It feels like it's dying. Just anecdotally it seems like there have been less threads lately, less quality threads, and less discussion overall. More anecdotally I feel like the last couple of federation / defederation slap fights ended with many users leaving as well. I can think of a few who left because we were federating, some who left because we then subsequently defederated from lots of the fediverse, and then even a few who said they would leave if we didn't defederate and then left anyway when we did.

I feel like mostly overall I have seen very few new posters, and have seen less and less of some certain power posters.

Is this just a illusion or is this really what's happening. What is to be done?

    • context [fae/faer, fae/faer]
      ·
      edit-2
      8 months ago

      there will always be a disparity between those who love badposting/chapotraphouse/thedunktank and those who love theory/news mega/effort the most

      this is the great dialectic! zizek-theory

    • DayOfDoom [any, any]
      ·
      8 months ago

      How many of those new users are cannibals though? Release the stats, mod.

      • DayOfDoom [any, any]
        ·
        8 months ago

        Mods are self-admittedly flooding us with posting scabs who will both eat our lunch and then subsequently also eat us.

        • HexbearGPT [comrade/them]
          ·
          8 months ago

          maybe once they eat us, we can finally eat our damn lunch, inside their stomachs. fricking greedy cannibals man

    • JoeByeThen [he/him, they/them]
      ·
      8 months ago

      There used to be a way to see how many people were online, right? Did that go away completely, or is it just hiding behind CSS?

          • infuziSporg [e/em/eir]
            ·
            8 months ago

            Line of best fit with a logarithmic function on those data points suggests that without taking peaks into account, there are around 350 users online in any given hour. Maybe in the 250-500 range.

            • JoeByeThen [he/him, they/them]
              ·
              8 months ago

              Thanks, but I was more wondering about like what our most active hours were and how that compared to other instances. Like I know we're all pulling nightshifts in moscow, but is that balanced out by our counterparts at Langley?

            • JoeByeThen [he/him, they/them]
              ·
              8 months ago

              Yeah, something like that, but that's something that should've been easy to fix. Just wondering if the number was still available. Woulda been nice to know.

              • DinosaurThussy [they/them]
                ·
                8 months ago

                I believe the Lemmy backend is now accessible both through websockets and through HTTP endpoints. It doesn’t make the count impossible, but definitely complicates things. I don’t know why the decision was made to remove it, but I trust the devs didn’t remove it arbitrarily.

      • zifnab25 [he/him, any]
        ·
        8 months ago

        Love my rookie FBI shitposting-on-the-hexbear-for-salary working stiff comrade.

        Unionize, my brothers and sisters! Reject the tyranny of the Professional Managerial Class and embrace a federal bureau of investigation 32 hour workweek!

    • Infamousblt [any]
      hexagon
      ·
      8 months ago

      Makes sense. If you've got the data to support that we aren't shrinking or growing at an unhealthy rate (because I think both are possible) then it's probably not much to worry about.

        • Infamousblt [any]
          hexagon
          ·
          8 months ago

          So basically my impression is totally backwards, and actually we're growing, not shrinking. As is customary everyone please just ignore me I clearly have no idea what's going on michael-laugh

          • invalidusernamelol [he/him]
            ·
            8 months ago

            You are right though, that a lot of old power posters have either left or aren't posting as much.

            That happens though, and it's good that we're seeing growth as the "vanguard" is stepping back. That means the general culture of the site has been defined and growth is slow enough that it won't suddenly shift anytime soon.

            • DinosaurThussy [they/them]
              ·
              8 months ago

              It’s very rare to find someone who can post that hard for an extended period of time without becoming an asshole about it. User churn is good in a lot of ways. People should be taking breaks as they deem it healthy.

              • star_wraith [he/him]
                ·
                8 months ago

                Though keep in mind just because a user doesn’t post here, doesn’t mean the person themselves aren’t still here. After 7k comments I’m concerned about how much info I’ve posted, so I plan on not using this account anymore and using a new one. I know I’m not the only one, either.

                    • kristina [she/her]
                      ·
                      8 months ago

                      I'm actually a twink named Lube and I live on Liberal Mountain

                  • PaX [comrade/them, they/them]M
                    ·
                    edit-2
                    8 months ago

                    There's way too much info on my account but I like my account and username agony-deep

                    Uhhh so is everyone's friend on here reusing their usual username on this site?

                    I wonder how bad of an idea it would be to have an "opsec service" on here where you could request people to look into your account and see how opsec-fucked you are

                    • DinosaurThussy [they/them]
                      ·
                      8 months ago

                      Reusing usernames between sites is one of the main ways that people get doxxed on forums like this, just fyi

                      • PaX [comrade/them, they/them]M
                        ·
                        edit-2
                        8 months ago

                        Yeahh my friend knows this they just enjoy having a unified internet presence

                        Idk, maybe I'll have to try doxxing my friend (without actually doxxing doxxing) and help to clean up their internet presence

                        • glans [it/its]
                          ·
                          8 months ago

                          my friend knows this they just enjoy having a unified internet presence

                          your friend should use shampoo on the inside and scrub that terrible idea out of their brain. nobody cares except that person and some fucking freak who may one day decide to go to personal, intimate war with them.

                          embrace the serially pseudonymous internet

                          i hope your friend is at least using a password manager so their passwords are not also shared amongst websites.

                          • PaX [comrade/them, they/them]M
                            ·
                            edit-2
                            8 months ago

                            Yeahh this friend has decent security practices (use of password manager, encryption, metadata deletion, lack of conventional social media at all lol, etc) otherwise but they really need to find the energy sometime to clean up their... "online footprint" and probably do need to get over that idea lol

                            I really do want to live in a world where people can be themselves if they want to without having to be prepared for some reactionary piece of shit hunting them down though

                            It seems like recycling online identities every few months would make finding and keeping friends more difficult

                • silent_water [she/her]
                  ·
                  8 months ago

                  god I have 20k comments between a couple of accounts. you're reminding me I need to logout

                  • Des [she/her, they/them]
                    ·
                    8 months ago

                    every time i think i've been too excessive on here i just check out another users posts/comment totals

                    lol i can probably keep this account as primary a bit longer

                  • NewLeaf
                    ·
                    8 months ago

                    I do that. Not sure why.

              • kristina [she/her]
                ·
                8 months ago

                Smh I'm not an asshole I just type lol in response to every comment

      • HexBroke
        ·
        edit-2
        5 months ago

        deleted by creator

        • zifnab25 [he/him, any]
          ·
          8 months ago

          The best posting is that sweet spot between a post so good its bad and a post so bad its good.