There are also conscious efforts to weed out bots and other measures that try to remove potential cancer from spreading.

There was a post recently that outlined bot weeding efforts on a couple dozen instances that tanked user number by something like 1/5 - clearly visible on graphs.

Lemmy’s doing great. Even if plenty small communities are still not big enough here.

There is nearly no benefit of being on the largest instance. In fact many would benefit from a smaller instance.

Kbin?

Could Kbin be the UI for this use case? I currently keep the two worlds separate. But I wonder if I need a paradigm shift.

The other problem for me is that I am way more open about my identity on Mastodon (and post accordingly) but not in Lemmy/KBin - same as I was on Insta/Twitter vs Reddit.

Beware of celebrating spikes like these. Though sure -there could have been a viral moment for Kbin, it’s also likely these are bots.

To be honest - Lemmy migration made me an active Mastodon user.

I joined Mastodon right after Musk took over Twitter. I was never big on Twitter but wanted to try mastodon.

But never became active. Because I was not a tweeter. I was also not a tooter.

The Reddit exodus was a wake up call for me and I committed to become a user and supporter in fediverse. So the migration to Lemmy/Kbin activated me as a Mastodon active users.

Isn’t that the differentiating feature of Kbin? Ability to both interact with Lemmy. Immunities and mastodon microblogging?

I am new. I may be wrong.

It’s not TikTok. That is for sure (the new hotness for teens). And so in the world of Reddit and Facebook the early adopters are … the people you describe. Mastodon seems a bit more diverse - since it’s branches from Twitter but Lemmy and Kbin is Reddit refugees and those are … 30+ nerds.

Honestly.

1. I will pay a monthly fee for my share of the server costs / human costs
2. with that I will insist my instance admins guard against attacks. - defederate bad actors like Meta and bot farms, join assertive instance pacts to protect at least our kernel of the fediverse

And in the end that is it - we will never save and protect and preserve the whole of fediverse. Some admins will be bought. Some will be compromised.

But we can protect a “citadel” of key value. And I am happy to financially support that.

The sorry thing is - I am terrible with donations (something something something - “everyone. Should pay if I pay” is the gist of my boneheaded reasoning). But I’ll happily pay a fee to sustain my instance.

Honestly.

1. I will pay a monthly fee for my share of the server costs
2. with that I will insist my instance admins guard against attacks. - defederate had actors like Meta and got farms, join assertive instance pacts to protect at least our Lerner of the fediverse

And in the end that is it - we will never save and protect and preserve the whole of fediverse. Some admins will be bought. Some will be compromised.

But we can protect a “citadel” of key value. And I am happy to financially support them.

The sorry thing is - I am terrible with donations (something something something - “everyone. Should pay if I pay” is the gist of my boneheaded reasoning). But I’ll happily pay a fee to sustain my instance.

Please take the below as said with the most respect. Especially as I am very empathetic of the struggle of communities finding a space away from hate.

My … concern is:

What you describe is … Reddit / Threadiverse model. Small tight communities focused on openly discussing niche topics. This is why I am on Lemmy.

I use mastodon as “microblogging” - public posting on topics of interest and honestly as an RSS feed since many news orgs’ Twitter feeds are ported over to masto.

But my problem is. If mastodon is a place where we form tight private communities. … and Lemmy is a place where we form tight private communities …, and kbin is a place where we form tight private communities … why do we have all three? What is the difference?

We need fediverse software with clarity of purpose. And the purpose you described … does not fit at all to me with the way things, like replies, seem to work in Mastodon.

Does that make sense?

(And I fully admit I may completely be wrong in this opinion)

If you have not been on mastodon lately. I’d suggest a revisit.

As part of my migration to Lemmy I did and found the experience much improved. It way easier to find channels to follow from all various instances.

Now my main focus was on getting good news feed set up - which is pretty mainstream need. So if your needs are more niche it may still be a pain.