But reddit also didn’t have that when I started using it.

reddit also didn't have to compete with reddit.

"can't scroll all day"

I keep saying that's a positive thing for other productivity, but sadly, that's not happening for me. Turns out, I want to sit and bum just as much as I always did before. I'm more likely to actually read articles, but I know meta gets more screen time now. As you said, lemmy doesn't have those full niche communities. I know, sacrilege to admit around here.

I’m sure this gets repeated on Lemmy all the time, but I feel like the quality of Reddit posts, even in niche communities about guitar maintenance or whatever, has really gone downhill in the past 10 years or so.

This might come off as mean, but I’ve noticed a significant dumbing-down in terms of what people contribute to Reddit communities but also what people expect to be spoon-fed by those communities. And it’s all presented as this sort of democratization of hobbyist knowledge, where it’s every hobbyist’s duty to educate newcomers on all of the absolute basics and persuade them of why they should care about any of it.

Maybe this is just a side effect of Reddit recommending subreddits to non-subscribers and pushing to become a Facebook-type service for “regular” people - after all, that’s how they make the line go up.

I still prefer old-school forums, which tend to be more insular, less accessible, and expect you to arrive with a modicum of understanding or at least RTFM first. To be blunt, I miss the days when the internet was primarily for geeks.

Same as reddit when it was new.

I'd actually say Lemmy feels larger over the same timeframe, but that's just sticking my thumb up in the air sort of measurement.

The problem with growth is that too much, and it ends up trolls and bots making up the majority, and too little growth means it withers on the vines.

With federation (and the ability to defederate), I think the ideal ground can be found. We'll see though!

i think there's plenty diversity outside of .world