In recent days I have seen these two arguments repeated quite commonly. From reddits side it was all about how “noones using Lemmy anyway”
While from Lemmy it was “how numbers have been exploding”
My question is, why do numbers of users matter so much to anyone really? Isnt activity what matters more?
On two questions here I gotten just as much engagement if not more than anything I did on reddit combined
That wouldn’t have happened without the massive user influx over the last weeks. You need a healthy-sized community to get enough activity.
but wouldnt that mean i should have gotten that much more engagement on reddit?
I think you’ve hit on a good point - you want enough users for there to be engagement, but you also don’t want so many users that people feel like they’re a face in a sea of people that gets crowded out. What the appropriate number of people is depends on the culture and aim of the site more than being a static number to reach. Beehaw, for example, is trying to focus on creating a sense of community and connection rather than growth at all costs. That means Beehaw’s “critical mass” is going to be lower than something like Reddit, where it’s more of a free-for-all that seems to be trying to appeal by being a “loud” public square type space. Meanwhile, the tiny forum in the corner of the internet about a niche subject is going to have an even smaller goal because it’s safe for users to assume that there won’t be as many people and, if they’re seeking out a forum for a niche subject, it’s also safe to assume there won’t be as many lurkers.