I think of both as “ranked-threaded discussion” because I basically have no interest in their capacity as link aggregators, and rarely interact with link posts.

“Link aggregator” is more appropriate than news aggregator.

It’s no more or less a news aggregator than Facebook. You may find something relating to news on lemmy but you’re just as likely to find a drawing of a couple furries fisting each other.

I consider the site an online community where anyone can participate in or create a category to discuss anything under the sun.

social news site seems to fit pretty well