I saw an earlier post that showed Lemmy's recent rapid growth followed by a plateau and then slight decline. My feeling is that there is a very LOUD minority of Lemmy users that are trying to act as self-anointed gatekeepers and they're bringing the platform down as a direct consequence. It makes the platform look petty and small to new and existing users alike. If the top posts are continually about shaming other users then this platform isn't going to last. Let's focus on building communities and having interesting conversations rather than one upping each other.