My experience with the Fediverse has only been through Mastodon, through which I struggled to find a community I really gelled with. Either it was supper overwhelming with meme posts or NSFW, or it was too chill to the point of nothing. Or, it was hyperfocused like FOSS/Linux and became uninteresting after awhile. May try again, but I think I will explore the other fedisites like Plemora or Calckey to see if I like it better.
I love the pace of a forum. I grew up primarily with GameFAQS and some lucid dreaming forum, and honestly it was very formative in teaching me how to write and use critical thinking skills, as well as how to respond to a variety of temperaments. I stopped participating in online forums awhile ago, and while I loved Reddit as a resource, I never felt inspired to participate. In the same way, there are an incredible number of forums dedicated to a certain topic, and are extremely valuable, it would be annoying to make an account for all the things I am interested in.
I like what lemmy is becoming. Glad to find system that makes interacting with people enjoyable.
It is a wholly different experience. I do wish there was a kind of bridge where I could still follow particular individuals, since I did like them, but on the whole not be blasted with inane posts. Still, I am thinking that I might want that some times, just an overflow of humanity, see what the water is like across the globe.
Like, I did make friends, it is wonderful. One thing I never do is show my face for anything, but the willingness to do so does create an extraordinary intimacy that has probably lead to great conversations, changes in hormones, and bursts of feel-good neurotransmitters.
I have no idea what you mean by slow development, or more specifically what you are waiting on to get implemented. Lemmy is still fairly new so a lot is changing, but I doubt it will keep going at that pace once it matures.