This started as a Bluesky post that got longer and longer. So I'm bringing it here to the blog to expand my thoughts. The post thread, for those interested:

𝔱𝔦π”ͺ's avatar
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I feel like the Atmosphere is to social media what Lemmy wanted to be for Reddit. Of all the Reddit alternatives attempted through the years, Lemmy was the closest to taking off. But it suffers from what I feel Mastodon always has - decentralized and fragmented to the point of obscurity.

So the overall post started from seeing my long-abandoned bookmarks for a few different Lemmy (the ActivityPub-based Reddit alternative) instances. I got to thinking about how ActivityPub stuff has always felt so disjointed, unconnected, and fragmented to me; Mastodon included. It's decentralized, but almost to the point of being detrimental, especially for new users. Sure, it's federated (posts being seen across servers), but what server/instance do you join? What instances does that instance block and choose not to federate with? For what reasons?

Mastodon, for the most part, always felt like talking into a void, even on interest-specific servers. Lemmy was fun for a while, but instances would come and go, and it suffers from the same things as Mastodon - posts never really gain much traction, and interactions on content are even rarer. I also know that's not everyone's experience. There are people that have used Mastodon, and still do, and swear by it.

With Lemmy specifically, it felt like the closest a Reddit alternative has come to taking off. Server-joining fatigue and messiness aside, the biggest issue was getting people to actually use it. New users. Active users. It was never going to be Reddit; that much was clear. But the potential to be something was there. Hell, it still is.

But now, the Atmosphere. Decentralized. And even though the AT protocol is still in the early days, relatively, of working toward reaching peak potential, it has an active and dedicated userbase. People are making things for it. People are using it.

I think a Reddit-like could work on the AT protocol. I know there's the Digg-like, frontpage.fyi. I also know Communities are coming to Bluesky. What that looks like, I don't know. It might be like Facebook Groups. It might be like subreddits. Either way, it will be a place for people with common interests to meet and discuss those interests. I look forward to that.

So to my original point, I feel like the more fine-tuned take I was going for is that the AT protocol (Atmosphere) has seemingly accomplished what ActivityPub has - again, in my opinion - struggled with for many years now. And that's decentralization, but at an approachable level for most users, and with enough cohesion across implementations to feel unified rather than in scattered pieces. And people are using it.