[Lemmy active users] 28th of September was the only day with more monthly active Lemmy users than the previous one, probably thanks to the release of Boost for Lemmy
I've been following the stats closely. There were actually several times that the active users ticked down and then ticked up the next day, the most recent being September 19/20. But I suspect that may be a statistical artifact, whereas the increase on September 28 is legit. It looks like about 1000 new accounts were created/became active on that day.
User attrition has slowed significantly in September compared to August. We should stabilize somewhere in 30,000 range for MAUs before the end of the year, which is not too shabby. We are unlikely to see another big wave of growth until the code is significantly more mature, but the current userbase is fairly well established and self sufficient.
I can't wait until we get that next wave so we can have more sports fans and humanities types, but you guys are alright for now 😅
Just came in from reddit, so from a newbie point of view so far so good, altho the content and users are not as expanded as reddit i think its a matter of time. people are haphazardly looking for alternatives and the only reason people stay is because of the interaction. I for instance immediately tried looking up the threads i was subbed to reddit as well. Its there just not as big and ill gladly trade it in instead of dealing with reddit any longer.
We need more normal users on lemmy tbh. So far, my impression of lemmy is that it's full of tech enthusiast. I'm one too, so I largely enjoyed it, but eventually it gets annoying and tiring listening to tech bros and FOSS diehards whining about something not being open source or something. I just want more normal content from normal people. I hope boost and sync gets more former Reddit users to sign up.
I had already stopped using Reddit, just waiting for boost to drop. The only content I find lacking is adult content. Memes, gaming, and news all have enough users here that even though it's less than reddit I'm not missing out. Maybe it will get me to spend a little less time on my phone. But between this and Mastodon I'm happy to pioneer a new kind of social media.
This thread, while pointing out that there's some negative trends in active users that can be concerning, actually gave me some hope that there's many more people here with interests besides Linux and communism. Honestly I find this promising for the long term existence of Lemmy.
I created an account on Lemmy.world earlier this summer but it remained dormant for the most part because I tend to participate in these kinds of forums from my phone. It's similar to a preference to watching movies and television shows on a television. I wasn't streaming until apps and services became available to stream and watch directly on my TV. I just wasn't going to watch on my phone or computer except once in a blue moon.
After experimenting with several apps, Boost for Reddit was what I preferred and used for a long while back there. As soon as Boost became available for Lemmy, the ease of participating here for me was as smooth as silk. For others that Boost was a fave with, it's probably the same.
It's great that activity is on the rise on alternatives such as Lemmy.
I think a big part of the problem is the sign up page, which is being worked on. Also, lemmy.world goes offline just about every day and is one of the larger instances so lots of new users go there and then have a bad experience. And it needs to be made easier for users to find out about all the third party clients available to browse Lemmy because the default client leaves much to be desired.
Most people won't go out of their way to switch instances when lemmy.world goes offline enough to make them quit the fediverse, or try navigating around the base client and become upset at all the unnecessary button bloat and missing basic features like blocking an instance.
I personally had 4 active accounts in August, until I settled on one instance I like. Very likely many others did the same, so these numbers are far from perfect.