both companies notably ruined the internet in the 2010s by consolidating discourse then taking various steps to destroy the user experience and the feel of the communities for profit.
so, broadly, the web went from cozy, small hobby forums in the 90s and 00s, then with the 10s as a transitional period, the 20s being practically complete corporate control of online discourse.
it’s a bummer. but nothing lasts forever. where will we go next?
Except that’s already happened, multiple times - stuff has happened with mods, with bots, with server outages, with stock pricing, and more. I’ve seen a couple new people but server stats for Lemmy report roughly the same, and remember people will leave here too, as e.g. hopes do not materialize, and as political season in the west approaches a peak and people need a break, but apparently don’t want to block, etc.
We may not even have enough people here for sustainability, much less growth. Plus I for one keep user blocking gigantic whole entire instances, which is a further limiter of content for anyone who does likewise.
So there are some major challenges facing the Fediverse, and I am no longer so hopeful for it as I was, seeing the evidence that we aren’t really doing all that much to face those and attract additional users who may post high-quality content. On the other hand, seeing things like Mbin, Piefed, and Sublinks that will show content across multiple streams is highly encouraging, if we can see content from both Lemmy and Mastodon that way.