Search
The list of apps is pretty out of date. For example, Boost already came out and !instance_assistant@lemmy.ca is a pretty popular extension. I use it a lot to make posts, and just used it to open that post on my instance.
Also related is how to find communities
I help with !communitypromo@lemmy.ca, and the idea is that you can subscribe to keep seeing more recommendations. We also have a guide for finding new communities here: https://lemmy.ca/post/5581032, which I’ve copied below:
A great way to find lesser known communities is to look at the
/communitiespage on an instance. For example: https://lemmy.ca/communitiesFor a list of instances to look through:
- pangora.social (NEW): Great way to find instances related to a particular topic. This is also great for picking an instance when first making an account/moving accounts.
- awesome-lemmy-instances: not that organized, but it
🔎 Search pages
🔥 Apps and Browser Extensions
- Instance Assistant: Browser extension with tools to help you redirect & search for communities
- Voyager Migrator: Tool to help you migrate Subreddits
- More Apps: https://lemmyapps.netlify.app/
🙌 Communities for discovering new communities:
- !communitypromo@lemmy.ca: You’re here right now
- !trendingcommunities@feddit.nl: Daily posts with the trending communities from across the threadiverse
- !newcommunities@lemmy.world: Find out about new communities
Here are some other communities, some of which are less active:
Remember, you can also post questions about finding new communities right here!
👽 Coming from Reddit?
- sub.rehab: You can sort by official replacements & sister communities
- redditmigration.com: List from the migration
- quippd.com: Another list created by a user during the migration
Feel free to block communities with political content.
You can also use an app or alternative frontend to filter keywords. !newtolemmy@lemmy.ca has a post about that.
For communities, !newcommunities@lemmy.world can help
For home kit, the Apple communities are probably more active, and you should be able to post about it there too
Don’t use the “all” feed. I only use it to discover new communities (but there is also a specific community for that).
For my daily browsing I exclusively use the “subscribed” feed.
Edit: the community I mentioned is https://lemmy.world/c/newcommunities@lemmy.world or !newcommunities@lemmy.world
Go to the communities page for your instance, set it to all, and scroll through the first several pages adding anything that sounds interesting. Don’t worry if there are duplicates, sub them all. The search for any favorite topics and add those communities, too. Then browse by subscribed»new going forward.
You can also check out !newcommunities@lemmy.world for communities still getting off the ground.
Oh! And when linking, do it like I did above; this link works no matter what instance you’re on.
Yeah, I know what you’re saying, especially when I browse “All.”
That’s why I generally just subscribe to comms that I like (about non-politics non-tech things) and browse “Subscribed”. Then when I’m ready after that, then I browse All. Or maybe I just skip All.
click here for a list of communities that are NOT politics, tech, or meme -related.
Most are currently active (except for the ones with a * which were less active last I checked) Sometimes politics, tech or memes sneak in but they’re not the focus.
GENERAL DISCUSSION / QUESTIONS
- !actual_discussion@lemmy.ca *
- !asklemmy@lemmy.world
- !casualconversation@lemm.ee
- !casualuk@feddit.uk
- !dull_mens_club@lemmy.world
- !forumlibre@jlai.lu
- !general@lemmy.world
- !nostupidquestions@lemmy.world
- !goodoffmychest@lemmy.world
- !preguntalealemmy@feddit.cl
- !rant@lemmy.sdf.org
ART / PHOTOS
- !artporn@lemm.ee
- !astrophotography@lemmy.world
- !accidentalrenaissance@lemmy.blahaj.zone
- !badrealestate@feddit.uk *
- !collage@lemmy.ml *
- !desire_paths@sh.itjust.works *
- !fakehistoryporn@lemmy.world *
- !fediclicks@viewfinder.pro *
- !filmsframes@lemmy.world
- !foodphotos@sh.itjust.works *
- !gameart@sopuli.xyz
- !grasweeti@slrpnk.net
- !hmmm@lemmy.world
- !imadethis@lemm.ee
- !imaginary@reddthat.com
- !inhabitedbeauty@lemmy.world
- !liminalspace@lemmy.world
- !nocontextpics@lemmy.world
- !pics@lemmy.world
- !pictures@lemm.ee
- !pixelart@lemmy.ml *
- !sillydrawingrequests@sopuli.xyz
- !traditional_art@lemmy.world
- !trams_trolleys_streetcars@lemmy.blahaj.zone
- !wallpapers@lemmy.ca
- !52weeksofart@lemmy.world
ANIMALS
- !bats@lemmy.world
- !catposting@lemmy.blahaj.zone
- !cat@lemmy.world
- !catsstandingup@lemmy.world *
- !opossums@lemmy.world
- !scrungycats@lemmy.world *
- !superbowl@lemmy.world
COMICS / GRAPHIC NOVELS
- !alanmoore@feddit.uk *
- !comics@lemmy.blahaj.zone
- !comicstrips@lemmy.world
- !eurographicnovels@lemm.ee
- !truecomics@midwest.social *
- !garfield@lemmy.world
- !outofcontextcomics@lemmy.world
- !unix_surrealism@lemmy.sdf.org
ENTERTAINMENT
- !80smusic@lemmy.world
- !90smusic@lemmy.world *
- !90s_tv@lemmy.sdf.org
- !badmovies@lemmy.world
- !bmoviebonanza@lemmy.world
- !boardgames@sopuli.xyz
- !cultfilms@lemux.minnix.dev *
- !dwarffortress@lemmy.ml
- !edm@reddthat.com
- !fullmoviesonyoutube@lemm.ee
- !gothindustrial@lemmy.world
- !iasip@sh.itjust.works *
- !martialartsmovies@lemm.ee *
- !metal@lemmy.world
- !movies@lemm.ee
- !music@lemmy.world
- !pokemon@lemm.ee
- !pokemon@lemmy.world
- !pokemongo@lemmy.world *
- !punk_rock@lemmy.ca
- !ska@lemmy.blahaj.zone
- !thrashmetal@lemmy.world
- !trailers@lemmy.blahaj.zone
GENRES / STYLES
- !cassettefuturism@lemm.ee
- !cosmichorror@lemm.ee
- !cyberpunk@lemmy.zip
- !goblincore@lemmy.blahaj.zone
- !goth@lemmy.ml *
- !Goth@lemmy.world *
- !lovecraft_mythos@lemmy.world
- !mullets@lemmy.ca *
- !raygungothic@lemm.ee
- !streetwear@lemmy.world *
- !the_heinlein_society@lemmy.world
- !vampires@lemmy.zip
- !weirdcore@sopuli.xyz
- !witchcraft@lemmy.ml *
- !witchesvspatriarchy@lemmy.ca *
HISTORY
- !ancientcoins@lemmy.world
- !ancienthistory@slrpnk.net
- !askhistorians@lemmy.world *
- !historyartifacts@lemmy.world
- !historicalpropaganda@lemmy.blahaj.zone
- !history@lemmy.world
- !historyporn@lemmy.world
- !historyruins@lemmy.world
- !historyillustrations@lemmy.world
- !vintageads@sh.itjust.works *
INFORMATION / KNOWLEDGE
- !buyitforlife@slrpnk.net
- !catastrophicfailure@lemmy.world *
- !creepywikipedia@lemmy.world
- !dataisbeautiful@lemmy.ml
- !documentaries@lemmy.cafe
- !esa@feddit.nl
- !explainlikeimfive@lemmy.world
- !humanities@beehaw.org
- !math@lemmy.world
- !mealtimevideos@lemmy.cafe
- !recommendations@lemmy.world
- !solarpunk@slrpnk.net
- !til@lemmy.world
- !vexillology@lemmy.world *
- !whatisthisthing@lemmy.world
- !wikipedia@lemmy.world
- !youshouldknow@lemmy.world
OTHER
- !andfinally@feddit.uk
- !academiagonewild@lemmy.world *
- !chaoticgood@sopuli.xyz
- !internetisbeautiful@lemm.ee
- !internetisbeautiful@lemmy.ml *
- !internetisbeautiful@lemmy.world *
- !mildlyinteresting@lemmy.world
- !nowhereelsetoshare@sh.itjust.works
- !pbsod@lemmy.ohaa.xyz
- !publictransport@slrpnk.net
- !stick@sh.itjust.works *
- !sumo@lemmy.world *
- !shortstories@literature.cafe
- !treehuggers@slrpnk.net
- !woahdude@lemmy.world *
- !youcantparktheremate@feddit.uk *
FEDIVERSE
- !fedibridge@lemmy.dbzer0.com
- !fedigrow@lemm.ee
- !fediverse@lemmy.world
- !fediverselore@lemmy.ca
- !lemmyapps@lemmy.world
- !comm_revival@lemmy.dbzer0.com *
- !yepowertrippinbastards@lemmy.dbzer0.com
FINDING NEW/GOOD COMMUNITIES ON LEMMY
click here for a list of meme communities
MEMES, SOCIAL MEDIA REPOSTS, AND HUMOR
(NON-POLITICAL)Most of these are currently active. (except for the ones with a * which were less active last I checked).
Sometimes politics sneaks in but that’s not the focus.Sometimes these include politics but that’s not the primary focus.- !onehundredninetysix@lemmy.blahaj.zone
- !196@pawb.social
- !19684@lemmy.blahaj.zone
- !2meirl4meirl@lemmy.world
- !4chan@lemmy.world
- !animemes@ani.social
- !antiquememesroadshow@lemmy.world
- !atheistmemes@lemmy.world
- !bonehurtingjuice@lemmy.ca
- !comedyheaven@lemmy.world
- !crumbgrabber@lemm.ee *
- !curatedtumblr@sh.itjust.works
- !dankchristianmemes@lemmy.blahaj.zone
- !dankmemes@lemmy.world
- !ehbuddyhoser@sh.itjust.works
- !ExplainTheJoke@spaffel.social
- !fediashitpost@fedia.io
- !fedimemes@feddit.uk
- !femcelmemes@lemmy.blahaj.zone
- !funny@sh.itjust.works
- !funny@lemmy.world
- !furry_irl@pawb.social
- !gifconversation@lemm.ee
- !greentext@sh.itjust.works
- !gunmemes@lemmy.world *
- !high_quality_gifs@lemmy.sdf.org
- !hq_memes@lemmy.world
- !imgoingtohellforthis@lemm.ee
- !internetfuneral@lemmy.world
- !humor@beehaw.org *
- !justpost@lemmy.world
- !lemmybewholesome@lemmy.world
- !lemmyshitpost@lemmy.world
- !linkedinlunatics@sh.itjust.works *
- !lotrmemes@lemmy.dbzer0.com
- !loweffortmemes@crazypeople.online
- !mathmemes@lemmy.blahaj.zone
- !me_irl@lemmy.world
- !memes@jlai.lu
- !memes@lemmy.world
- !memes@slrpnk.net
- !memes@sopuli.xyz
- !memes@lemmy.ml
- !metalmemes@lemmy.world
- !microblogmemes@lemmy.world
- !MoldyMemes@spaffel.social
- !nocontextpics@lemmy.world
- !nominativedeterminism@feddit.uk *
- !nonsense@moist.catsweat.com *
- !okmatewanker@feddit.uk
- !pokemonmemes@lemmy.world *
- !programmer_humor@programming.dev
- !reactionmemes@lemmy.dbzer0.com *
- !reallyshittycopper@lemmy.world *
- !relationshipmemes@lemmyis.fun
- !roughromanmemes@lemmy.world
- !rpgmemes@ttrpg.network
- !science_memes@mander.xyz
- !shirtsthatgohard@lemmy.world
- !shitposting@lemmy.ml
- !shittylifeprotips@lemmy.world
- !shittytattoos@lemmy.ca
- !fbstolencontent@lemmy.ca *
- !surrealmemes@sh.itjust.works *
- !tech_memes@lemmy.world *
- !badrealestate@feddit.uk *
- !garfieldism@lemmy.blahaj.zone *
- !ancientinternet@lemmy.world
- !the_pack@lemmy.world
- !TwoGoobers@lemm.ee
- !wholesomegreentext@sh.itjust.works *
- !wholesomememes@lemmy.world *
- !wizards@lemmy.world
- !witchymemes@lemmy.world
- !wlw_memes@lemmy.world
- !yurimemes@lemmy.blahaj.zone
- !youtubeclassics@sh.itjust.works
!newcommunities@lemmy.world helps. You can also post about them in related communities if the community rules allow and communities can partner with each other to link in community sidebars.
!newcommunities@lemmy.world for a proper link accessible from any instance.
You’re on a good instance. Go crazy, fam.
click here for a list of communities that are NOT news, politics, tech, or meme -related.
Most are currently active (except for the ones with a * which were less active last I checked)
GENERAL DISCUSSION / QUESTIONS
- !actual_discussion@lemmy.ca *
- !asklemmy@lemmy.world
- !casualconversation@lemm.ee
- !casualuk@feddit.uk
- !dull_mens_club@lemmy.world
- !general@lemmy.world
- !nostupidquestions@lemmy.world
- !goodoffmychest@lemmy.world
- !preguntalealemmy@feddit.cl
- !rant@lemmy.sdf.org
ART / PHOTOS
- !artporn@lemm.ee
- !astrophotography@lemmy.world
- !accidentalrenaissance@lemmy.blahaj.zone
- !collage@lemmy.ml *
- !desire_paths@sh.itjust.works *
- !fakehistoryporn@lemmy.world *
- !fediclicks@viewfinder.pro *
- !foodphotos@sh.itjust.works *
- !hmmm@lemmy.world
- !imadethis@lemm.ee
- !imaginary@reddthat.com
- !inhabitedbeauty@lemmy.world
- !liminalspace@lemmy.world
- !nocontextpics@lemmy.world
- !pixelart@lemmy.ml *
- !grasweeti@slrpnk.net
- !traditional_art@lemmy.world
- !trams_trolleys_streetcars@lemmy.blahaj.zone
- !gameart@sopuli.xyz
- !wallpapers@lemmy.ca
- !52weeksofart@lemmy.world
ANIMALS
- !bats@lemmy.world
- !catposting@lemmy.blahaj.zone
- !cat@lemmy.world
- !catsstandingup@lemmy.world *
- !opossums@lemmy.world
- !scrungycats@lemmy.world *
- !superbowl@lemmy.world
COMICS / GRAPHIC NOVELS
- !alanmoore@feddit.uk *
- !comicstrips@lemmy.world
- !eurographicnovels@lemm.ee
- !truecomics@midwest.social *
- !garfield@lemmy.world
- !outofcontextcomics@lemmy.world
- !unix_surrealism@lemmy.sdf.org
ENTERTAINMENT
- !80smusic@lemmy.world
- !90smusic@lemmy.world *
- !90s_tv@lemmy.sdf.org
- !badmovies@lemmy.world
- !bmoviebonanza@lemmy.world
- !boardgames@sopuli.xyz
- !cultfilms@lemux.minnix.dev *
- !dwarffortress@lemmy.ml
- !edm@reddthat.com
- !fullmoviesonyoutube@lemm.ee
- !gothindustrial@lemmy.world
- !iasip@sh.itjust.works *
- !martialartsmovies@lemm.ee *
- !metal@lemmy.world
- !movies@lemm.ee
- !music@lemmy.world
- !pokemon@lemm.ee
- !pokemon@lemmy.world
- !pokemongo@lemmy.world *
- !punk_rock@lemmy.ca
- !ska@lemmy.blahaj.zone
- !thrashmetal@lemmy.world
- !trailers@lemmy.blahaj.zone
GENRES / STYLES
- !cassettefuturism@lemm.ee
- !cosmichorror@lemm.ee
- !cyberpunk@lemmy.zip
- !goblincore@lemmy.blahaj.zone
- !goth@lemmy.ml *
- !lovecraft_mythos@lemmy.world
- !mullets@lemmy.ca *
- !raygungothic@lemm.ee
- !streetwear@lemmy.world *
- !the_heinlein_society@lemmy.world
- !vampires@lemmy.zip
- !weirdcore@sopuli.xyz
HISTORY
- !ancientcoins@lemmy.world
- !ancienthistory@slrpnk.net
- !askhistorians@lemmy.world *
- !historyartifacts@lemmy.world
- !historicalpropaganda@lemmy.blahaj.zone
- !history@lemmy.world
- !historyporn@lemmy.world
- !historyruins@lemmy.world
- !historyillustrations@lemmy.world
INFORMATION / KNOWLEDGE
- !catastrophicfailure@lemmy.world *
- !creepywikipedia@lemmy.world
- !dataisbeautiful@lemmy.ml
- !documentaries@lemmy.cafe
- !esa@feddit.nl
- !explainlikeimfive@lemmy.world
- !humanities@beehaw.org
- !math@lemmy.world
- !mealtimevideos@lemmy.cafe
- !solarpunk@slrpnk.net
- !til@lemmy.world
- !vexillology@lemmy.world *
- !wikipedia@lemmy.world
OTHER
- !andfinally@feddit.uk
- !academiagonewild@lemmy.world *
- !badrealestate@feddit.uk *
- !buyitforlife@slrpnk.net
- !chaoticgood@sopuli.xyz
- !internetisbeautiful@lemm.ee
- !internetisbeautiful@lemmy.ml *
- !internetisbeautiful@lemmy.world *
- !pbsod@lemmy.ohaa.xyz
- !publictransport@slrpnk.net
- !recommendations@lemmy.world
- !sillydrawingrequests@sopuli.xyz
- !stick@sh.itjust.works *
- !sumo@lemmy.world *
- !shortstories@literature.cafe
- !treehuggers@slrpnk.net
- !vintageads@sh.itjust.works *
- !whatisthisthing@lemmy.world
- !woahdude@lemmy.world *
- !youcantparktheremate@feddit.uk *
FEDIVERSE
- !fedibridge@lemmy.dbzer0.com
- !fedigrow@lemm.ee
- !fediverse@lemmy.world
- !fediverselore@lemmy.ca
- !lemmyapps@lemmy.world
- !comm_revival@lemmy.dbzer0.com *
- !yepowertrippinbastards@lemmy.dbzer0.com
FINDING NEW/GOOD COMMUNITIES ON LEMMY
click here for a list of meme communities
MEMES, SOCIAL MEDIA REPOSTS, AND HUMOR (NON-POLITICAL)
Most of these are currently active. (except for the ones with a * which were less active last I checked). Sometimes politics sneaks in but that’s not the focus.
- !196@pawb.social
- !onehundredninetysix@lemmy.blahaj.zone
- !19684@lemmy.blahaj.zone
- !2meirl4meirl@lemmy.world
- !4chan@lemmy.world
- !animemes@ani.social
- !atheistmemes@lemmy.world
- !bonehurtingjuice@lemmy.ca
- !comedyheaven@lemmy.world
- !curatedtumblr@sh.itjust.works
- !dankchristianmemes@lemmy.blahaj.zone
- !dankmemes@lemmy.world
- !ehbuddyhoser@sh.itjust.works
- !fediashitpost@fedia.io
- !fedimemes@feddit.uk
- !femcelmemes@lemmy.blahaj.zone
- !funny@sh.itjust.works
- !funny@lemmy.world
- !furry_irl@pawb.social
- !greentext@sh.itjust.works
- !gunmemes@lemmy.world *
- !high_quality_gifs@lemmy.sdf.org
- !imgoingtohellforthis@lemm.ee
- !internetfuneral@lemmy.world
- !humor@beehaw.org *
- !justpost@lemmy.world
- !lemmybewholesome@lemmy.world
- !lemmyshitpost@lemmy.world
- !linkedinlunatics@sh.itjust.works *
- !lotrmemes@lemmy.dbzer0.com
- !mathmemes@lemmy.blahaj.zone
- !me_irl@lemmy.world
- !memes@jlai.lu
- !memes@lemmy.world
- !memes@slrpnk.net
- !memes@sopuli.xyz
- !memes@lemmy.ml
- !metalmemes@lemmy.world
- !microblogmemes@lemmy.world
- !nocontextpics@lemmy.world
- !nominativedeterminism@feddit.uk *
- !nonsense@moist.catsweat.com *
- !okmatewanker@feddit.uk
- !pokemonmemes@lemmy.world *
- !programmer_humor@programming.dev
- !reactionmemes@lemmy.dbzer0.com *
- !reallyshittycopper@lemmy.world *
- !relationshipmemes@lemmyis.fun
- !roughromanmemes@lemmy.world
- !rpgmemes@ttrpg.network
- !science_memes@mander.xyz
- !shirtsthatgohard@lemmy.world
- !shitposting@lemmy.ml
- !shittylifeprotips@lemmy.world
- !shittytattoos@lemmy.ca
- !fbstolencontent@lemmy.ca *
- !surrealmemes@sh.itjust.works *
- !tech_memes@lemmy.world *
- !badrealestate@feddit.uk *
- !garfieldism@lemmy.blahaj.zone *
- !ancientinternet@lemmy.world
- !the_pack@lemmy.world
- !TwoGoobers@lemm.ee
- !wholesomegreentext@sh.itjust.works *
- !wholesomememes@lemmy.world *
- !wizards@lemmy.world
- !witchymemes@lemmy.world
- !wlw_memes@lemmy.world
- !yurimemes@lemmy.blahaj.zone
- !youtubeclassics@sh.itjust.works
For new people
- !newcommunities@lemmy.world , there is a pack of 20 non political communities
- !newtolemmy@lemmy.ca has a few guides
Yeah it’s tricky. I don’t want to start a niche community cause i don’t want to be a mod, but i guess maybe the best thing to do is start the community i want, pin a post saying “mods wanted”, and post it to !newcommunities@lemmy.world
the main reason is because the people who run lemmy.ml are actually the people whi created lemmy.
Also welcome.
!newcommunities@lemmy.world and !newtolemmy@lemmy.ca are useful for new users.
Also if you’re looking for an instance that has ML defederatrd but is still well federated with everything else I recommend lemmy.cafe
That’s a good question actually. there is !newcommunities@lemmy.world for communities, maybe you can reach out to them to see if you can also promote your server?
Fixing the links for us lemmy users (I think? Still getting used to this myself)
!BestOf@kbin.social
!newcommunities@lemmy.world
!truegaming@kbin.social
!fediverse@kbin.social
!askkbin@kbin.social
!RedditMigration@kbin.social
Welcome here!
Copy pasting from a recent thread on /r/RedditAlternatives trying to address usual criticism against Lemmy.
Federation is confusing, people want a single website they can go to
Go to https://lemm.ee/
Have a look around, see if the content and the formatting is appealing to you, register an account if you want to be able to curate your feed further
Go to https://lemm.ee/c/newcommunities@lemmy.world to see communities (equivalent of subs) that might be interesting to you.
Use Voyager as a mobile app: https://www.lemmyapps.com/Voyager. When they ask for your “instance”, use “lemm.ee”
If you want more choices for apps, have a look at https://www.lemmyapps.com/
Email has been working on a federation model for decades. People have to remember if they use Gmail or Outlook, but that’s it. It’s similar here.
Several communities have the same name, it’s confusing, active communities are hard to find
Reddit has a similar issue: you have /r/games as the main gaming community, but there is also /r/Gaming, /r/videogames /r/gamers, etc.
How does someone know what the main community is, whatever the platform? Looking at the number of subscribers and active members.
There was the example of beekeeping: if you search for that topic, the most active one is definitely https://mander.xyz/c/beekeeping with 97 users per month.
The others have barely 1 user: https://lemmyverse.net/communities?query=beekeeping
To find active communities: https://lemm.ee/c/newcommunities@lemmy.world. There are regular threads with active communities on topic such as gardening, movies, board games, anime, science, etc.
Who is going to pay for the server costs?
Here is a link to this question to Lemmy admins: https://lemm.ee/post/41577902
Summary of the answers:
Most of the instances costs are paid using donations. They regularly post financial updates such as this one: https://lemm.ee/post/41235568
Obviously there is a sweet stop where you can minimize the cost by having the maximum number of users on a fixed infrastructure cost.
If you want to have a look at the number of monthly active user (the “MAU” column): https://fedidb.org/software/lemmy/
Anyway, $ per user is usually meaningless because most of the servers are small enough to be hosted on some random cheap server - adding more users doesn’t cost more because they are still well below server capacity. Only the biggest servers have to worry about $ per user.
I had posted this earlier this week on this thread: https://old.reddit.com/r/RedditAlternatives/comments/1fiuuo5/how_much_does_it_cost_per_user_to_host_a_lemmy/
There is too much political content
You can block entire servers and specific communities.
Instances to block to avoid political content
Communities to block
With those blocked, you are avoiding 95% of the political content. There might be a few other communities that pop up, but blocking them is still one click away.
Lemmy is developped by hardcore tankies and I don’t want to use their software
As Lemmy is federated using an open protocol, there are other options to connect to the communities without using Lemmy itself.
The first one is Piefed: https://piefed.social/c/newcommunities@lemmy.world
The other one is Mbin: https://fedia.io/m/newcommunities@lemmy.world
However, those are stil a bit less mature than Lemmy, so for instance if you want to use mobile apps a lot, Lemmy is a better choice.
On top of that, every Lemmy server is managed by different people. You can see regular criticism of lemmy.ml (the instance managed by the Lemmy devs) on threads such as this: https://lemm.ee/post/33872586 or even dedicated communities like https://lemm.ee/c/meanwhileongrad@sh.itjust.works
That shows that even the Lemmy devs are not protected from criticism.
There isn’t enough people
Lemmy has 46k monthly active users (https://lemmy.fediverse.observer/dailystats) (Mbin and Piefed have around 800 each). Active user is someone who voted, posted or commented.
In comparison, Discuit, which was praised during the API shutdown as “easier to use as it’s centralized” has 234 active users: https://discuit.net/DiscuitMeta/post/KdiI1akq. Not 234k, 234 total.
For obvious reasons, the activity is not going to match Reddit levels, and niche communities aren’t there.
But it’s not an all or nothing situation. Most people on Lemmy still use Reddit for their niche communities, but are also active on Lemmy. And some niche communities are getting more active on lemmy. https://lemm.ee/c/newcommunities@lemmy.world (!newcommunities@lemmy.world ) promotes them.
Also, having less people provides better interactions, as your comments are less likely to get buried in thousands of others. And bots on Lemmy are quickly spotted and banned, while Reddit doesn’t seem to do much about that: https://old.reddit.com/r/TheoryOfReddit/comments/1fmcelm/askreddit_is_simply_over_run_with_bots/