I don’t disagree with your comment, but I think many long-time reddit users will say that reddit was better long before it grew to 400+ million users. A lot has been written about how online communities, when they reach a certain size, become worse. Easily-digestible (and often subpar) content get upvoted by a broader mass of subreddit users while previously appreciated and easily-found discussions get drowned out.

I think the point I’m trying to make is that Lemmy or any other reddit alternative would be better off if they didn’t aim for 400+ million users. So measuring success beyond measuring the DAU. And I don’t think they are. But yes, to even reach 1 million users, the signup process should be straight forward and fast, and the overall user experience smooth. I guess a slow signup process helps with scaling to ensure the latter.

When the floodgates open during the subreddit blackout, the reddit alternative that you can easily sign up for and that can handle the load might “win.” Hopefully there will be more than one, because the centralized nature of reddit is obviously why we’re having this problem in the first place.