I used to look to Reddit when big news broke because it was always on the front page within minutes. This past year there have been a few times that big news stories weren't even on the top few pages. I gave Lemmy a try, and it feels just like reddit from 2013. I love it. I'm home.
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.
I never experienced reddit 2013 but reddit's front page is gone. They've swapped out r/all for r/popular on new reddit, videos and screenshots are everywhere instead of links and they've even renamed themselves to "the heart of the internet"