Yeah I'd much rather be here watching it grow than on Reddit watching it die
i really think that it's going to be one of those things people look back on in history class and are just totally baffled by, like trying to explain the patent and copyright rules will just be a whole lesson of kids saying 'but that's so dumb...' and things like 'but why did they let one company ruin everything just to keep their mouse to themselves, were they stupid?'
i really love the smaller communities, going to be so interesting to see how they all evolve and interact. Anyone that hasn't i really recommend going to the various other smaller instances just to look and get a feel for them, it's a great way to find interesting communities and you can subscribe from the instance you're on (assuming its federated).
I've tried moving away from Reddit several times with varying degrees of success, this time though it's felt really easy - the more i learn about Lemmy the more i like it and look forward to seeing it evolve. There are some really nice communities here too, feels like a lot of the most interesting people have come here but the spammers, bots and trolls haven't yet -- i'm sure it'll change as things grow but i'm going to enjoy it while it lasts.
i'm hoping that we see some development of smaller scale energy storage systems that help move away from generators, even something like a screw pump so it's rate can be varied to use excess power generation to lift water into a higher reservoir - it could them be used for irrigation without the need for other power and converted back into electricity as required in an emergency. Ideal for remote farmers as they'll require water storage anyway and can use the gravity fed irrigation system in normal use (using the same pump power or less used in a conventional system to raise water into the top tank) then have what's essentially free energy (in that it would have been wasted as excess previously) to add additional water for storage (from rain catchment systems or whatever is currently used) plus you even get a little bit of even freer energy if it rains.
It's such a safe, stable and otherwise useful energy storage method that i really think the potential energy in lifted water is such a promising area of development, there are so many pumping methods too - you can even use direct thermal energy to lift steam up into a condenser thus cleaning, sanitising and moving the water all in one.
Great to see OSE on here, love the project though i must admit i haven't been keeping up with developments lately so looking forward to being able to get involved with this community and catch up on things.
Thanks looks interesting, I've downloaded a few episodes up listen to when I'm out walking so I'll check it out