Fediverse

30 years or older. Check.

Tech enthusiast/ worker.... check.

Linux users. Check.

Dammit

hey! i'll have you know i'm only 26. calling me out...

i also haven't used linux for a while but i'm currently procrastinating on setting it up on my laptop because windows modern standby hella sucks

I'm neither cis male nor that old but I fit the other two demographics lmao

Might be that tech inrerested ppl are more inclined to switch to less used alternatives when they allow for a more free and open platform. Also the barrier of entry for those might be quite a bit lower than the average Redditor

I'm in my early 20's but I do use Linux and and I'm a tech enthusiast. For now everybody here is 1 of the 3 but it will grow.

All true for me... except I haven't booted into my Linux install in literal months.

Every new technology is first used by this kind of people (not sure about the age), it is for now just to us to extend the area covered by various communities to non-techie areas. I hope to start with participating in !fanfiction@lemmy.ml and !hpfanfiction@lemmy.world which are hopefully far enough from the usual techie crowd.

Not EXCLUSIVELY... but kinda, but even though I'm only 1 (or maybe 2) out of the 3, and a bunch of programming jokes and jargon go over my head, I really don't mind. And... if you're going to start with a particular demographic as a core userbase, man oh man could you do worse these days.

You caught me. I'm old, write software and regularly use Linux.

I'm literally less than a decade old and only own a phone and a shitty HP laptop

The average person is about as technologically literate as a rock and curious about learning new things as a weed. Only a small subset of intelligent, curious, principled people dare to think of using alternatives that require users to have more than two brain cells or an attention span of more than 30 seconds.

Oh man, that's totally me! But I can't tell you why it is so appealing to my demographic. I don't know anyone IRL here and nothing about it seems like it would scare off everyone else...

BUT while we are all here:

• Trapper Keepers
• Garbage Pail Kids
• Music on cassette tapes
• Vim > Emacs

Avoiding corporate software companies and abandoning established communities on principle isn't something your average person does. Also, wrapping your head around the Fediverse, even if the sign-up process is as simple as other platforms, can be an obstacle for most people.

… so you’re saying that my subscriber numbers are actual people and not mostly bots? I assumed they were bots. (I created an over 30 community).

Me, me and me. Maybe I've finally found my people?

Let's be honest here - Lemmy today is a very broken experience. I can't recommend it to my partner because she will complain non stop that this not working, that is laggy, etc. It's all fun for enthusiasts, but it's nothing more than a very broken alpha preview of what could be made in few years.

There's also a lack of content. Can you get a professional skincare advice on Lemmy? No. Can you talk to Bill Gates on Lemmy? No. Is there a Chinese Cooking Demistified community on Lemmy? No. It's just Linux, Fediverse, cats and porn.

And then there's a question of money. For Lemmy to go mainstream it needs to spend millions on promotion, ads, development, customer support, lawyers, etc. You can build great thing on enthusiasm, but they will remain a niche. If you want to reach the masses, you need a lot of capital. You can see that clearly with Facebook's Twitter clone - tens of millions sign ups in 24 days. Can't do that without spending tens of millions.

As many, I fit the description except for the age, but I hope this monoculture thing goes away. I don't want an entire social network to be a huge bubble. If I want a bubble I join one of the many communities populated by people similar to me, but I want to have the chance to look "for something completely different", getting in touch with world views completely opposte to mine.