I am theoretically switching over from Reddit to Lemmy. Finding myself spending more time on Lemmy than on Reddit. Maybe it’s because I am limited to using the desktop and can’t aimlessly browse Reddit on my iPhone. Of late, the only subreddits I cared for were on sports and their matchday threads and r/watches. I found myself aimlessly browsing through r/AskReddit and asking and answering pointless questions.
As soon as I found couple of the most valuable (for me) communities here, I was done with reddit
Exactly, and there’s honestly no need for them to have 100,000+ people in them either. 1,000 people goes a long way too. There’s a point of critical mass when you can have sustained discussions and there are enough upvotes to form a sensible feed by popularity in the community, and that critical mass isn’t that huge IMHO. There also often comes a moment when greater popularity is detrimental and worsens it.
I could also jump onto Lemmy almost right away as my most loved communities were already forming here. I think Lemmy has a better outlook than Mastodon in this regard because the community is waiting for you, rather than Mastodon is expecting you to form your circle, which can take a lot of effort in the midst of fediverse confusion.