There are certainly instances (like Beehaw, Lemmygrad, and Exploding Heads) that are managed in a way that I'm not interested in, so I don't associate with them. If others want to, that's completely fine, and it's completely in line with other forums and whatnot.

I personally think that if lemmy is to truly succeed, it needs to be different from those other SM sites. If we're just a poor copy of Reddit or an overly complicated alternative to forums, what value does it truly offer? It needs to be different in some meaningful way, and imo that meaningful way is through community investment in the platform.

So that's what I try to do. I have contributed code to lemmy-adjacent projects, I have contributed constructive posts and comments, etc. I want this to be a real community instead of just another place to argue about pointless things. We probably won't get there, but that's what I want.

So please, if you just want to post memes and whatnot, Reddit is probably the better option. If you want to argue, go to Twitter. If you want to promote yourself, go to Facebook, Instagram, or Facebook. But if you want to help out and build something special, please hang out here on lemmy.