When it first popped up I made an account and took a look. I liked the 'free speech' and 'all are welcome' sales pitch. But at the time it was mostly vacant, and I didn't really like the layout.
I've gone back a couple times to have a quick look, and it's getting ugly. Maybe I'm not setting up my account or preferences or something, but when I logged in and clicked on 'categories' then 'philosophy' and got a page full of images with memes and other empty content. When I clicked on 'science' I got a page filled with discussions about gender or climate change, and nothing else.
Did I accidentally put gab into voat-mode?
Also, it just doesn't have a community feel. More like being in the midst of a mob. There's no compartmentalization, it's all one big group rather than a union of smaller groups.
I don't get it.
What's the appeal, or what am I doing wrong?
Right now the big thing is content. Make some posts, ask some questions, mostly just get to know everyone. We're a pretty diverse group even though there aren't that many of us. Not all features are well marked or obvious to what they do. The site is mostly python and js, but @jobes is floating around here somewhere. He does that silly C something stuff too.
/s/askphuks, /s/ideasforphuks, /s/phuksdev, and the subs page are good places to get started, though they haven't been too active recently. Pretty much everyone sees posts in /s/whatever if your topic doesn't really fit into a specific sub.
edit: oops, I didn't answer part of it, the donate page has links to the various options.