There are lots of benefits to lurking. Nobody jumps on you with pedantic bull crap. Nobody tells you to just Google it. Nobody picks at every god damn little picky thing you say. Nobody bothers you. It's a wonder anybody bothers to post or comment at all. Life is more peaceful for lurkers.
I'm really not talking about smaller communities. I'm talking about the ones that made the Reddit brand. Like AITA, for example. A lot of the smaller communities could be discussion boards anywhere because they're so small and they are a niche. If there was an Aardvark Lovers sub on Reddit, I'm all in for an Aardvark Lovers sub on Lemmy. Do I really want to see a lot of the same big subs? No. A lot of what I see on YSK is stuff I don't need to know, don't care about, didn't change my life or affect me at all, whether it's on Reddit or Lemmy. My point, which you did not get, is that I don't want a Reddit clone.
Wow, not only does Prime Day offer nothing good to buy on sale, it actually doesn't offer the lowest price over a one-month period. I'm surprised OP found something interesting to buy for Prime Day. I don't even bother checking it out because in the past, all I see is junk I don't want or need.
I really wish there could be a law that says that if they want people to use their platform so they can use their data they have to pay people for their data. Data is money, but only to the companies that suck up my data and use it to make money. If my data is worth money I want money for my data. If companies had to pay me for my data I would consider using Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, et. al. if the price were right. This is no doubt a very impossible wish. They also say time is money and there is no law requiring people to pay me when they waste my time. But, I can dream. Imagine getting a nice check in exchange for signing up for Instagram.
lemmy.world was an instance I tried and call me an impatient spoiled brat, but it's not usable for me because it's so darn slow. It's much better to join a smaller instance. It doesn't even have to be in the country you're connecting from. sh.itjust.works is in Canada, I am in Western Europe, it's snappy AF. And less toxic btw. kbin.social is pretty awesome, though. Loads up for me nice and fast with more content I want to see. I've settled on kbin as my place to go, but there are other instances that are just as fantastic. The lesson I learned: lemmy.world might be the big general instance and it might wish to claim to be "the front page of the internet" but it's bogged down and too slow. It also wasn't fun for me when I could actually use it. You know, because of the usual. Too much bickering and too much meta stuff. It's much better to join the communities hosted on lemmy.world from another faster instance. You get snappier loading up of content and you avoid their whole home page which, at the moment, is just a meta victim.
I'm only waiting because I can't spend the money right now. If you have the money and won't miss it if you spend it, go for it. There won't be a new release for a long while. I am finding it hard to wait to get one but I promised myself I would be better at saving money every month, so I am waiting. I am going to save up cash for one. No steak dinner for me for a while! Anyway, go for it if you can afford it. Just don't wave it in my face being all "na na na na na I have one you don't "
I saw a documentary about a serial killer that called his victims "long pigs." I guess in this case you'd be eating pork from actual pigs.
You aren't alone. I'm still trying to figure it out, too. First step was to settle on my go-to instance, which just today I've decided will be kbin.
I think it's a good thing to have more than one community devoted to a topic. I have already discovered that I don't like this or that community on this or that instance but I like another community on another instance dedicated to the same or similar topic. People have different styles and preferences even though they have similar subjects in common. It's like having different supermarkets or clothing stores. Some like to get their jeans at The Gap. Others prefer Levi's. Giving users more choices is good in my experience. It used to be this way in the days of forums and usenet news groups. I think if you're not used to it you will get used to it. It's like shopping around for a good class at college or looking for the right pair of jeans that fits you the right way.
You can block the whole Fediverse community. I did. Like, it's helpful. I also blocked asklemmy. Also helpful. I haven't blocked it on kbin, though. It doesn't matter, I see shit I'm not subscribed to when I filter by "subscribed" still. I think filtering by keyword is going to be a long time away. You can be obnoxious as a commenter, though. When you see the keyword, say something contrary in a comment. That could be fun.
NTA. I would be annoyed, too. As it was, when I was on Reddit I hated that sub. It was just made up stuff most of the time. Usually it was some version of Cinderella, Snow White (minus the dwarves) or Rumpelstiltskin. Your point about mods only posting is telling. ESH except you..
That's funny! Imagine being called "you data whore" hahaha! In all seriousness, though, if such a law existed and depending on the payment requirements, there might not be many data whoring opportunities. Depending on the legislation, it could discourage entities from tracking, storing, mining, and selling people's data. It would require entities to keep track. With people using online services in the millions, that's some serious accounting and legal representation. It might even cost more money to prove compliance to governments than the payments to the "data whores" would. Then, of course, there would be the fines to pay for non-compliance, and the lawsuits. That's why this law I dream of will never happen. Depending on the law and its implementation it could cripple online industry and make companies like Meta totally non-existent.
You make a good point. The other thing is that the games' publishers make those subs on Reddit. They're for marketing more than anything else. Like the OP I miss the SnowRunner sub and I've only deleted my Reddit account today. That sub, although run by the publisher, is pretty chill. They let people criticize the game openly and it's fun to see people's screenshots and videos. They say they don't like "low effort content" blah blah blah but they allow memes. I posted a reply to this same post on Lemmy. My response there is like yours: not enough users.
I just don't like the trend toward a Reddit clone. People should be more imaginative. Do we really need a "You Should Know" community? Not useful to me. Come up with something better, re-spin it and improve on it. Really could do without "AITA". Smaller subs, as I said in a previous reply, are so specific that if they get repeated on Lemmy, it's not really that they were repeated from Reddit. Like, let's say a lot of people on Reddit like Aardvarks and had a sub about their devotion to Aardvarks. Having a community for that on Lemmy is not the same thing as having a clone of "You Should Know." There are certain subs on Reddit that inadvertently contributed to creating a Reddit brand. I could do without those.
How's about they stop trying to migrate Reddit subs over to Lemmy as communities? That would be nice. I don't want a Reddit substitute. I want a new thing that puts Reddit entirely in the past. I want a fresh start, not a Reddit clone. Reddit sucked for a lot of reasons. I could go on and on. Stop replying to comments with "this" as well. But, mostly, I'd like to see people from Reddit moving over to here with zero Reddit nostalgia. Say goodbye to your favorite Reddit subs, stop trying to re-create them over here in the Fediverse. Instead, have some imagination and create new, original communities and kick the whole Reddit vibe to the curb for once and for all.