this post was submitted on 18 May 2026
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Is it just me or is Lemmy less active than reddit? (lemmy.world)
submitted 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) by nerdhd@lemmy.world to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml
35 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

So, I got site-wide banned from reddit a while ago due to using the word "purge" on a post and since then I have been using Lemmy more and more. However, one thing that I have noticed is that Lemmy is less active than reddit.

For example, the most comments I have seen a post get is 200, where in reddit I'm confident it would get much more.

all 36 comments
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[–] WeirdGoesPro@lemmy.dbzer0.com 50 points 3 weeks ago (4 children)

Well…duh! Reddit had a massive head start plus they’ve sold their soul to the money guys to ensure that they remain a staple part of the normie diet.

Furthermore, Reddit is a home for propaganda that gets artificially inflated by bots and state actors, thus leading to insane upvote counts.

Here, we have a refined palate. We don’t have 1000 posts of slop, we have 100 posts of open source trans autism. Once you train your taste buds to be accustomed to nutritious content again, you won’t be able to stomach the slop anymore.

It’s an adjustment, but it’s worth it, and in the end, I feel like this place has been better for my mental health.

Welcome to Lemmy. We greet you with open arms.

[–] eldavi@lemmy.ml 10 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

We don’t have 1000 posts of slop, we have 100 posts of open source trans autism. Once you train your taste buds to be accustomed to nutritious content again, you won’t be able to stomach the slop anymore.

rotflmao

also: very true, i'm ashamed at the amount of slop i used to ingest.

[–] gedfromgont@piefed.ca 2 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

What about Star Trek though. Or is that covered by Trans Autism.

[–] eldavi@lemmy.ml 3 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

star trek is Fully Automated Luxury Gay Space Communism; so there's a lot of overlap. lol

[–] FromPieces@lemmygrad.ml 7 points 3 weeks ago

It's the trans autism for me. Can't get anything quite like it on reddit...

[–] Arkhive@piefed.blahaj.zone 4 points 3 weeks ago

Came for the open source trans autism, stayed for the…well I stayed for the open source trans autism too, but you get my point.

[–] Test_Tickles@lemmy.world 1 points 3 weeks ago

I do miss some of the niche subreddits, and the free, often OC, highly cultivated porn. Unfortunately, the real quality porn largely disappeared during covid due to everyone having to monetize their hobbies just to survive.

[–] Arrandee@lemmy.world 23 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Welcome. I too disagreed with the wrong people on Reddit and can no longer participate there.

Yeah presently Lemmy is not Reddit-scale. But, it also is not Reddit-moderated, or Reddit-algorithmed. I find I can sign into Lemmy, do a bit of scrolling and commentary to scratch my itch, and get on with my day. No dynamic selection designed to retain my engagement through emotional manipulation, a far lower population of malicious bots and actors, and generally more thoughtful discussion.

Quality beats quantity. Federated social breaks the toxic monoculture. Distributed media like this is able to support a broader diversity of people. In the end, this is the future.

[–] content_educator_94@thelemmy.club 12 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

This is a pretty comprehensive take on the difference in vibe

Lemmy is a lot less artificially self reinforcing

[–] Cowbee@lemmy.ml 17 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

The userbase is different, plus you're on Lemmy.world, which is defederated from active communist instances like Hexbear.net.

[–] nerdhd@lemmy.world 7 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

I'm new to this whole "federation" thing. When I joined Lemmy I just followed a guide where it said it made no difference which instance I made my account in. Is that not true?

[–] Cowbee@lemmy.ml 14 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

It's only true in that you can interact with other federated instances on any federated account, but not all instances are federated with every instance. I can see Hexbear.net just fine from here, as can I see Lemmygrad.ml, but you will never see them from Lemmy.world accounts.

There's also the fact that many instances vary in how they run things, what their local sort is like, etc.

[–] nerdhd@lemmy.world 5 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

Ngl, that sounds needlessly complicated. Anyway, thank you for your answer.

[–] qprimed@lemmy.ml 13 points 3 weeks ago

its not, really. and its something you get used to and come to appreciate.

the city analogy is a great one - every town has its own flavor. many towns build roads (federation) between them so all inhabitants can easily travel to each other... as a city.

some towns self-isolate or are isolated from other towns (defederated) for all sorts of reasons and, if you want to see what they have to offer, you can set up a house directly in that town or another town with a road to (federated with) that town. it really does allow some very cool places to thrive - like the internet was before it was purchased.

lemmy{dot}.world chooses to keep things pretty... bland? thats their right, but there is quite a bit of quality spiciness out there if you have a house in a well connected (widely federated) town or decide to set up a few additional houses in some of the more exotic towns.

does anyone have a federation graph up and running right now? should be easy-ish based on instance published federation lists.

[–] Cowbee@lemmy.ml 7 points 3 weeks ago

No worries! It makes it more complicated to start, but it also has its strengths.

[–] FromPieces@lemmygrad.ml 7 points 3 weeks ago

It makes no difference in your ability to access some amount of content, basically.

The "Fediverse" is like a collection of cities, most of them pretty small. "Federation" refers to the roads between them. When an instance federates with another, the users of each instance are allowed to view and comment on each other's posts.

There are a few toxic circle-jerk communities no one federates with, like Truth Social, and there are a few gooey growths of bot-filled cancer, like Meta's Threads, and there are nice instances like lemmy.ml or hexbear where it's possible to have educational conversations.

(my vague grasp of federation, semantics may be wrong)

[–] polotype@lemmy.ml 16 points 3 weeks ago

Anybody got that shocked pikachu lying around. I think OP needs some

[–] silentjohn@lemmy.ml 11 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Reddit is boosted by thousands of bots, and has a significantly larger userbase.

[–] QuentinCallaghan@sopuli.xyz 5 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

And even though there is higher quantity of discussion, the quality might vary heavily.

[–] CameronDev@programming.dev 10 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Reddit has a dramatically larger userbase.

[–] whotookkarl@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Also significantly more bots masquerading as people

[–] CameronDev@programming.dev 3 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

Sure, their bots on their own likely dwarf us as well, but even taking them out reddit is dramatically bigger than us.

Lemmy MAUs is in the thousands.

https://join-lemmy.org/instances (35k active users)

[–] bigbangdangler@reddthat.com 6 points 3 weeks ago

There are simply a lot fewer people on Lemmy. That's to be expected.

I will say that the quality of conversation tends to be a bit higher on Lemmy. YMMV though.

I feel a lot less of the hive-mind effect on Lemmy versus Reddit. Not sure why that is.

[–] andrewta@lemmy.world 5 points 3 weeks ago

Yes, there are way fewer people here than in Reddit

[–] auzy1@lemmy.world 4 points 3 weeks ago

It's funny everyone is suddenly getting banned.

I was on Reddit for at least 10 years. Made a new account, kept arguing against racists

Got banned for racism, obviously by the Nazis. Never got banned in the last 2 decades. And pretty sure none of the racists got banned

But it's no surprise lemmy isn't as big. That's not a bad thing. Reddit is overrun by the same lobbyists and people who have ruined Facebook and made it no longer fun

[–] herseycokguzelolacak@lemmy.ml 3 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

You can help change that!

I posted a cool meme a while back, and would appreciate the upvote: https://lemmy.ml/post/46803836

[–] gwl@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 3 weeks ago

This isn't Reddit, don't go around begging for upvotes

[–] ryathal@sh.itjust.works 3 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

Lemmy is shrinking significantly since the boom of the reddit appocalypse. It's a problem a lot of people here like to ignore or pretend it's not a problem.

[–] eldavi@lemmy.ml 2 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

reddit has better bread and circuses

[–] ryathal@sh.itjust.works 1 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

That's all Lemmy has is meme and shit posting, and even those are getting slower.

[–] eldavi@lemmy.ml 3 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

leftist politics and open source technology are lemmy's strengths; if you don't like either, then you're going to miss out on the best that lemmy has to offer.

[–] nerdhd@lemmy.world 1 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Really!?!? Could you please elaborate?

[–] ryathal@sh.itjust.works 1 points 3 weeks ago

There used to be semi regular Posts tracking posts and monthly active users. You might be able to find them. Over the past couple years, there's been a consistent flat to negative trend in activity, the general consensus to this wasn't concern, some were even happy.

[–] BigTuffAl@lemmy.zip 2 points 3 weeks ago

fewer people, drastically fewer bots

[–] Rod_Orm@piefed.world -1 points 3 weeks ago

I'm on lemmy just to wait on the waiting list https://rhyme.com/ to be honest πŸ€·β€β™‚οΈ