It seems like any platform that features link aggregation is soon overrun by bots and self-promoters trying to drive traffic, and pages and pages of link posts versus pages and pages of people talking.
Are there any lemmy instances or other defederated networks that focus on Q&A, niche communities, and people conversing, instead?
Tildes.net
It’s pretty heavily curated, but it’s where I go for non-bot discussion on any variety of topics. Sorted hierarchically, and they keep out the riff raff pretty actively.
I originally wanted to join tildes, but I never could get an invite. so I just kinda abandoned it and moved to lemmy instead.
they seem to go more with a walled garden approach and I’m not sure I’m comfortable with that kind of environment. but I’m sure it works well for those who participate.
Tildes is pretty good. Metafilter.com is still going strong and I believe is open registration as well, both are heavily curated but have good conversations to peruse.