I’m seeing some very encouraging signs here. There’s a lot of discussion about the platform itself on the platform (I’m looking at you Ham Radio nuts talking about talking on the radio…) but there’s a fair chunk of people discussing links and topics of interest, the thing it needs most to survive. In other words, people are actually using it for its intended purpose and seeing some success in doing so.
The technical issues are actively being solved as the platform explodes in size practically overnight.
As for that ineffable quality of how the community feels? That has yet to be determined. The bots are on the way, and it’s up to humans to choose how they will conduct themselves in the face of hostile bots and astroturfers who wish to sow discord.
I have a love/hate relationship with desktop web apps on Linux. They are a great blessing in some ways because I get to run apps that just wouldn’t be available to me otherwise because Linux typically isn’t a priority for consumer-focused services. Often support exists as a convenient bonus because it came with the web app platform choice.
On the other hand, you get a web app, which looks nice (hopefully) but gobbles down your resources.