There seems to be a January effect of sorts, being the highest peak of both years. Is journalism more interesting in January, are people bored in winter after Christmas, is it random, or is something else going on? Could be interesting to know. I'd love to see whether this happens again in 2026.

My interpretation of usage trends is that the novelty is wearing off, and the people left using these sites are largely just using them normally. Less and less content is meta-discussions about being here and not being elsewhere. Of course some users leave as the novelty wears off, but enough seem to have stayed that I'm pretty optimistic it won't go back to being a dusty corner reserved for only the biggest open source fanatics.

Oh, and here's the graph of comments over time, as only the first picture federated to where I'm reading from:

@rimu@piefed.social - I'm assuming this is a known bug

@rupdecat @heiseonline @fediverse

I don't understand: This is a year-to-year comparison by month.

I think we need to ask this question separately for the microblogging fediverse and the "threadiverse" (i.e. Lemmy-compatible communities).

The microblogging fediverse isn't dying, I scroll through it every day, it's one of my main sources of news (some of which I then post on Lemmy). I wouldn't be able to keep up with much more than what I currently get into my feed there.

The threadiverse meanwhile could definitely use much more activity. I hope it eventually becomes a place to discuss even the most niche topics imaginable, like web forums in their era...

I wonder if it’s New Year’s resolutions to quit Reddit?

Either way, I like it here.

As this is a graph of comments and likes to posts by @heiseonline@social.heise.de - who don't post to Lemmy/Piefed - it's probably not related to Reddit. But quitting X is also a good new years resolution I guess.

!fedigrow@lemmy.zip tries to assess the activity levels of regular posters, and it's a bit quiet lately sometimes indeed

What we can probably expect is some consolidation of inactive or barely active communities to get more activity in one place

Huh, didn’t realize it was a cross post

@panda_abyss @cabbage

I always thought, that there's no month, where less people are on vacation, and that's why so many are reading the news.

For us as a tech magazine, it's also CES which is in January.

Both are good explanations, thanks!

The threadiverse feels as active as usual imho. We still can't really attract non-early adopters (i.e. privacy and FOSS enthusiasts), but the next reddit exodus is inevitable at some point.

@mho @heiseonline @fediverse The lack of consistent federation between microblogging and threadiverse doesn't help either. For example on microblogging I can't see the comments from @Blaze towards @schnurrito because they were announced by the @fediverse to everyone, but mastodon just ignores it unless it's address to the OP.

@mho @heiseonline @fediverse Auch hier bei uns ist ein leichter, aber stetiger Anstieg messbar.

@db0@hachyderm.io said in So, is it getting quieter here in the #Fediverse; is it even dying?:
> For example on microblogging I can't see the comments from @Blaze towards @schnurrito because they were announced by the @fediverse to everyone,

Wait, doesn't that mean you should see it? If a user on the Mastodon server is following the category then they should receive a copy of everything.

In fact it's that they shove every boost into the home feed that is the problem...

@julian Yes, but if you don't follow the category, you don't see replies to other people in the same post.

I dunno, look at all that the Musk does to X (or better yet, don't) but then people remain stuck on that platform, held hostage by the network effect or whatever other reason. Enshittification has progressed far enough that Lemmy is not well regarded on Reddit, a fact enhanced by posts talking about it being removed. People may be cutting back on Reddit, but they do not seem to be bringing those discussions here. Perhaps people are discoursing more IRL rather than social media.

Same. Mastodon is pretty good and useful. Lemmy is pretty meh.

I think they mean comparing Jan 2023 with Jan 2024 and Jan 2025. Then seperately Feb 2023 with Feb 2024 and Feb 2025. Etc.

They definitely do post some of their posts directly into threadiverse communities, but xes most of the measured interactions here will by masto etc software

Yes, but if you don't follow the community/category and stumble onto the post some other way (for example someone reposted it), then you wont see any of the comments

Iirc. you'll see comments towards the OP only (i.e. root comments, and replies to the OP explicitly). You will also not see comments non-OP microbloggers will send towards threadiverse users on other instances than where the community is in.