I know a lot of lurkers like me out there are browsing, but there’s quite a bit of engagement capitol on the federated instances. If you find an interesting topic and the right community, you get a lot of feedback. There’s not much hate being thrown out there either.
You perfectly describe how it felt on Reddit to comment and what turned me into a lurker after the years went by. Doing my best to be more active on Lemmy to help get this thing growing!
Same thing for me. Felt a little more free!