Gotta have a requirement for people to upload an avatar when they make an account (and make the avatars a little bit bigger). Something about old forums seemed like a little village/community because you don't have to rely on "nametags" (i.e. reading people's username), but rather, you just know people by their avatars. I can still vividly remember people's usernames and avatars from an old forum I'd go on when I was a kid. (yes, I know I don't have an avatar. I'll do it eventually lol)

I do think lemmy, at least on my instance and the communities I have subscribed to, seems pretty joyous already. It's not fake-happy like instagram and it isn't doomer-posting ragebait like reddit. For years, I felt stuck in a social monoculture I didn't really feel comfortable inside of. There's a struggle here and some people put a LOT of effort into their messages to more clearly explain their side. I've probably "saved" more messages here than I ever did on reddit just so I can look things up when I get a chance or use for reference later. It's pretty amazing! It's the first time I've felt hopeful about a social forum in a long time.

[now's the part where I do the thing you said not to mention]

To make lemmy as a whole joyous instead of individually joyous servers that all despise each other, there must be a solution to the political conflicts between the servers. People who lived in the USSR would reminisce about how kind people were to each other back then and I think that probably would follow the same logic in online communities. To make lemmy truly joyous, we have to have a global revolution for the working class.