I’ve made posts both on this account and a different account from a different instance in the more niche communities that I’d like to see move here and got zero up votes, downvotes, or replies. I’ve even messaged the mods of those communities to discuss ways to get more traffic and got no response.

I’m willing to keep trying, but the majority of users aren’t and that’s something that Lemmy is going to have to overcome

I’ve had to go ham on blocking entire communities on here with Sync’s filter feature. Reddit at least has so many niche, active communities that you can actively avoid the /r/Europes and the /r/conservatives. With Lemmy, if I scroll through my subscribed communities, I get the same posts for days on end - if I scroll through everything, I get a bunch of Linux and FOSS circle jerks as well as “Tankies”, “Anti-Tankies”, commies, removedcar communities that aren’t even realistic with the timescale they want things changes, and even more recently some posts from conservative communities.

Like, don’t get me wrong - I refuse to go back to reddit, but I’ve definitely had the desire to just quit using Lemmy because it feels like there isn’t much here for me.

We have different reasons for getting the hell away from reddit. I came to lemmy because reddit killed sync. I paid like $3 for Sync in 2014 and used it every day until Reddit killed it without seeing a single ad. So, not only do I disagree with Sync for Lemmy missing the point of getting away with reddit, but I also disagree with the notion that sink for Lemmy is in any way bad for having an ad - supported tier when you can pay a negligible amount of money ( $20 in 2023 ) and never see an ad again for the entire lifetime of the app.

Legit. I paid $3 for Sync back in 2014 and used it daily for nine years.

I’ve been using Sync for Lemmy since it was first released and I still haven’t seen an ad. I’m pretty sure it’s a bug.