I highly valued the discovery of niche communities. Like solo ttrpgs as my current hyper fixation. I always lurked on reddit so I hope to be more involved here. And of course memes.

The random really cool people that show up in the comments

For me, reddit killed hobby forums. I'm hoping lemmy can take it's place. I'm partular I'm looking for computer networking and infrastucture, and Judo/BJJ

Community/togetherness -- Since leaving Reddit, I feel more 'lonely'? Being here definitely scratches the social-itch.
Positivity -- Wholesome people and productive conversations.
Humour -- Some of the comments/posts on Reddit were wonderfully dry and/or edgy. One that made me giggle recently: "Avoid being misgendered at checkout by not paying :)"
News -- Following centrist/neutral subreddits, and r/outoftheloop was great too.
Niche interests -- As said in OP!

I think the only issue we may have is niche interests -- the other points are not contingent on 'size'. Loving what's here so far <3

I'm looking forward to Lemmy becoming a useful DIY or reference tool. I always used to finish Google searches with 'reddit' because someone somewhere will have asked that specific question already.

On top of that I'm going to miss those really supportive subreddits like r/dadforaminute and r/momforaminute. Though, it does seem like a lot of the people who made up subs like that have migrated here, so I'm hopeful!

I was mostly a lurker on reddit for a long time but got into some of the hobby subreddits and support groups over covid and started talking more. I stopped doomscrooling so much and focused more on the communities in the individual subs. So now I am here and looking to do the same. Support and community are what I am looking for I guess. And to share my interests with others.

Well, the first thing I'd wanna replicate is just the sort of "town square" area. More or less free form discussion places, something like AskReddit or IAMA or just something that encourages people to ask questions and talk together. Everything else tends to fall out from there, in my experience.

I literally just want to shitpost without a phd in Web 3.0, maybe it'll get easier in time though.

Plenty of camaraderie, suggestions and wild discussions on /r/HPFanfiction

Solutions to weird and oddly specific problems. If you go looking for a solution to a really weird, seemingly one-off issue with Windows, good luck finding an answer in any Microsoft forum. Put "Reddit" at the end of your search, and you'll find something helpful more often than not.

Also, shitposting. 4Chan and Weekendgunnit levels of shitposting.

I learned how to fix so much stuff around the house and picked up ideas for my home automation hobby. And the photos of swimming pools were nice :)

News links with mods keeping links relevant and trustworthy sources. Bots summarizing paywalls, discussions, that sort of stuff. /r/animetities basically

Also memes. me_irl

Definitely want to continue the game threads for NBA/NFL games. It's really fun to have a small community of people you can shit talk with especially when they aren't around in person

I'm not sure how all this federated stuff works. I just want to browse absolute rubbish and hope I learn something in the meantime.

"A way to burn time that doesn't feel like a digital sugar rush" - well said, that was definitely one of the main reasons I used it habitually. In my experience, reddit had a fairly unique balance of being able to facilitate both serious and silly content.

Tv episode/movie discussion threads, sports game discussion threads, fitness subs where I could search for basically any question on

For me it was always about information. I like learning new things and having access to current events, facts, documentaries, feedback, insights as well as learning resources. Im completely lost here. I subscribed to communities, but I have no idea what else Im missing from other instances.

People to talk to about things that annoy my wife lol. Mainly linux stuff.

Access to some really great knowledge combined with a friendly community .. I think of subreddits like Picopresso and Selfhosting among many others

I mostly lurked on Reddit, but #3 was pretty big for me. If I needed to ask a highly specific question and get an answer from a real human, there wasn't really any other option. Until now, hopefully.

To fill the empty hours by collecting sweet, sweet internet points.

Megathreads about exactly which entry in a video game series is the slightly better one to get into

Definitely number 3. I completely agree that Reddit was great for the niche stuff.

I mean, if not for Reddit, I wouldn't have organised multiple hiking and backpacking trips, sticking up propaganda posters about kayaking.

To find people with shared interest, to find niches.

And the community of the random thread r/chile

And the autism subs tbh.

The various subs that can help you get your life in order, in the way you chose. personalfinance and/or financialindependence, whatever diet sub to help you learn how to eat better and get recipes that fit the diet, exercise subs like weightlifting or some others. Things like that can have a huge impact not just from the community encouragement, but the knowledge that they include in the sidebar, etc.

Getting new ideas for some hobby's, like 3d printing, photography etc. Also helping people that are new to those when they have issues. Also memes and funny catvideos.

Discussions on varied topics and community insights on things are what I really love(d) about Reddit.

1. Get a view of world news that does not fit into traditional spheres and biases from unanticipated (by me) categories of importance.
2. Keep track of hobby-like subs (Magazines here?)
3. Community, which drives the above two.