What helps me is having the perspective that people change from moment to moment, and we don't see enough moments in a row to pick out a pattern generally. Even if I see the same names, it helps to treat them with new eyes everytime. Also makes it easier to catch someone on a bad day but then have a nice conversation the next.

The reason for that is Lemmy Social Score, aka karma. Most of the people on the internet are looking for a validation from online randos and this prevents them from posting unpopular points of view. Hide score from the users and you will see way more posts and comments.

I do not have the time to post / comment usually.

Hello! :D

Do you identify as being part of this class?

For me, the difference to reddit is less the participation/diversity in individual discussions. Rather, that lively debates only happen in some prominent subs. That is the one thing I miss here when comparing lemmy to reddit. On reddit, you can look for some niche hobby or some random computer game and chances are that you'll find an active community.

Everyone on lemmy is a bot except you.

Lemmy may be small, but it's cozy!

The fediverse makes communities feel even smaller since even widely connected nodes have instances they aren't networked with, so even a massive userbase can feel like a small neighborhood, because as an individual user, that's what you're going to see with your account pegged to any given instance.

Hey, GrammarPolice! Nice to see you again today! Take care, see you later!

In the community I post in and read the most, I certainly recognize almost every poster. But in all communities, I recognize the most prolific of posters, but few others.

No I haven't seen it