I’m fairly non-nerdy, though I like reading fantasy and scifi.
But other than that, nope.
I’m on the border of nerd and geek
Abstract
This study analyzes user engagement and self-identification traits within the Lemmy federated social network as of April 2025. Data indicate a highly homogenous user base characterized by pronounced “nerd” attributes, extensive community participation, and substantive discourse depth. These findings support the hypothesis that Lemmy functions as a specialized enclave for intellectual and hobbyist subcultures.
Introduction
Federated social networks have emerged as decentralized alternatives to mainstream platforms, fostering niche communities with specialized interests. Lemmy, a prominent instance within the Fediverse, exemplifies this trend. This paper presents an analysis of Lemmy’s user demographics, engagement metrics, and sentiment indicators based on the latest Lemmy Federation Analytics Report (v0.19.11).
Methods
Data were aggregated from 1,521 federated Lemmy instances, encompassing 253,166 monthly active users (MAUs). User self-identification was assessed via profile metadata and participation patterns, categorizing “nerd” traits as technical expertise, fandom involvement, or hobbyist specialization. Engagement metrics included weekly active hours, community subscriptions, and post/comment length. Sentiment analysis was performed on a corpus of 1.2 million comments using established natural language processing (NLP) techniques.
Results
Metric Value Interpretation Monthly Active Users (MAU) 253,166 Network scale Federated Instances 1,521 Network decentralization % Users with ≥1 Nerd Trait 97.3% High nerd phenotype prevalence Avg. Weekly Engagement (hours) 4.7 Significant time investment Avg. Subscribed Communities 37.4 Broad topic engagement Median Post/Comment Length 243 words Depth of discourse Positive Sentiment Correlation 92% Intellectual enthusiasm and curiosity Probability of Non-Nerd User <3% Near-homogeneous nerd enclave Discussion
The data demonstrate that Lemmy’s user base overwhelmingly self-identifies with at least one nerd-related attribute, corroborated by extensive participation and substantive content generation. The median post length and engagement hours suggest a community oriented toward in-depth discussion rather than superficial interaction. Sentiment analysis further reveals a predominant intellectual enthusiasm, reinforcing the platform’s role as a hub for knowledge exchange and niche interests.
Conclusion
Lemmy represents a near-pure federation of nerd culture, with statistically negligible presence of non-nerd users. This specialization is likely facilitated by its federated architecture, which supports micro-communities with shared epistemic values.
References
- Lemmy - FediDB, Fediverse Network Statistics. Available at: https://fedidb.org/software/lemmy [Accessed April 2025].
- Reddit Alternatives. Stats: Kbin now has over 125k+ and Lemmy has over 100k+ users! Reddit, 2025. Available at: https://www.reddit.com/r/RedditAlternatives/comments/148ln2k/stats_kbin_now_has_over_125k_and_lemmy_has_over/ [Accessed April 2025].
- Lemmy (social network) - Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lemmy_(social_network) [Accessed April 2025].
- Hacker News. Lemmy stats (users, posts, nodes, comments). Available at: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36403430 [Accessed April 2025].
- SimilarWeb. lemmy.ml Traffic Analytics, Ranking & Audience [March 2025]. Available at: https://www.similarweb.com/website/lemmy.ml/ [Accessed April 2025].
- Lemmy.world. Average Lemmy Active Users by Month. Available at: https://lemmy.world/post/8978033 [Accessed April 2025].
- Fediverse Observer. Lemmy Sites Status. Available at: https://lemmy.fediverse.observer/stats [Accessed April 2025].
- Lemmy - FediDB, Fediverse Network Statistics v0.19.11. Available at: https://fedidb.org/software/lemmy?version=0.19.11 [Accessed April 2025].
TL;DR
no
Edit: just to be clear, all this data is made up lol
Damn, Gary
💀
According to the internet 78% of all data is made up. With at least 34% of it contradicting actual reality.
Wait a minute 78+34, eh close enough.
/thread
all this data is made up lol
wtf
Ironically this post makes me think you are less of a nerd as it has LLM fingerprints all over it. A real nerd would have compiled their satircal study by hand.
How the heck do you even begin to formulate a post like this.
Google’s Deep Research AI produces similar output. I’m not saying the user definitely did that, I’m saying they could have used AI for that.
I noticed they edited to say it’s all made up 😂
we’re on a niche open source reddit alternative built by communists, written in rust, with multiple sizable linux communities
– lemmy at its core
Good point. We’re a bunch of badasses.
We’re only nerds if we come out of the Silicon Valley region of California. Otherwise, we are just sparkling geeks.
🥰 Thank you
I’m a bona fide alpha male. Imagine Joe Rogan but more buff and with additional BDE. When I talk everyone listens. I was the star of every sports team I’ve been part of. I can lift a motocycle above my head and then ride off into the sunset on it.
Usually posting fit-pics on insta but I accidentally clicked a link and ended up here.
Sent from my iPhone
We’re early adopters. By definition: we’re nerds.
I’m not. College dropout waitress married to an artschool dropout chef.
I don’t believe you, you use Lemmy. You are at least somewhat nerd.
Ah, but I’m on the anarchist instance.
So your reasoning that you’re not a nerd is that you’re an anarchist? I got some bad news for you…
I’m on a piracy instance and I dont pirate.
Well, anymore. Should really update my music library instead of streaming it.
lol anarchists can be nerds
Let me explain you how the Red-Workers-Movement of 1922 in the Oblast-Utbackya had this structural issue in their organization by the theory of famous late 19th century analyst.
So a political nerd lol
With politics, I think the term you want is “wonk”.
Not necessarily, a wonk (e.g. a policy wonk) is not analytically intelligent but may be emotionally intelligent.
A nerd and a wonk may have the same area of interest, but different approaches.
I’m not a nerd. Nerds are smart.
I’d say I fit neatly in the Dork category. At least, that’s what my imposter syndrome would have me believe.
No no, I am stupid too.
Imposter syndrome ❤️
That’s an intelligent analysis of yourself, a supporting evidence that you fit in the nerd category.
Gemini likes to tell me that I’m good in the emotional intelligence area. Haha.
I am a hollow circle around the nerd core.
I don’t fit in any category :D
no, all people here are 30-40 years old communist programmers from california
Not old, not communist and I am from Canada. I am only sort of a programmer. Only do it as a hobby and my job is only tangentially related to it.
But I’m not from Cali!
I’m only one of those things.
Unless you’re the ontological projection of communism, you’re at least two of those things.
…People? I would say that’s too tautological, as the statement begins with “all people here are…”, and necessarily all people here are people, otherwise they’re not covered by the statement.
I’m not 30-40 years old!
hey now.
Hold up…I mean, yeah. Okay.
I’m not a programmer; at best I script.
slightly more seriously: lots of lemmy users came from reddit, but mostly from older demographic (because of old reddit phaseout) and more FOSS-oriented, privacy-aware, tech-literate part (because of API shitshow/alternative apps blockage). there’s some barrier to entry (choice of instance) that would filter off the least technical users. there are some prominent programming oriented fedi servers (programming.dev, infosec.exchange). lemmy in general seems to be more lefty than reddit, less americacentric, and i guess that over half are linux users. i suspect that because of combination of technical skill and older age (compared to reddit) lots of lemmitors have well paying technical jobs (again compared to reddit) which allows/requires them to live in nicer parts of their countries (not specifically cali)
Yeah I came here because of the reddit exodus but stayed for the linux. I just need something to scroll through when I am bored and my rss feed isn’t interesting me. As a young person its weird everybody here is old. I am 17 and would’ve thought more of the youth would be interested in alternative social media platforms. Aren’t young people supposed to be the ones who do things contradictory to the status quo?
Neither a programmer nor from California. I’m a rare southern red
Not from Cali, not a programmer (though honestly I could be).
Who else does research on obscure social media platforms because they are fed up with mainstream surveillance capitalism social media.
Edit: If to be a nerd is to have a strong interest in something particular then everyone should be a nerd because having interests is awesome.
Closeted nerd reporting for duty
Na :3
Sodium to you as well, fellow nerd.
Of course not! There’s no furry nerds!
Never met a furry that wasn’t a nerd tbh x3
Iiiiii certainly amn’t!
DO NOT OBSERVE MY HISTORY TRUST ME I AM NOT
Define
