Thanks for posting this, it was an interesting read.
I have been thinking a lot about the question in the first post here, what is Simple Living? In the context of moving to Lemmy and thinking about how the sites are structured I have realised what I really value is the time to do things fully, and to be fully in the moment.
Our society is built around consumerism, and constantly chasing the next new thing to aquire. Once we have it we just start looking for the next thing to reach for. The way we consume media is the same - a constant search for the new post, with the fastest replies get rewarded and by the time anyone has been able to craft an actual thoughtful response the conversation has moved on.
I would like my life to have more depth, to focus on learning about things deeply and thoroughly, to be present in the moment more often and enjoy what I have around me. In moving to Lemmy I am hoping to be able to be able to find/develop some communities that foster that.
I envisage the flow of information and communication as being like a river. There are fast-flowing rapids that can be fun and exciting, but most of the river is actually deep pools full of amazing and wonderful resources. Those fast flowing rapids have a place, but also have the potential to wash you away from all the important things underneath. The challenge of creating an online community is to be able to create a way to anchor people into deep and ongoing conversations, without the flow of new things constantly pulling them away.
Reddit always felt to me like it was preventing those deeper conversations from really flourishing. I think the challenge for a moderator here is to find ways of balancing different types of conversations so they can all have a place - some topics can be talked about slowly and thoughtfully for weeks, months, even years. I believe to have a place in a simple living lifestyle the focus needs to be on encouraging those slow conversations. To create a place where you can drop in maybe once a week and not feeling that you are "out of the loop" because you have taken time to engage with the real world.