So far half the posts are about Reddit. So that part sucks. Lemmy is very complicated compared to Reddit. I don't think large groups will be able to migrate here until a easy-mode app comes along to make it user friendly(er).
Yeah, I would say I'm kind of struggling here. I can't figure out how to block communities I don't want to see. I can't figure out how to find communities I would like to be a part of. Currently my feed is full of stuff like bean memes and foreign languages. Which, said feed doesn't really seem to move at all.
It doesn't have ads though, and I know I'll eventually get stuff figured out. But currently, I don't feel like I'm getting much actual use out of it.
When you click on a community you can click the "block community" button at the top right-ish part of the screen, it's in the same section as "create post" and "subscribe"
Searching is a little more complicated, to keep it simple you can use the built in search. That will show you communities in the instance you're searching on, and any community that anyone else on your instance has accessed.
Each instance is like its own little island. Some islands have a theme, some are general purpose. And the instance you make your account on is where you have your citizenship, but you can view and interact(follow,comment, like, etc) with other islands that allow visitors from your island. If an island(instance) doesn't want to allow visitors another island, or allow their citizens(users) to go another island the mayor of the island(admin) can cut off contact with that particular island(de-federate)
If the feed seems to be stagnant, you could be using the (default in many cases) active sort, which tends to have a lot of the same posts at the top, from what I've seen. Switching the sort to hot generally shows more fresh content in my experience. You can block communities on the web version using the red button on the right, in what I think is the sidebar, although that might be hidden on a phone. This site looks to be helpful for finding communities as well.
I'll give the different sorting a try, but I don't feel like it's made much of a difference. I'm on mobile, so I'm trying out different apps. Currently have like 4 different ones installed. I can find the block community button in two of them, but clicking it does nothing.
My guess is this is just growing pains issues. I do appreciate the site recommendation.
Almost none of those apps existed a few weeks ago so give it a little time and they'll be more polished. Sync is coming in a month or so and I'm expecting good stuff.