How is the size of Lemmy's userbase changing? Is it growing or shrinking? How diverse is it? What do the current trendlines look like as we approach a year since Rexxit?

I feel like I used to see graphs on this sub fairly regularly, but haven't seen one recently. There was also some ambiguity in the numbers as commenting and voting were added to the active user totals. Now that most (all?) instances have switched to 0.19, do we have a better idea of where things stand?

Aside from sticking around and posting, commenting, and voting, is there anything users should be doing to help grow the platform? (!lemmygrow would be a good name for a sublemmy, if anyone wanted to organize something)

In any case, thanks to everyone who has helped grow Lemmy to its current size!

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[–] ANNOFlo@lemmy.world 31 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Yeah, it's something I observed, too. I'm new here, coming from a STEM field myself - Many places give off a tech-elitist vibe, though.

Customization options for Firefox get reactions like "nobody needs this". I like it here so far, but the tech-bubble is obviously super prominent here, and in many places it simply seems very "If you're not a tech-y don't talk to me because I know better". It's worrying because it will lead to people leaving again when they get the cliché reactions of "use Linux, don't use Windows" or "ewww, Reddit". People should be less hostile, but I guess that's just a problem of the Internet in general and doesn't just apply here.

I hope to see it succeed, though!

[–] cabbage@piefed.social 21 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Open source culture remains the biggest problem with open source software, sadly.

[–] SorteKanin@feddit.dk 8 points 6 months ago (2 children)

It's really a major problem. Every time I mention how a lot of open source software suffers from bad UX, I get a lot of down votes instead of agreement and calls to improve things.

[–] cabbage@piefed.social 7 points 6 months ago

But at the receiving end you'll have a talented backend developer who has created something impressive, and who instead of being recognised and motivated for her work just receives a bunch of shit about the UX being awful. Which is not great either.

It's a tricky thing to get right.

[–] spiderman@ani.social 3 points 6 months ago

how a lot of open source software suffers from bad UX

Thought only I had this take in the whole world. Usually open source software are best but you have to spend some time picking the right one. Usually 5/7 would have great UI but only 1/7 would have the UX you might like.