At least on the communities i follow. Every so often I come across a thread where i recognize most of the users there even in the big communities with over 30k members and I haven’t even been on lemmy that long.

    • snooggums@lemmy.worldEnglish
      58·
      1 month ago

      Yeah, there are a handful of extremely prolific posters who are awesome and keep the whole thing fresh. Then there are a couple dozen that I see at least a few times a week if not more. After that, I see a mix of familiar and unfamiliar faces.since I scroll All.

      But even reddit had a similar pattern on a larger scale proportionate to the userbase. There were like a dozen prolific posters (or bots) whose threads got the most engagement even when they were reposts of someone else’searlier post.

      I like to think of it like movies and tv, where a few prolific actors and actresses are everywhere and in things that get a lot of attention, but there are also a ton of people also participating but without as much attention because they are in fewer popular things.

      If someone browses hot or new they will absolutely see the same few people the majority of the time since those are the most active people. Browse Active and there are a lot more that arrived a few hours after the post was made.

    • Otter@lemmy.caEnglish
      14·
      1 month ago

      Part of it is also because you will notice the people you recognize, but scroll past the people that you don’t.

      Having to check over usernames from the moderation side, I notice a lot more variety than I’d think about otherwise

    • leaky_shower_thought@feddit.nl
      1·
      1 month ago

      in my case, there’s people i tend to always see the same comment-style and so their name sticks.

      depending on the sub, that could be good or bad.

  • psmgx@lemmy.world
    76·
    1 month ago

    Because it is dawg.

    Total users are like ballpark 1 million, and most don’t post much or at all – e.g the 1-9-90 rule.

    By comparison Reddit and twitter are the most trafficed sites on the internet

      • psmgx@lemmy.world
        2·
        1 month ago

        Important concept when it comes to communities like Reddit and Lemmy, and something to keep in mind when talking about online marketing and propaganda.

        A handful of posters, relatively speaking, essentially shape global consensus, and many know that, so plan accordingly.

  • greedytacothief@lemmy.world
    43·
    1 month ago

    I’m not usually an internet commentor, but I try to chip in on Lemmy sometimes. I think most people just treat it like the rest of social media today, where the smart idea is to just lurk

  • IAmNotACat@lemmy.world
    39·
    1 month ago

    It’s called a community. If Reddit doesn’t seem like this anymore, it’s because half those people are actually AI.

  • shinratdr@lemmy.ca
    37·
    1 month ago

    I can’t speak to Lemmy specifically but my Reddit years were ages 15-30. I think I got my fill of arguing on the internet then.

    I write a lot of comments on Lemmy that I end up deleting before posting because I just don’t want the hassle of arguing with someone about it who is being deliberately obtuse or arguing in bad faith.

    That’s not an indictment of Lemmy specifically, but I think my lack of interest in those arguments comes with age and I suspect my story isn’t unique, the demographics will line up for a lot of Lemmy users.

    • fuckingkangaroos@lemm.ee
      104·
      1 month ago

      That’s not an indictment of Lemmy specifically

      For me this is a major, glaring problem with Lemmy. The obtuse and bad faith arguments are a constant problem here. Some of the things that get upvoted are wildly wrong, openly biased, and would be ridiculed in most other settings.

      If not for instances like Lemmy.ml and hexbear it wouldn’t be so bad, but even if they disappeared, the Lemmy user base is an echochamber that’s out of touch with reality.

    • Carrolade@lemmy.worldEnglish
      61·
      1 month ago

      This is one of the things I appreciate about the Fediverse. Even if we were to grow large, too, this small-town vibe can be maintained simply by using the instance federation tools. Reddit doesn’t really give you that same degree of convenience.

  • Nyanix@lemmy.ca
    31·
    1 month ago

    Honestly, that’s one of the cool parts of old internet (forums, chatrooms, etc.) is getting to know people, you get to know the community 😊

  • AWildMimicAppears@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    30·
    1 month ago

    Like the others said, the ratio of posters/lurkers on most social media sites is 10/90, and i think that lemmy is on the better, more active side of things. in a 30k community that means that you will see about 300 people commenting regularly, and 30 of them will be very active.

    i also like the smaller scope here, fewer comments mean that my opinion will be engaged with more.

    I rarely commented on reddit, because one little comment in a swarm of 2500 will not even be noticed. It’s different here, and i wrote over 400 comments this year! i maxed out at about 100 on reddit because my comments wouldn’t even be noticed most of the time if i didn’t filter by new.

  • Cyborganism@lemmy.ca
    291·
    1 month ago

    That’s very much possible.

    That’s why I try to be as nice as I can on here.

    There are very few times when I initially joined Lemmy where, I admit, I was a bit shitty towards some users (old Reddit habits). This can get you banned, or blocked, or you can build a reputation pretty quickly. And since we’re not a lot, that can limit your interactions quite a bit. So I changed my attitude pretty quick. And frankly it’s been much more enjoyable this way since.

    • OpenStars@discuss.onlineEnglish
      17·
      1 month ago

      Reddit did things to us all. You couldn’t like be nice to someone bc you would get your ass handed to you. EVERY comment had to be so defensive, and primarily what worked was snark. Here… is different, most of the time (and when it’s not, we can block and move on:-).

    • aStonedSanta@lemm.ee
      12·
      1 month ago

      Hard agree. Lemmy feels like a town hall. A few important people providing updates on reality and we engage in discussions based on those topics. Honestly. As long as it doesn’t get corporate or super weird I’m okay with that setup. It feels a lot more like a community this way. Whereas Reddit felt like a stadium packed with people. You can shout. And no one knows where it came from.

    • GrammarPolice@lemmy.worldOP
      84·
      1 month ago

      This is a good way to think about it. I’ve also been trying my hand at being a bit nicer to tankies. Oops… I mean communists.

      • InverseParallax@lemmy.worldEnglish
        34·
        1 month ago

        I’ve also been trying my hand at being a bit nicer to tankies. Oops… I mean communists.

        So, I’m finding things reversed, I spent most of my time on reddit going at it with idiot conservatives, just blasting through their talking points and not being polite at all.

        Tankies are different because they … it’s not selfishness, it’s not just seeing themselves as the ultimate victim of “evil libruls!”, they really believe the world would be better under their fairy tale. It’s even different from a lot of religious nutjobs I’ve met, who can’t wait for their God to come back and burn everyone who didn’t appreciate how awesome they specifically were, like their dad who worked at the CIA doing Kung-Fu.

        Fortunately the tankies have weak arguments, the best of which is “China #1 now!!!”.

        • OpenStars@discuss.onlineEnglish
          51·
          1 month ago

          I’ll just come out and say it: there is an enormous difference between a communist and a “tanky”. For one, only one of those actually believes in communism, and for another one of them is capable of rational discussion without resorting to the “your (sic) stoopid (sp), nuh uh YOU are!” schtick. I have found it more protective of my sanity to block the other type.

        • GrammarPolice@lemmy.worldOP
          63·
          1 month ago

          Hmm I don’t know which communists you’re debating on here but there are quite a few who i can say have made me reconsider my position enough times. I don’t know whether that’s because of how good they are at debating or how inherently strong their points are but i would be inclined to assume the latter. Maybe you’re just arguing with the blabbermouthed “cAPitALism Bad” folks

          • InverseParallax@lemmy.worldEnglish
            33·
            1 month ago

            Some are just ‘west bad! China good!’, the last one was actually trying but I’d read Das capital and simply felt base Marxism was hopelessly outdated as a darwinism era construct social model, obsoleted by game theory and other more modern behavioral frameworks.

            I’m a moderate centrist on most issues, I think we need more social support systems to counter balance the power of corporations and the rich, I just understand a powerful government isn’t a panacea, you’re just shifting the power and therefore corruption to a different body.

              • InverseParallax@lemmy.worldEnglish
                21·
                1 month ago

                No, I’m sure chomsky would be great.

                I don’t disagree with the criticism that we have far too unregulated capitalism, we need to go way back the other way.

                My issue is the stupid, faith-based, communism will solve everything, even though it never has before.

                Capitalism is corruption by the rich, communism devolves into corruption by the powerful, always.

                In the past the people only had freedom when the king and the nobles checked each other in power, which is why the founders created checks and balances. Now the king has been replaced by the government while the nobility are the rich and corporations.

                If both are balanced against each other (which has happened a few times in the past) then we have increased freedoms, often because they have to lobby the people in their struggle with each other.

                When they join forces, we have fascism, which is when things are the worst. That’s where we’re going now with our current system. That’s a problem.

                • Keeponstalin@lemmy.world
                  11·
                  1 month ago

                  The book does discuss a bunch of these topics, especially the history between capital business interests and the US government.

                  I think communism gets too muddy with everyone’s different idea of what it is, especially do to all the different countries that have ‘tried communism’ to various degrees of success. I think socialism is more tangible to talk about. Changing the structure of businesses to a democratic organization between the workers, where the profit they generate goes to where is democraticly decided (such as fair wages vs reinvestment into the business). Changing the social organization of society would be revolutionary, as it at odds with the profit motive of capital interests

    • octopus_ink@lemmy.mlEnglish
      2·
      1 month ago

      I get snarkier than I should sometimes when I’m really frustrated with someone, but I try to be mindful of it and nip it in the bud when I can.

  • dosaki@lemmy.world
    27·
    1 month ago

    I almost never comment on anything. I imagine most users are like me.

    Yes, I do see the same names popping up all the time.

      • Shark03@lemmy.world
        30·
        1 month ago

        Not the person you asked but another lurker. Social interaction is hard, even posting this I’m having second thoughts about it, but I still like to feel like a member of the community.

        • toynbee@lemmy.world
          11·
          1 month ago

          Congratulations to you on interacting! I agree with everything you said.

          I’m certainly not one of the lemmy celebrities, but I’ve got nearly 900 comments on lemmy where I doubt I had 100 on Reddit. Not going back to check.

          Lemmy is a just nicer place to comment than Reddit: smaller audience, kinder communities, much less intimidating. I don’t consider there to be any pressure to make posts or to comment, but if you do, I doubt you’ll regret it.

          Either way, I personally am happy to have you here.

        • BowtiesAreCool@lemmy.world
          3·
          1 month ago

          My published comments are probably about 20% of comments I start. I just give up most of the time because it wasn’t important or I can’t word something how I like in the moment

          • GoofSchmoofer@lemmy.world
            3·
            1 month ago

            If I notice that I am spending too much time trying to cover all the bases so someone can’t nitpick or acktually my reply I just give up and hit cancel. I appreciate an entertaining comment thread, what bug the shit out of me are people that reply to a comment with an obscure edge case or who are just pedantic for the sake of being pedantic.