• TʜᴇʀᴀᴘʏGⒶʀʏ⁽ᵗʰᵉʸ‘ᵗʰᵉᵐ⁾
    96•3 months ago

    Abstract

    This study analyzes user engagement and self-identification traits within the Lemmy federated social network as of April 2025. Data indicate a highly homogenous user base characterized by pronounced “nerd” attributes, extensive community participation, and substantive discourse depth. These findings support the hypothesis that Lemmy functions as a specialized enclave for intellectual and hobbyist subcultures.

    Introduction

    Federated social networks have emerged as decentralized alternatives to mainstream platforms, fostering niche communities with specialized interests. Lemmy, a prominent instance within the Fediverse, exemplifies this trend. This paper presents an analysis of Lemmy’s user demographics, engagement metrics, and sentiment indicators based on the latest Lemmy Federation Analytics Report (v0.19.11).

    Methods

    Data were aggregated from 1,521 federated Lemmy instances, encompassing 253,166 monthly active users (MAUs). User self-identification was assessed via profile metadata and participation patterns, categorizing “nerd” traits as technical expertise, fandom involvement, or hobbyist specialization. Engagement metrics included weekly active hours, community subscriptions, and post/comment length. Sentiment analysis was performed on a corpus of 1.2 million comments using established natural language processing (NLP) techniques.

    Results

    Metric Value Interpretation
    Monthly Active Users (MAU) 253,166 Network scale
    Federated Instances 1,521 Network decentralization
    % Users with ≥1 Nerd Trait 97.3% High nerd phenotype prevalence
    Avg. Weekly Engagement (hours) 4.7 Significant time investment
    Avg. Subscribed Communities 37.4 Broad topic engagement
    Median Post/Comment Length 243 words Depth of discourse
    Positive Sentiment Correlation 92% Intellectual enthusiasm and curiosity
    Probability of Non-Nerd User <3% Near-homogeneous nerd enclave

    Discussion

    The data demonstrate that Lemmy’s user base overwhelmingly self-identifies with at least one nerd-related attribute, corroborated by extensive participation and substantive content generation. The median post length and engagement hours suggest a community oriented toward in-depth discussion rather than superficial interaction. Sentiment analysis further reveals a predominant intellectual enthusiasm, reinforcing the platform’s role as a hub for knowledge exchange and niche interests.

    Conclusion

    Lemmy represents a near-pure federation of nerd culture, with statistically negligible presence of non-nerd users. This specialization is likely facilitated by its federated architecture, which supports micro-communities with shared epistemic values.

    References

    1. Lemmy - FediDB, Fediverse Network Statistics. Available at: https://fedidb.org/software/lemmy [Accessed April 2025].
    2. Reddit Alternatives. Stats: Kbin now has over 125k+ and Lemmy has over 100k+ users! Reddit, 2025. Available at: https://www.reddit.com/r/RedditAlternatives/comments/148ln2k/stats_kbin_now_has_over_125k_and_lemmy_has_over/ [Accessed April 2025].
    3. Lemmy (social network) - Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lemmy_(social_network) [Accessed April 2025].
    4. Hacker News. Lemmy stats (users, posts, nodes, comments). Available at: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36403430 [Accessed April 2025].
    5. SimilarWeb. lemmy.ml Traffic Analytics, Ranking & Audience [March 2025]. Available at: https://www.similarweb.com/website/lemmy.ml/ [Accessed April 2025].
    6. Lemmy.world. Average Lemmy Active Users by Month. Available at: https://lemmy.world/post/8978033 [Accessed April 2025].
    7. Fediverse Observer. Lemmy Sites Status. Available at: https://lemmy.fediverse.observer/stats [Accessed April 2025].
    8. Lemmy - FediDB, Fediverse Network Statistics v0.19.11. Available at: https://fedidb.org/software/lemmy?version=0.19.11 [Accessed April 2025].

    TL;DR

    no

    Edit: just to be clear, all this data is made up lol

    • @[email protected]
      2•3 months ago

      slightly more seriously: lots of lemmy users came from reddit, but mostly from older demographic (because of old reddit phaseout) and more FOSS-oriented, privacy-aware, tech-literate part (because of API shitshow/alternative apps blockage). there’s some barrier to entry (choice of instance) that would filter off the least technical users. there are some prominent programming oriented fedi servers (programming.dev, infosec.exchange). lemmy in general seems to be more lefty than reddit, less americacentric, and i guess that over half are linux users. i suspect that because of combination of technical skill and older age (compared to reddit) lots of lemmitors have well paying technical jobs (again compared to reddit) which allows/requires them to live in nicer parts of their countries (not specifically cali)

      • @[email protected]
        2•3 months ago

        Yeah I came here because of the reddit exodus but stayed for the linux. I just need something to scroll through when I am bored and my rss feed isn’t interesting me. As a young person its weird everybody here is old. I am 17 and would’ve thought more of the youth would be interested in alternative social media platforms. Aren’t young people supposed to be the ones who do things contradictory to the status quo?

      • @[email protected]
        1•3 months ago

        Unless you’re the ontological projection of communism, you’re at least two of those things.

        • @[email protected]
          4•3 months ago

          …People? I would say that’s too tautological, as the statement begins with “all people here are…”, and necessarily all people here are people, otherwise they’re not covered by the statement.

    • @[email protected]
      2•3 months ago

      Not old, not communist and I am from Canada. I am only sort of a programmer. Only do it as a hobby and my job is only tangentially related to it.