I think there’s a size between Reddit and Lemmy that’s ideal. And as Lemmy grows it will get hopefully there. I have no desire to post a comment in a thread with 10k comments. I’m more hopeful that Lemmy will get better than in hopeful that Reddit won’t get worse.
My favorite subreddits were those that had a good 25k active users. Enough that there were a good 2500 active posters and commenters, and people knew each other a little. However, some support subreddits with 100k+ were nice.
How are you counting active users? I've checked the subreddits I enjoy and none of them have more than 1k users active right now. Given default subs such as worldnews are showing 33k active users right now, I can assume you're measuring it differently than I am (as the way I'm measuring has varying results with time).
I also wonder how many active users Lemmy/Kbin instances/communities/magazines have. It would be interesting to know to get a feel for how the amount of active users correlates to the overall feeling of community.
Yeah, I totally agree here. There is an optimal size. Three people commenting on one post might be too limited, but 10k people commenting on one post is pointless. There's a middle ground that will be awesome. Also, maybe the slightly more decentralized nature of a federated setup will solve that problem entirely? I can foresee places that do become Reddit size, with islands of tiny intimate communities that preserve the smaller feel that people seem to be enjoying today. Only time will tell!