I don't know y'all, and when people interact, there's no true community here. I'll probably not remember most of your names, similar to reddit, digg, slashdot, etc etc...
That's actually what I like about these sorts of communities. I recognize a few super posters and a few specific regulars from communities I frequent. (@[email protected] I want you to know that I think about you and you matter <3) But mostly I'm dealing with disembodied ideas and content. It's a conversation with strangers who meet up to talk about certain subjects. We get little bits of each other in a vacuum. We have to address only that bit we're given, because we don't know each other.
I use other social media for real community. Lemmy is for camaraderie. We meet to do something, not to just be.
I would really like to foster a sense of community in the communities I’m active in. Mostly I try doing this by encouraging others to post, reference to other users by name like “nice to see you back, user” or, “you should ask user, they know more about this kind of thing”.
Referring to others by name does make a community seem more like a connected whole. At least in my opinion.
It’s nice to be recognized as a person and not just another comment.