this post was submitted on 22 Jun 2023
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I'm a bit confused at the explosive growth of Lemmy and the slower growth of Kbin. Do the stats reflect the reality or is there a problem with the data being fed back to the various stat hubs?

I know the difference is partly because Lemmy was a larger platform, and is better known but the growth of Kbin seems suprisingly flat while the community seems to be getting more and more active?

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[–] oct2pus@kbin.social 4 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Most people heard about Lemmy on reddit, and heard about kbin on lemmy, possibly after they already made an account.

Im not going to not interact with Lemmy because of its developers but it was enough I decided id rather not be tied exclusively to their tankie ass politics.

[–] Yamspunk@kbin.social 2 points 2 years ago (2 children)

What is it about Lemmy's developers?

[–] BraveSirZaphod@kbin.social 4 points 2 years ago

Questionable opinions about such diverse topics as:

  1. Is the Uygher genocide in China a thing?
  2. Is North Korea bad?
  3. Was the Russian invasion of Ukraine actually a noble attempt to liberate its people from Nazis?
[–] iAmTheTot@kbin.social 3 points 2 years ago
[–] Mars2k21@kbin.social 3 points 2 years ago (4 children)

Probably because of the endorsement of Lemmy by subreddits, which has been far greater than the endorsement of Kbin. Lemmy's also just been around far longer than Kbin. Those server issues that Kbin encountered during the whole explosion of users also likely slowed down growth a bit. Even with Lemmy's bot problem I think these have made it grow faster anyway.

[–] cjerrington@kbin.social 1 points 2 years ago

I also think some of the growth of Lemmy is the ability to get the project to a functioning stance. The start of Kbin still seems a little rocky, but getting better.

[–] Ender2k@kbin.social 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I created my Lemmy account first, because it was easier to remember for me than kbin...

[–] McBinary@kbin.social 2 points 2 years ago

Same, but I've abandoned that account completely in lieu of kbin.

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[–] 0xtero@kbin.social 3 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Seems pretty even to me:
https://fedidb.org/current-events/threadiverse

(Should not look at created accounts, those are spammers)

[–] DarkThoughts@kbin.social 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

It's actually the opposite. Kbin has been growing faster than Lemmy.

[–] GunnarRunnar@kbin.social 1 points 2 years ago (2 children)

And that's surprising, given it's s newer, less-established platform. But it's not like Lemmy was a household name before this.

[–] MxM111@kbin.social 8 points 2 years ago (2 children)

I can give only my impression why I have chosen kbin. Better looking, more clear interface.

[–] dandb@kbin.social 4 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Yeah there's something about the way kbin works that just resonates with me more than Lemmy.

[–] mihnt@kbin.social 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Kbin is better on PC, Lemmy is better on mobile. At least for me. Only downside I've found is I can't upvote comments on Lemmy while on mobile.

[–] MxM111@kbin.social 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Even on mobile I like the look of kbin more, but functionality is better for lemmy. I think it will change in future, kbin is just too young. In any case for mobile I have to see an app in a long term.

[–] hailsatan@lemmy.world 0 points 2 years ago (1 children)

What mobile app do you use for kbin?

[–] MxM111@kbin.social 1 points 2 years ago

There are none yet. I was talking about "this will change in the future" part.

[–] GunnarRunnar@kbin.social 1 points 2 years ago

Those are actually really valid reasons and presumably why I'm liking kbin as well. Design and feel are really big factors for user adaption, thanks for sharing your experience.

[–] Kichae@kbin.social 1 points 2 years ago (2 children)

It's also surprising because there are just fewer prominent kbin-based websites. Lemmy has lemmy.ml, lemmy.one, lemmy.world, and sh.itjust.works. And Beehaw, I guess, but they specifically throttle their growth.

kbin has kbin.social, and then a bunch of instances that are just way, way lower profile.

I mean, it's so surprising that we should probably question it a little bit.

[–] kestrel7@kbin.social 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Anecdotally, from looking at Mastodon, it seems like people there are hyping kbin (and fedia.io) more than lemmy... that could just be the people I happen to be following, though.

[–] toxic@kbin.social 2 points 2 years ago

Well, you can use Mastadon with a kbin username so there’s that. I don’t think you can with Lemmy.

[–] Awwab@kbin.social 2 points 2 years ago

Kbins documentation for hosting is a bit of a mess and leaves a lot to be desired where Lemmy is much more turnkey for someone looking to setup an instance.

[–] ppb1701@kbin.social 2 points 2 years ago (2 children)

@BananaTrifleViolin. I'm fine with it. I tried lemmy first and was met by a ton of issues from the influx. Kbin thus far has seemed more stable and honestly I like the layout a bit better.

[–] NetHandle@kbin.social 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Me too, I tried to make a lemmy account and it wouldn't work at first, and then when it did work it wouldn't let me log in. I can't imagine how much more of a pain in the ass it would be if it was one of the instances that required an essay to apply for membership.

I tried kbin and it worked first try, no problems at all. I figured I would run into the same problem I had trying to join lemmy but didn't have a problem at all.

I can't imagine how many more people would be signing up to the federation if it just worked first try.

[–] TheTokingTurtle@kbin.social 1 points 2 years ago

This is my experience as well. Tried lemmy and the login icon just kept spinning in circles. I even tried asking discords for help.

Tried kbin and it just works, no issues, smooth.

[–] smallerdemon@kbin.social 1 points 2 years ago

Same on the layout.

[–] Orez66@kbin.social 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I have signed up for both in the past 24 hours. I think there are pros and cons to both and honestly I like both about equally

[–] Catz@kbin.social 2 points 2 years ago

Same for me. I haven't decided jet which one I'll prefer longterm.

[–] LollerCorleone@kbin.social 2 points 2 years ago

Lemmy has been around for much longer than kbin. So it obviously has more number of users in total. A better figure to compare is the monthly active users. According to FediDB, kbin actually has more monthly active users than Lemmy.

[–] DarkThoughts@kbin.social 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Kbin is growing faster than Lemmy. Lemmy just saw a huge amount of spambot registrations recently.

[–] Naminreb@kbin.social 1 points 2 years ago

This is the answer.

[–] retronautickz@fedi196.gay 1 points 2 years ago

1- Kbin is newer and less known and more unstable

2- The top five growing Lemmy instances are full of bot/spam accounts

[–] techviator@kbin.social 1 points 2 years ago

Adding to all the previously added reasons, there's also no native mobile app yet for Kbin, and that seems related to having no API released yet.

That is hopefully going to change soon since at least 2 apps are being worked on by the community - This unnamed one with the goal of being like Apollo, and Artemis which seems to be looking for beta testers - besides the hopefully soon-to-be-released Official Kbin mobile app by the Kbin team.

[–] gornar@lemmy.world 1 points 2 years ago

When I went to sign up for the fediverse, I tried kbin first, but signups were broken, so I just chose the next thing on a list of recommendations I found (outside of any reddit posts)

[–] Quill7513@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 years ago

For me it's the ecosystem. Lemmy is more mature with its API and app ecosystem.

[–] danc4498@kbin.social 1 points 2 years ago

I have been using Lemmy initially, but have switched over to trying Kbin. I am still unsure which I will use mainly.

I think Kbin has a much cleaner UI, but I think I like the process of commenting on Lemmy much better. Many little things, like having a "top" sort option to see the top comment, and comment box under the story as opposed to at the bottom of the page. Also, you can minimize comment trees in Lemmy, which is a necessity.

Lemmy's one big issue right now is its main page sorting is broken and needs desperately to be fixed.

[–] ginerel@kbin.social 1 points 2 years ago

I know the difference is partly because Lemmy was a larger platform, and is better known but the growth of Kbin seems suprisingly flat while the community seems to be getting more and more active?

Precisely that. Moreover, Kbin is more fresh than Lemmy (Lemmy seems to have been around for a while longer), and Kbin still lists itself on the website as an early beta.

OTOH, there were already more Lemmy servers to begin with, while there were no third party servers at all iirc when the Reddit migration started.

[–] BarrierWithAshes@kbin.social 1 points 2 years ago

Lotta bots on Lemmy. The stats I saw looked like 200k users in the last few weeks. I'd willing to gamble most are bots. Maybe some for ads, maybe some to claim names then sell 'em later.

[–] AuthorInkwell@kbin.social 1 points 2 years ago (4 children)

I admit that I had buyer's remorse for a bit after immediately jumping to Kbin and finding out later that Lemmy existed. Lemmy's UI just looks friendlier and more colorful. But I'm sticking with Kbin-- no reason not to, really, since all (or most) of the content cross-pollenates!

[–] Bishma@kbin.social 1 points 2 years ago

Interesting. I got the opposite impression, that Kbin is friendlier and has a nicer UI (for the most part). I ended up moving from lemmy.world because of it.

[–] BasicWhiteGirl@kbin.social 1 points 2 years ago

I like the simplicity and lack of color at Kbin! So, they're definitely different selling points.

[–] JoeCoT@kbin.social 1 points 2 years ago

I haven't quite decided between the two, but I'm planning to self host one of them. And if kbin sticks around and keeps gaining traction, I'm much more familiar with hosting and working with PHP than with Rust

[–] JoYo@kbin.social 0 points 2 years ago (1 children)

welcome to the fedi.
multiple accounts are not only normal but also encouraged.

please feel free to create a lemmy account and a mastodon account and a pixelfed account and a peertube account.

[–] cutitdown@kbin.social 1 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Well that's an entire hassle and seems far from ideal, lol. I have a mastodon account I never use, but for now I'm just gonna stick to kbin and follow whatever lemmy folks or whatever I want from here.

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[–] reaper527@kbin.social 1 points 2 years ago

The magazine from the federated server may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

that's a big part of it. people want something that just works, and they don't want to leave the site to see the latest submissions/comments.

[–] Jcb2016@kbin.social 1 points 2 years ago

Most people like me came to lemmy when they first left reddit and it was just there. my first instance was lemmy.ml and they where having issues so i went to lemmy.world and it was amazing. i kept hearing about kbin but they where having issues also. eventually kbin was stable and now i'm here for the long haul. lemmy has basic features like subs and you can subscribe and create post etc.. kbin has Threads = Reddit Post, Microblogging = Twitter and Magazines = Subreddits all in one service. Make an account and see for yourself. you can have a lemmy account kbin dosen't matter!

[–] tal@kbin.social 1 points 2 years ago

Some of that may well be real, but one issue that is a factor is that it appears that someone is having bots auto-creating accounts at lemmy instances with open-sign-up, which is believed to be responsible for a considerable portion of the new accounts (basically, many of the accounts don't appear to be active, and apparently the instance admins are banning a number of them). The lemmy.dbzer0.com instance admin has something up on GitHub to try to monitor the situation:

https://github.com/db0/lemmy-overseer

I'll add that that does highlight the fact that the Reddit team has put a lot of time over the years into countering bad actors, spammers and the like, and some of those are probably going to try to hit lemmy/kbin.

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