It appears API rate limiting has effectively killed these alternatives. You essentially get nothing but “Too many requests” 429 errors.
Lemmy sadly does not have the active niche news and discussions I want. But now nothing can be read without going to Reddit. I hate Spez
Talking to myself about niche topics like bourbon, civil engineering, my local city and state, and what not is boring. There just isn’t the user base here to have active discussions on such narrow topics.
So you expect others to create these spaces an will only join them when they have enough users? Hen? egg?
I know where you’re coming from. Give it some time. This whole thing sucks, but it’ll get sorted out eventually.