lobste.rs is an interesting case study. On the one hand, it sucked to want to join and be unable to! I was in that boat for a while. And it is also disappointingly low-volume; it can be hard to get much of a discussion going just because the user base is so small.

On the other hand, when a discussion does get going, it has easily the highest signal:noise ratio of any technology message board I’ve ever participated in. Very few low-effort posts, and a high percentage of well-thought-out, respectful conversations.

I’m not saying I think lemm.ee should follow this model, but it’s not without its merits.