I wanted to get a pulse check on how new members are finding the general experience/website. Is it more confusing than Reddit or are you finding the instance system a better way of doing things as it can give you more freedom of where you choose to create an account?
I’m a new user myself but have found the experience to remind me of Reddit back in the day, lol. It’s definitely giving me old-school yet modern vibes and it’s great to see something that isn’t Reddit growing in popularity!
In the longer-term, we’re more likely to see the opposite problem. The in-depth communities are going to be niche by definition, and interested users will be fragmented across similar communities on different instances. 100 different groups of 10, instead of a single group of 1000.
But those “groups of 10” are much more pleasant than Reddit has been for years. That could change in the future, but for now there’s passion and enthusiasm wherever you look.
Smaller groups means less activity, though. And that’s what’s keeping communities alive.
I already wrote it in another comment, but I think subs should not be under instances in the hierarchy, but on the same level.