤔

Welcome here!
Lemmy seems to have that spirit of the Internet of the 90s, which I thought was long gone.

That's what I like about the Fediverse too. After Big Tech started hoovering up eyeballs, I got disenchanted but this has put fire back in my belly.
Welcome....

Comrade.

"More!!" -Kylo Ren

"MORE!"
believe it or not also Kylo Ren

I like lemmy. I spend maybe an hour a day scrolling so enough content. i am happy there isnt more cuz i would spend more time here then.

Only thing missing is a lot of niches in all kind of categories, be that gaming specific subs or what the internet is rly made for.

[email protected] to discover active communities

If you’re new there’s resources at [email protected]

https://lemmy.fediverse.observer/dailystats

Code behind the site: https://gitlab.com/diasporg/poduptime

How does that site count active accounts?
- Vote, post or comment

Thank you Lemmy. Reddit can go piss in the wind.

ooh, gradual

I believe we need some Lemmynade to celebrate

Let’s hit 10 M!

The other data shows that posts and comments are going up linearly (a little suspicious but OK), but I wonder how the modlog affects the data (meaning how is it captured and when). I made one comment to a honest post yesterday (hosted on a remote instance), which then the post was deleted by admins like so:

Removed Post Any app for call recording ? reason: Rule 2: Please use [email protected] for support questions.

So my comment shows in my history but cannot actually be accessed; was this comment counted? was that post counted? Was I counted as an active user yesterday if that was the only activity I did all day? Was the one person who upvoted my comment before the thread was deleted counted?

Lies, damn lies and statistics. :)

Yeah thats another good one. Its almost like it would be useful to see what each tracker would do in the following scenarios:

Create a persona instance with a couple of accounts (like 3)

See what each site says

Create a post/ create comment/ upvote sample post.

Ban an account (How many active users are now being counted? How many comments? Did that comment/post go away retroactively?)

other such experiments....

Let everyone know the results.

Wish I had more time.

If this chart is right that's pretty good, looks like this platform is getting some traction.

Data is ugly, why would you write complete ISO format dates ob the x axis? Can't read shit on a mobile device.

https://feddit.org/pictrs/image/0cf474dd-df46-4575-b0ec-550f5603f0d3.png ?
I use boost and it has a HD button that makes the image readable.
Because that is the only valid date format, ever, everywhere. There are just too many of them in this graph.

Which iOS client are y’all using? The native Lemmy website was just way too slow in loading and refreshing posts. I’m using Memmy but it often crashes when searching for communities…

Voyager. It's a very near approximation of Apollo's UI.
- Connect is good too.
I myself use voyager, but there are many different clients available.
Mlem as it has the best ui.

Maybe someday we will be able to beat reddit.

Nice!