I'm really enjoying lemmy personally. Its crazy thinking reddit is over for me after using it over a decade. I love it here. Been off reddit since early June ( not this account )
I'm in the same boat. Not as big makes things better. Recognising names immediately, feeling like you're more involved in community. The Picard Manoeuvre posting constantly.
Ohh, yes it does to people. I've had two idiots so far try to use downvotes to intimidate me to submitting to their opinion. It did not work on me because I am an asshole. They tried it because they believe it matters, and everyone else believes it matters too, otherwise they wouldn't be downvoting. Or upvoting, respectively.