Am i the only one who feels like it's the same handful of users posting and commenting on lemmy?

GrammarPolice@lemmy.world to Ask Lemmy@lemmy.world – 300 points –

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.

326

It's a smaller neighborhood here dude.

There's definitely regulars I recognize, but still plenty more I don't.

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.

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

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.

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

‘Had to look up the 1-9-90 rule

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.

Smaller community, so the power users (like myself, FlyingSquid, The Picard Maneuver and others) will undoubtedly be more prevalent than the many, many other users that barely post at all.

I do in fact recognize all those users including you

But do you recognize me!?

I don't remember you, but i remember that post about google maps

I think it’s good that you don’t remember me. I always obey the rules of good grammar.

I see you everywhere and I enjoy it. Thanks for contributing to all the conversations. O7

Yeah, you are very recognisable, but people like me, who lurk most of the time, comment maybe once a month.

Not very memorable.

21 more...

I have no idea what you're talking about.

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

1 more...

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

Yes, I love how much actual, genuine discussion happens here. The level of bots and trolls and astroturfing is nowhere near Reddit.

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.

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.

How so? Can you list some examples of upvoted things that are wildly wrong?

Small town vibes where you actually recognize people at the grocery store kinda thing.

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.

1 more...

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 😊

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.

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.

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:-).

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.

A few important people providing updates on reality

The problem is if those people get burned out for carrying a sub-Lemmy by themselves.

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.

9 more...

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.

9 more...

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.

That's honestly crazy to me. What's the appeal of lurking?

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.

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.

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

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.

Sometimes what you were going to comment is already there, you updoot and move along.

Just happy to observe and take in people's ideas and views

If you're satisfied then that's enough i guess. 2 comments in 1 year is crazy

The ratio of commenter/poster to lurker is always pretty lopsided. I also never read user names.

The trick is not to read the usernames. I imagine myself surrounded by millions of mostly sensible people!

I post more on Lemmy since I think people will actually read what I wrote. I used to post a lot on Reddit too, but that was MANY years ago.

However one of the big reasons I post is to hopefully get the conversation started. I figure with zero comments someone is less likely to post. With one stupid comment, someone might respond.

Thank you for the service!

Did you the guy from that maymay was like the coolest guy in the world? He was very important in educating about sustainable farming practices. His death was a real tragedy.

edit: Sorry, I didn't realize how long the gif went. I love the movie, but the gif kind of undermines your point in situ, I think. I feel nothing but positive things about the content of your comment.

Thank you for your contributions to the communities!

Yeah, that's what you get with smaller communities, you tend to see the same people over and over.

And I kind of like it. We get to know who is worth reading and who isn't, for the frequent posters at least.

I used to be active on one of my country's most popular forums, if ranked by daily visits. Self-help Q&A style. Apart from me, there were pretty much only three users contributing about 90% of the content. One of them being the only mod. It took me years to figure out, from the timing and the writing style of the posts, that this mod also poses nearly all of the questions and gives all of the first answers too, using a new single-use sock puppet each time.
At the start of this year, it devolved into plain attention whoring and it was really sad, so I left.

Kinda yeah. BUT my comment to lurk ratio is still less than I did on Reddit. So even my few contributions are still more than I ever really did on Reddit.

more not less, isn't it?

I suppose. But on Reddit, I wouldn't even bother to comment on a comment. So the sense of community is nice. Feels more like old forums or a familiar but lively discord.

After the reddit exodus I started creating memes for the first time and posting them on Lemmy. I've learned that it's harder to be funny than I thought. Also a lot of time/effort and I have actually important things in my life that I focus on. Reposting was also kinda fun but what's the point really

The majority of individuals on platforms like Lemmy—and social media more broadly—engage almost exclusively as passive consumers. Their involvement often begins and ends with the simple act of upvoting or downvoting content. This limited interaction speaks volumes about the nature of digital engagement, where consuming information or entertainment takes precedence over meaningful interaction or contribution. The absence of deeper engagement is not a failing of the platform itself but a reflection of broader societal tendencies.

People, in general, tend toward passivity, a trait that extends beyond online spaces and into areas like civic participation. In the United States, for example, voter turnout remains notoriously low. People express their dissatisfaction with the status quo, they crave change, and they criticize institutions, yet they shy away from taking the minimal steps required to enact that change, often hiding behind a hand-waving comment involving the words "systemic," "structure," and/or "institutions," a transparent way of excusing their unwillingness to actually act. As though they themselves are not parts of those systems, structures, and institutions. The same individuals who will upvote or downvote content online without a second thought are often the ones who abstain from voting in elections, an "upvote/downvote" that directly impact their lives.

What is even more concerning is that this passivity is not merely a result of laziness or apathy, but something ingrained and encouraged by modern society. Our institutions—whether educational, political, or corporate—tend to value compliance over initiative. Decision-making, once seen as a marker of personal agency and responsibility, is increasingly viewed as a burden. People have been conditioned to prefer being told what to do rather than take responsibility for their choices.

If a decision goes wrong, there's an inherent comfort in being able to place blame on someone else. This social conditioning makes being passive, fading into the wallpaper, not only acceptable but desirable for many. And yet, these same people will often feel deeply dissatisfied with their lives. But, rather than do something about it, they continue to be helpless, wishing someone would decide for them to improve their lives and then forcing them to do it.

While it's easy to express frustration with the passive nature of online participants, it is also, sadly, understandable. They are products of a society that rewards inaction more than action, where engagement is often reduced to the simplest and least effortful gestures. These platforms reflect the broader societal trend toward disengagement from real, consequential decision-making, reinforcing and reflecting a vicious cycle of passive impotence while they wait for someone or something to fix things for them.

I disagree about the value of commenting and posting. If I don't have anything to actively contribute, and I know it, I'm doing you a favor by STFU. Entertainment and disengagement have nothing to do with it.

If I'm using this platform as a news aggregator, that's 100% passive and legitimate and respectable.

Yes. I've been posting to subs around here too. I like it cause everybody will probably see your post and you'll get engagement from real people. We also have common interests on here that things are pretty interesting.

We also have common interests on here that things are pretty interesting.

I disagree. The interests communities get no attention at all. The only things that get on the homepage are political stuff, some technology and a bit dry memes.

I'm hoping that changes after the election, but likely won't slow down till February, and then maybe we won't see as much for 3 years.

1 more...
1 more...

It's a village vibe, grab onto the grapevine

FlyingSquid is our mrbabyman.

You were there at the beginning too, I see

Is it to late to ask who MrBabyMan is?

MrBabyMan was a user who posted lots of content that made the front page of digg.com, back when it was a hip start up run by Kevin Rose and before it collapsed and most of its users migrated to Reddit. Early on at digg, it was pretty easy to make the front page, but over time it became really difficult and digg kept updating their algorithm to make it harder in an effort to discourage spammers and people gaming the system. However, despite all of this MrBabyMan was always able to get posts to the front page. It was multiple per day if I remember. So MrBabyMan was a power user.

NPR even did a story on him: https://www.npr.org/2008/05/23/90755408/an-internet-tastemaker-diggs-himself-a-hole

We're looking sat you PugJesus! 😎

Just trying to keep things alive until they're self-sustaining! I look forward to the day when I don't, uh, post every day.

I use both reddit and lemmy and for the most part, I'll see similar or the same articles shared/posted on both platforms. I don't mind, it actually makes me feel like one day Lemmy might grow enough to the point where I use reddit less and less.

using multiple platforms I see the same users from time to time but I never really cared about who's posting or commenting

I recognize most of the users there even in the big communities with over 30k members

Communities with 30k members could really do with pruning the completely inactive ones. It's not like there's any commercial reasons to pretend that places are busier than they actually are.

I disagree. There is nothing to be gained by removing people from a group. You can't predict when they might suddenly become active and by removing them you're abrogating their ability to participate.

thoughtful. my issue here is while a community is nascent, isnt building maintaining an honest reflection of the community important?

I have joined a few tiny locally communities based on one post/comment. I may never return and the community traffic is irregular.

in a situation like that I can see a mod pruning me away for zero comments in a year. however that is a form of censorship. so its back to the default of mods run their communities as they wish and, if you disagree find/create another community or instance.

thanks for the thoughful comment.

It's a trade-off, I guess. Admittedly, there's not much benefit the user (though they could be warned via email if their account is going to be de-activated). There is however a benefit to the community, in that it can provide more reliable data to see if it's trending in popularity (a 100 extra users isn't significant if it thinks it has 30k users, but it moves the needle if that number is at a more realistic level).

Shouldn't popularity be based on activity, not membership though?

It's a useful metric. Maybe it's the better one, but personally I'd like to see good data from both.

Lurkers need to subscribe for the content to appear in their Subscribed feed. Kicking them out may simply result in them rejoining again. It would be a constant struggle against that.

Plus, if such purges occur routinely, then what about a major poster who takes a break, even if for like a year (let's say they have a baby)? Actively getting rid of lurkers sends a signal that they are not welcomed. Especially if in the future Lemmy adds the ability for mods to have to approve join requests.

Whereas simply using "monthly active users" avoids all of that. Do as you please with any of your communities - in which case it would be helpful for the sake of transparency to literally add it to the rules (those who don't participate will eventually get purged) - but I thought I would list out some of these issues, in case it helped!:-)

I've stopped referring to community sizes - especially when there hasn't been a post for a year. Instead, monthly active users is where it's at:-).

absolutely. careful pruning and caretaking is how you nurture good communities. excellent comment.

Roll-call for the lurkers! (If u want, no pressure)

I have no idea what you're talking about, says the chump who has a series of precisely 103 formulaic knife reviews posted here.

Want to know about a really weird knife? Go check out what a tecpatl is.

tecpatl

Those Aztec weapons are awesome. We need more movies taking place in pre-Columbian times.

There are more popular people that hang out and comment often in the main communities, then there are people who pass by. I know on Reddit I've seen certain people pop up frequently in certain communities. It's a smaller platform so you see the popular ones more often but it's not that unusual.

Commenting not so much, but posting is almost exclusively done by a regular few. Reddit was already like that, but Lemmy is infinitely smaller so it becomes obviously apparent.

I find it kind of creepy. And, ultimately, because of the legacy of things like power(mad) mods, disappointing. Excessive participation leads to possessiveness and all that

Well I mean, be the change you want to see then, post more. Other than that, you really won't find any online communities without the occasional power hungry mods, that's just the sad reality that power corrupts.

A place has to be seeded for a forest to grow...

Somebody has to do the job since normal person only reads, maybe upvote.

Agreed; and Lemmy communites require not only seeding, but tending by a dedicated poster. There are plenty of dead places where someone created the community, maybe made a post or two, then never posted again.

There's one user that seems to be everywhere and it's probably the same user everyone is thinking of right now lol.

I'm also surprised I come across other "agents" on here more frequently than I would expect.

Yeah, that guy's everywhere. Assuming we're thinking of the same person, which i think we are

I worked it out, they have ~6 comments/hour average over the last year. A lemmy legend.

It's quite incredible how much one can manage to post when it's your full time job

Hello cousin! Wanna go bowling?

Only if you tell me what your name means

It's based on the Swedish chef from the Muppets

Basically I have a mustache, love to eat and cook on my spare time, but my food rarely makes sense (everyone thinks it tastes good tho)

There are prolific posters and some bots that post nearly half of the content that gets popular on a particular day. Commentors I think there's a healthy mix of regulars and users I don't recognize.

I block the bots when they show up. One whole community stopped showing on my feed when I did that.

There are entire instances that are nothing but Reddit repost bots.

Yuck. Thankfully I'm not seeing too may yet on my several instances. If you care to share publicly or in DM, so I can block them, I would be so grateful. Thanks either way.

I just checked my blocked instances. zerobytes.monster is the only one I know for sure. Couple of others I'm not sure why I blocked. Most of them are to filter out languages I don't read from the All view. Possibly lemmit.online.

Tyvm. Leaving notifications so I can have a look tomorrow.

Nope, it is.

In a way it's kinda cool though. Feels more like a community.

Ye, and I'm mostly fine with it (I just wish this place had more stuff that wasn't necessarily political, like "interests" type of stuff like comicbooks. We have some, and thankfully Linux is a big one, but I just wish there was more!)

everyone reading this should introduce lemmy to at least 1 cool person in their life. thats what it needs.

I tried multiple times. They give me dirty looks and grief about all the political extremist content here. We who know how to block it tend to forget, but for a newcomer it's definitely off-putting. And yes X is that way these days too, but people already know it and don't visit it for the first time, so it gets grandfathered in.

We have some work to do before we will go mainstream.

Several instances block hexbear and lemmygrad, that can be a starting point

Yes but the only one I've ever seen that blocks all of the big 3 is lemmy.cafe. And even that does not block posts that advocate for violence - e.g. an example from literally yesterday, and this one from a memes community on Lemmy.world, from a user on sopuli.xyz.

Note that I am not advocating for removal of such content, only relating how in my personal experience, suggesting the Fediverse to normies has never once turned out any other way than badly. Granted, hexbear.net for its severity and lemmy.ml for its large userbase are probably 99.9% of the issue, but especially until after the election I have no plans to tell people about Lemmy anymore. After that, if lemmy.cafe still has Lemmy.ml removed, I will probably tell people about that one as an entry point.

Which isn't all on its own going to push the Fediverse into the mainstream, until we do more cleanup to make normal people feel welcomed rather than scared to be here.

6 more...
6 more...
6 more...

I comment a lot more often than I post. Tho I don't know if people recognize me, since I'm more active on the ich_iel side of Lemmy.

Am I the only one who absolutely despises people asking "Am I the only one who..." about anything? God it's always something mundane that any idiot could dream up too. There are 8 billion people currently on the planet and who knows how many before us. No, whatever it is, no matter what, you are not the only one who anything. Ever.

I'm not sure it's literal, more of a "I feel this way, and I don't want to assume others do, yet I have to ask has anyone else...?"

There are many ways to say it. Starting with "am I the only one..." feels like a pretentious passive selfishness. Like people who never learn proper English to put the other person first when listing them and yourself. Not "me and my friend" but rather "my friend and I."

Like people who never learn proper English to put the other person first when listing them and yourself.

Was that intentional or am I just reading too far into it?

1 more...

I try and post, but I feel like I'm always slow to the uptake and people already say the things I have to say. But I do make sure I vote as much as I can.

Same, I typically only comment if I have something new to add to the conversation. That being said, I probably comment more on lemmy then I used to on reddit simply because with a this smaller community there is more of a chance that what I want to share has not already been said.

Reddit was much larger, but it was the same and noticeable when you were active enough.

My rule of thumb was, if 100 people see a post, 10% vote on it, 1% comment on it.

There's also the fact that most active users that also comment regularly, don't browse the hot page but catch the posts earlier. So there will always be names that show up more often than others, that have already said what's going to be said.

On Lemmy there's a lot of instances that are kind of radical and have a vast interest in spreading their radical ideology in other instances, so they'll show up as well on a regular depending on the topic.

I gotta admit that I didn't start noticing regular users yet, only the trolls that I tag.

I notice a lot of the same people in most of the popular posts. I guess it's because the quantity of people that usually comment vs voting or just reading post is pretty low, so you'll start to recognize them everywhere

It makes me wonder if people recognize me from other posts I comment on!

Most people are probably pretty passive, so yeah, I think there's a subset of posters who are highly visible. But even over at Hacker News, where there's a much larger audience commenting, I recognize specific names because something they said in the past got my attention and I start piecing together their personality a bit at a time.

Yep, maybe it would benefit from more advertisement but I decided to not recommend it until I experience it for some time. It took me a week or two to realize that I don't like moderation at lemmy-world for example, I would definitely recommend choosing other instances, and then, it takes time to figure out which ones are worth recommending. Some are extremist far-left/far-right, some are at risk of shutting down if admin gets bored and decides to stop paying for hosting from his personal money.

No.

I can't believe this guy, we're not all bots!

I understand what he's saying, I've seen the same usernames respond to different threads before.

It's a smaller community, you're going to see the same names, stop making it seem like a conspiracy!

For me, the difference to reddit is less the participation/diversity in individual discussions. Rather, that lively debates only happen in some prominent subs. That is the one thing I miss here when comparing lemmy to reddit. On reddit, you can look for some niche hobby or some random computer game and chances are that you'll find an active community.

What helps me is having the perspective that people change from moment to moment, and we don't see enough moments in a row to pick out a pattern generally. Even if I see the same names, it helps to treat them with new eyes everytime. Also makes it easier to catch someone on a bad day but then have a nice conversation the next.

Do you identify as being part of this class?

I comment quite a lot and post relatively often, so i do think i am one of the handful of users I'm referring to. Whether my contributions make any difference is what i don't know

'Make any difference' in what sense?

I do recall an exchange where you gracefully bowed out of a discussion with another commented. I appreciated seeing that

What i mean by "make any difference" is whether specific discussions or communities would be any different if i hadn't contributed. I'm also happy that you appreciate my concessions

Narrator: That night, GrammarPolice dreamt of a world in which they had not commented in any communities...

The reason for that is Lemmy Social Score, aka karma. Most of the people on the internet are looking for a validation from online randos and this prevents them from posting unpopular points of view. Hide score from the users and you will see way more posts and comments.

Personally I think it's because Lemmy users tend to lean towards an older/more mature audience; and that crowd tends to comment less often in general.

I'm young and sometimes I refrain from commenting because either A) I don't have any experience on the subject or B) There's too many adults and the discussions are book chapters long.

but then there's no sorting to it all and it functions on bumps like 4chan. not necessarily a better system.

the real reason is that 90% of users on any social media site only lurk. the users that post tend to post a lot. these are just natural things that work out that way due to human nature. confidence and extroversion are some of the last things to make it to niche social media.

Call me old fashion but the best system was and is good old forum. Posts and comments are order by posting date. No points, no bumps, just a regular timeline.

As for the lurkers, I still believe that removing Lemmy Social Score would cause more people to engage.

Whats this social score? I didnt think lemmy had a karma system, honestly i bet mine is terrible.

I use sync if that makes a different.

most forums had bump rules. any new comment jumped a post back to the top, like 4chan.

Not the good old 90s forums. You could stick the post but all posts and comments were displayed in chronological order.

You can still do the voting and the sorting without actually showing it publicly. This would make discussions a lot more genuine

I do not have the time to post / comment usually.

There's a certain group of users I tend to come across here regularly. I post a lot myself too but I also have a habit of making new account about once a year so that not all my messages are from one user. I doubt many would remember me.

Interesting, I actually do the opposite. I still have the same username as on Reddit to keep my person whole but I'm not sure why it matters. I'm even careful to not give too much info because of my choice.

I had a stalker ex-girlfriend who made me paranoid. Ever since, I’ve assumed I’m compromised after about a year, and that’s when I create a new account to start from scratch and lose the tail. I could probably make a significant amount of money by selling all those abandoned accounts with tons of karma and a legitimate comment history.

6 more...

Lol I don’t usually look at usernames, and when I do it’s almost always to block someone

In the community I post in and read the most, I certainly recognize almost every poster. But in all communities, I recognize the most prolific of posters, but few others.

The fediverse makes communities feel even smaller since even widely connected nodes have instances they aren't networked with, so even a massive userbase can feel like a small neighborhood, because as an individual user, that's what you're going to see with your account pegged to any given instance.

I don't post nearly as much as I would like, because I post some stream related stuff in my own community on lemmy and don't know want to come off as someone who is trying to advertise all the time. I have been reported for that posting to my own community, which... ya know. I get it, nobody cares about yet another streamer dude, but it is a bit intimidating almost.

If it's any consolation, i checked out your stuff, and while i don't really play TTRPG's i know a couple of people who do, so I'll be sure to recommend your stuff to them.

That's how social media like this works. It was the same on Reddit but the user base was larger so it would be a little more difficult to notice. A very small percentage of users actually post and since we're already a pretty small community you'll notice the same people more easily.

Yep. Lemmy isn't that big and it is generally the case that an online space is like an iceberg, with only some of the users seen a lot.

Yes. I think that's notmal, no? Some people have more time than others, and care more intensely about some topics.

Others are bots and paid shills too, just trying to earn a living.