The increase in monthly is just mainly replacing users leaving as the active 6 month seems to be going down the same rate as active monthly is going up. Am I reading that correctly?

Yeah. But the active 6 month is a lagging indicator because it tracks users who became inactive 6 months ago. While the increase in monthly active users is tracking users joining right now. If the increase of monthly active users is sustained for a few months, it'll reverse the 6 month trend as well.

Totally agree that it's ultimately about activity, but the reality is that we need more users to have more activity. I always took for granted the sheer scale of reddit until I joined Lemmy. It takes a massive number of people to sustain continuous 24/7 discussion about a wide variety of topics, which is ultimately what this kind of link aggregator/forum strives to do. And Lemmy users are already really active compared to redditors. There just aren't enough of us yet.

[–] anon6789@lemmy.world 5 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I try to put a lot of emphasis on encouraging new posters and commenters. I don't get why you'd come to the "wild west" of social media to just be solely a lurker. You should want to be an explorer and a settler, forging that new frontier. I won't hate on the lurkers, they will always be the majority, but why deal with the quirk, less ease of use, and less content to not want to help shape what it becomes?

I came over intending to lurk, hence my crap username, but what I wanted wasn't here, but I didnt want to crawl back to Reddit, so I started building, and it's great. People are friendly, you have less competition for attention, and the userbase is largely supportive of whatever you do because you're doing something.

But ultimately, as long as we arent on an extended downswing, we're doing well. I'll keep making posts and giving positive feedback, so hopefully it keeps catching new people with the bug to interact.

[–] imaqtpie@sh.itjust.works 5 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

I genuinely do believe that we are starting to see some organic growth.

I've been obsessed with Lemmy for the past year; I used to mostly lurk during my 10 year reddit career but everything changed over here, partially because I felt like my voice was really being heard.

And I have noticed an increase in activity in the past month, with posts and comments receiving more upvotes and engagement. It sounds like you've also been making the most of your Lemmy experience, which is great.

I sometimes try to spread the word about Lemmy on reddit and people are so toxic in the way that they deal with the smaller userbase and lesser activity. So many people that love to whine and complain, instead of realizing that Lemmy is an incredible opportunity/concept at an early/imperfect stage.