We definitely should make a poll to understand our demographics, eventually. Maybe i'll do it one day. It would be a huge benefit for us users and developers.
As for reasons why people don't choose to try lemmy, i remember before i joined lemmy that i heard warnings of the developers and community denying genocides, making up false information, and being toxic in general etc. I also couldn't wrap my mind around instances. That definitely soured my opinion, to be honest. Of course, now i know those are only a couple of instances that could easily be blocked, but the average user isn't going to understand instances, federation, etc.
The reason why bluesky was so successful was because it's easy. It has pseudo-federation, but it ""conveniently"" chooses the main server for you. That's why most users are on bsky.social. Simple, but incredibly centralized. It defeats the point. Also, the UI is very similar to old twitter. Lemmy/mbin are more radical in terms of differences, this makes it more niche.
I just don't think people are ready for the fediverse, yet. Maybe in a couple of years, people will start joining us, but for now, we're the minority.
Good read, thanks for sharing. But i think both of us are over estimating the tech literacy of the average user. Many of them look at software, or ideas, or platforms at surface level, and don't care much about how software works internally.
The average user isn't going to care about federation, and might not even understand it. To us and the OP of the reddit thread, we're familiar with federation, and have gotten used to it. It seems easy for us.
This is why i think the bluesky exodus is going to be useful, because it may inspire new users to learn about federation, and later on, the fediverse.