There is an ongoing study showing that artificial sweeteners (Aspartamein particular) cause cancer.

All those people trying to stay healthy to drinking diet things… are giving themselves cancer instead.

Yes, people still use it all the time. More people use IRC day to day than they do Lemmy at the moment. Though Lemmy’s numbers are close without the bots. Lemmy will overtake IRC soon if it’s not already. I’ve got a v3 IRC client right here on my desktop.