I agree, but I wouldn't undervalue how much that simple human connection can mean to people who really need it.
What I think is needed is a way to migrate communities and users between servers and something like the Mastodon Server Covenant so people would have time to migrate if a server decided it was going away.
Having to listen to everybody else moan about hayfever!
Seriously, though, it really does feel like everyone except me gets it these days.
I think the power of the fediverse is in there being more, smaller servers. It makes moderation easier and should scale better. It prevents one person or group getting control over the whole network.
The advantages of having your own server are about having control over the instance. I can choose which servers I do it don't federate with. Also I know my data isn't being misused. Plus, to be honest, I've got lots of experience running this sort of thing and I like the idea of offering the benefits of that to the community.
In my case I decided to base my Mastodon server and Lemmy server on my local area. I like the idea that the local timelines and local posts would be relevant for that geographic community.
Running your own server isn't for everyone though. It takes a certain amount of commitment and money. I get some donations - which are lovely - but I'm still basically funding it out of my own pocket.
Yeah, I run a Mastodon instance for the my city. It only has double digits of active users but that suits me because it's not too expensive to run and I want to prioritse the user experience over growth for growth's sake. I'd like to do the same thing with this Lemmy instance.
I think it's one of the real strengths of the fediverse that you can be on a tiny, friendly instance and still play a part in a huge community.
I just set up a Lemmy site and am basically posting here to try out how federation works! Other than that... stressy meeting-filled work week!
It was always going to happen. Big companies like this make unpopular decisions for business reasons. In some cases there's an outcry, and for social media sites that outcry is amplified by the simple nature of the site, but it always dies down.
Most people simply don't give a shit about this stuff and Reddit will make more money from the 90+% of people who remain then those who left anyway.
My only hope is that shearing off of some customers is enough to make this a sustainable community here in the same way that happened for Mastodon.