There was talk of someone populating a Lemmy instance with reddit data.

There is a lot of reddit data on a torrent somewhere aparrently.

ahhh thank you!

@derivator@feddit.de is the creator I believe.

not sure if that is the right way to @ some so here is their profile:https://feddit.de/u/derivator)

I don’t really think Lemmy.ml will have very good retention of new users. Because:

1. New users will mostly come from reddit or mastodon.
2. Most users of reddit and mastodon willing to leave are anti corporate, anti authoritarian, anti-war, pro human rights.
3. A lot of posts that you see on Lemmy (either from Lemmy.ml or lemmygrad) are pro-russia, pro china or anti-western to the point of being really annoying. Its not fun to talk to people without a hint of nuance.

So it is not surprising that new users will get turned off by this and leave (or move to beehaw).