I genuinely want Gopher back.

I want to share information and to communicate. I don’t want every bowel movement tracked and monetizes. I don’t want 30 cross site requests when going to a news site. A single story should not require 10MB of JavaScript libraries.

I have no doubt that most of the authors of the original internet are aghast at what their high-minded creation has itself created.

I still go to Reddit for American politics, my cities sub, and /r/nfl.

But I haven’t made a single comment and treat it more as a news aggregator than a proper community. And even that is happening less and less as I get more comfortable with the pacing of the community here.

On Reddit you can make a clever comment at the right time and get thousands of upvotes and sidebar conversations. It’s great for a shot of that sweet, sweet dopamine.

On Lemmy, I rarely get more than 5-10 upvotes, but the conversations are meaningful and nuanced.

People are realizing that Lemmy is not a 1:1 drop-in replacement and are adjusting their expectations and behavior accordingly. Hopefully we’ll hit a critical mass soon.