Okay, it’s actually 18955 at the time of this post. I’m looking at https://lemmy.fediverse.observer/list and lemmy.world has already passed beehaw.org by a large margin for second place.
Can’t wait for this place to start filling out!
UPDATE: 5 minutes after the post, it’s now 19061. Officially more than 19000!
Ugh that was my biggest gripe with reddit. Open a thread just to see the same 5 jokes repeated over and over in different ways to try and reap karma.
I began using reddit in 2017. I never really realized there had been a decline in quality until I recently ended up on some threads from 2017ish. I think some of it had to do with the change from a very desktop-oriented, forum-style page, to a dumbed-down mobile-friendly experience. The emphasis is now heavy on pictures, videos, instant messaging, avatars, online status, shiny award bling, infinite scrolling, etc. Reddit may not have intended it, but I feel like their target age demographic is much lower now. I’m shocked at how many regular users are still in high school or even middle school. I’d guess the kids are the ones repeating the funny jokes en masse. They’re just kids being kids, but it gets old sometimes.
That’s why I left the Always sunny in Philadelphia subreddit. I joined to talk about the show but Every.single.comment. is a joke or line from the show. Almost no one would engage in an actual discussion or conversation.
I’d click on a post in a Star Wars or LOTR subreddit with hundreds of comments and it was always just bots and people replying to bots with lines that triggered more bots.
That being said, I did like the bobbybot on the got subreddit.
GET THE BREASTPLATE STRETCHER
Lots of bots accounts there to farm karma.