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 😅

[–] antik@lemmy.world 19 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

As I said a bit lower in this thread, on Lemmy World we recently switched the default view from 'local' to 'all' for the new sign-ups. But it might be a good thing to do this once, for all existing users. Ofcourse with a proper announcement and an explanation on how to change this to 'local' or even 'subscribed'. It might give communities on other instances a bit more exposure as well.

[–] blue_berry@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Sounds great. I mean, given the size of lemmy.world it sure doesn't hurt it and it will certainly distribute more user attention to smaller communities, which will hopefully activate smaller communities from remote instance, which will in turn make the overall conversation quality on lemmy better.

Excited to see whether it will be a noticable effect but I would think so

[–] Blaze@discuss.tchncs.de 14 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It looks like about 1000 new accounts were created/became active on that day.

I remember @antik@lemmy.world mentioning similar numbers, so that's probably this.

We should stabilize somewhere in 30,000 range for MAUs before the end of the year

That's what I foresee as well.

so we can have more sports fans and humanities types

Discoverability of those communities is probably the first issue to fix. I tried to address it a while back, maybe I should do another one of those posts: https://discuss.tchncs.de/post/2410183

[–] antik@lemmy.world 12 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

We changed the default view for new users on LW from "local" to "all" communities a few days ago.

[–] Blaze@discuss.tchncs.de 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Interesting, hopefully new joiners won't stumble directly upon communities that might push them away ha ha

[–] antik@lemmy.world 11 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Imagine joining thanks to Boost and the first thing you see is "boost? Ewww go away, use Foss"

[–] Blaze@discuss.tchncs.de 14 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Don't get me started on this, FOSS gatekeepers can really have a detrimental effect on the platform.

I love FOSS as much as the next guy, but if my cousin is asking me support for an Office issue, I'm not going to tell them to install LibreOffice.

[–] antik@lemmy.world 15 points 1 year ago

Same. Using Linux and FOSS for over 20 years but that Boost announcement thread was toxic. We just started removing those comments and banning them from the community. Those people don't see those 1000 people that came here thanks to boost will now more than likely come across Linux and Foss related subjects anyway. No need to push it down their throats and push them back to reddit.

Honestly there are people doing this because they know it annoys people.

Ofcourse there were people calling me a "poweradmin" because of it, but I have thick skin 😁 And a large banhammer 😏

[–] gelberhut@lemdro.id 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)

30,000 range for MAUs before the end of the year, ... current userbase is fairly well established and self sufficient.

I see it differently. It looks like the majority of communities struggle with not enough content/discussions, many de-facto are blogs of mods/creators where others are passive subscribers.

[–] imaqtpie@sh.itjust.works 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It looks like the majority of communities struggle with not enough content/discussions

This is true, but also subjective. How do you define enough? Enough to doomscroll or enough to check for 10 minutes daily? All we really need to be self sufficient is enough content to keep people coming back regularly, we don't need to replicate reddit.

many de-facto are blogs of mods/creators where others are passive subscribers.

This seems like an exaggeration. Most communities that have quality content also have quality discussion, in my experience.

[–] gelberhut@lemdro.id 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

This is true, but also subjective. How do you define enough? Enough to doomscroll or enough to check for 10 minutes daily? All we really need to be self sufficient is enough content to keep people coming back regularly, we don’t need to replicate reddit.

Right, this is subjective. For me the main criteria is: if I want to get an answer to a question, especially a non trivial one which is not releated to lemmy/fediverse - I should better go to reddit. And I think lemmy should better replicate reddit with this

This seems like an exaggeration. Most communities that have quality content also have quality discussion, in my experience.

Probably, can you give me example of such communities which are not about fedeverse, technology, foss or memes?

[–] imaqtpie@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

For me the main criteria is: if I want to get an answer to a question, especially a non trivial one which is not releated to lemmy/fediverse - I should better go to reddit.

You're not wrong, but I don't see why Lemmy would want to replicate reddit in that respect. You don't need to spend any time on reddit or even make an account to take advantage of that functionality. You just Google your question and add reddit to the end and voila.

Probably, can you give me example of such communities which are not about fedeverse, technology, foss or memes?

I also skipped the gaming and political communities because there is an absolute boatload of that content on Lemmy, as I'm sure you're aware. These are some communities that I am subscribed to that jumped out as being fairly active.

::: spoiler Communities

!lemmy_stitch@sh.itjust.works

!woodworking@lemmy.ca

!ukcasual@lemmy.world

!trees@lemmy.world

!thefarside@sh.itjust.works

!solarpunk@slrpnk.net

!showerthoughts@lemmy.world

!moviesandtv@lemmy.film

!calvinandhobbes@lemmy.world

!casualconversation@lemmy.world

!imageai@sh.itjust.works

!anime@lemmy.ml

!futurama@lemmy.world

!noncredibledefense@sh.itjust.works

[–] Blaze@discuss.tchncs.de 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Nice list

[–] imaqtpie@sh.itjust.works 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Were any of them new to you? Just wondering

[–] Blaze@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 1 year ago

Not really, but still a nice list!

[–] gelberhut@lemdro.id 2 points 1 year ago

You don’t need to spend any time on reddit or even make an account to take advantage of that functionality. You just Google your question and add reddit to the end and voila.

I was talking about asking my specific question, not googling for information.

Thanks for the list - agree - these communities are are rather alive, what is promising.

[–] nieceandtows@programming.dev 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Fwiw, I've been consistently getting answers and solutions to my questions and issues on lemmy.

[–] gelberhut@lemdro.id 3 points 1 year ago

Good for you. I have a very mixed experience.

[–] Hamartiogonic@sopuli.xyz 3 points 1 year ago

Did you notice that the Average Lemmy Comments by Day looks really weird? Some of the sudden jumps could be attributed to real life events, but I’m more inclined to think there’s something buggy going on with the way three numbers are logged. Besides, there’s also a sudden dip!