the added context of the US map gives it some utility that a pie chart, which is just straight trash, does not have

a bar graph or even just a table would convey similar information more precisely and usefully, but if your only goal is to give an intuitive sense of the land use (not writing policy or anything here) it suits

cannot believe how many people are confused that the use blocks aren’t showing use in that location, just size in relation to the size of the country

Agreed!

People keep talking about the appeal of the megacommunities on Reddit, and I’m like… were they really that great? There was so much noise to sift through to get to anything real. Having decent discussions or building communities? Maybe if you’re in a small niche subreddit, but otherwise no.

Absolutely. I don’t think it’s really sunk in generally that the Fediverse is intended to operate fundamentally differently from a centralized system. An instance selectively (de)federating is how it’s supposed to work.

If the platform running as intended kills it, then there are big problems. I don’t think it will, but the user culture does have to change and incorporate knowledge of how the system works. We need to not have threads saying the Fediverse, a platform built on decentralization, needs to centralize as much as possible to survive.

There seems to be quite a few folks here that basically want the Lemmyverse to be Reddit with new management