Title

  • KoboldCoterie@pawb.social
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    9
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    edit-2
    7 months ago

    Your argument is supporting the comment you’re replying to. “Users” is equivalent to “cows” in your example, not “herd”. If you lost 50% of the herd, you’d still have a herd of cows, but you’d have fewer cows, just like there are a lot fewer users in this instance.

    Herd is closer to userbase. Lemmy has a userbase; Reddit has a userbase. Lemmy’s userbase has a lot fewer users than Reddit’s.

    • xmunk
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      7 months ago

      Both may be correct depending on the speaker. English has exceptions to everything… I learned that from a European.

      • KoboldCoterie@pawb.social
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        7
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        7 months ago

        It’s not, but even if it was, the original comment would be grammatically incorrect.You wouldn’t say “You have a lot less herd”. “Less of a herd” would work, “Your herd is a lot smaller” would work better, but it was written originally as though ‘users’ was a collection of individuals, not a userbase as a singular item.

      • deranger
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        6
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        7 months ago

        “There are a lot fewer users” is the proper grammar. You wouldn’t say “There is users online”, you’d say “There are users online” because users is plural. “There is a user online” would be singular.