It is probably due to a number of people stopping using their alts after some instance hopping.
Also a few people who came to see how it was, and weren't attracted enough to become regular visitors.
Curious to see at which number we'll stabilize.
Next peak will probably happen after either major features release (e.g. exhaustive mod tools allowing reluctant communities to move from Reddit) or the next Reddit fuck up (e.g. removing old.reddit)
Key difference is that Bitcoin people want/need their numbers to go up,up,up as a measure of success.
Here, we are hoping to cultivate a healthy community (at either/both the instance and fediverse level). From my experience on various subreddits, focusing on growth is not a good way to do this.
Communities are defined more by who is not allowed in than by who is in the community. Lemmy phase 2 kicked off back in June, and it still needs some time to find its footing at a sustainable rate of growth.
I said it somewhere yesterday, but community building is more about moderation and organic growth than it is getting everyone on board all at once. The threadiverse is fantastic but its also running on a pair of software with substantial bugs and basic features missing
Key difference is that Bitcoin people want/need their numbers to go up,up,up as a measure of success.
Nah, you're making the mistake of only paying attention to bitcoin short term when the price goes up, so you only perceive people who get in short term while the number goes up.
If I'm making a mistake, I don't think that would be it. I've been observing Bitcoin and its community since 2011.