Start telling people now, over on reddit. BEFORE they start cracking down. That way, everyone will know, and the growth will happen even more rapidly.
Start telling people now, over on reddit. BEFORE they start cracking down. That way, everyone will know, and the growth will happen even more rapidly.
I straight up don’t understand the appeal of a bigger userbase here. More users isn’t inherently better, and will definitely introduce more issues and problem users that will tax our still developing and somewhat fragile platform. Wanting that “instantly” is just asking for the collapse of Lemmy, imo.
It will help more niche communities grow. I left reddit, generally don’t miss it. I also give zero shits about tech, programming and Linux. I am a sports fan though, big NBA fan. There’s just zero conversation on those instances. I would like to see the user base grow so I can engage some conversations about those interests. I sure as shit ain’t going outside and making friends lol
Big this.
I am still interested in the mentioned tech, programming ad linux communities but the biggest issue is definitely smaller communities lacking in numbers. But I see more and more users and conversations on here over time. It has definitely increased since I joined. Hopefully we’ll see the smaller communities grow as well.
I am with you. I don’t care about what the loonix lunatics and privacy criminals preach (I already use uwunutu btw), I just wanna see interaction in the regular normal people communities without the reddit garbage. We need more people in here for that.
There’s really zero guarantee that any number of additional users will improve your communities. What would work better is seeding discussions yourself. Is it going to be as robust and abundant as Reddit? No. But the platform is also much newer. All of those subs grew over time because people put in the effort to participate even when the was “zero conversation”. You might be taking to yourself for a while, but setting the stage will be much better for the growth you want to see rather than aiming to fill it with random users you just hope make it better and not worse.
Bro, I’ve tried. Mods do a good job on the instances putting up content. But I’m hoping to get my news from those instances. Outside of that I get my news from podcasts. Not really sharable content for this platform. I’ve had like 3 replies from about 20 comments and it’s rare for a post to reach double digit up votes. I’ll for sure water plants but I’m kind of over planting seeds. I mod a couple nsfw communities so I’m doing my part.
Yeah, it’s not an easy thing to do. It can certainly feel like wasted effort, but “over planting” is just the best way to get communities going. Most people that would otherwise engage are too sheepish to make posts of their own, but are more willing to add on to other’s posts. Glad your willing to put in the effort.
Lemmy’s biggest weakness right now is a slow drip feed of content. After blocking all of the sports communities and instances in languages I don’t speak, I’m left with the following:
None of this is bad content per say, but it doesn’t capture what I loved about reddit before they ruined it. Reddit was a place where even the most niche of niche topics had a space that you could check in on every day. Obscure anime, unusual collections, diy showcases, you name it. Cultivating a culture that produces produces such specific groups requires enough people to form them. In a group of 100 random people, the number of them who are into Ginga Nagareboshi Gin (look it up) is going to be quite low, but that number increases the more people you include in the sample size and sooner or later you have a subreddit for Ginga fans. That was why Reddit was special to me, and that is what’s keeping Lemmy from reaching that high for me.
Sounds like you just want people to provide content for you. Zero-effort entertainment at your convenience, platform be damned.
Considering your have 2 posts to your name, I’d recommend being the change you want to see in the world. If you want a community for your interest, you can’t expect it to just appear for you, fully formed. Find the one you’re ignoring because it’s “too slow” and get involved. The reason it’s so “dead” is that most people think like you are.
It’s estimated that about 10% of users actually participate in the forums they visit, with 1% of that making the majority of “content”. Imagine what it would look like if that changed? We don’t need to throw more users into the platform that will tax the system, we just need to stop expecting everyone else to entertain us and start contributing.
Oh, I’m so sorry. I didn’t realize that you had to make a certain number of posts before you were allowed to criticize the platform. /s
Seriously though, there’s no need to get hostile. Having a hobby isn’t supposed to feel like work.
Browsing a website without any effort on your part isn’t a “hobby”. And if you have zero interest in being part of the solution (ie doing the work), then no, your criticism isn’t needed. Communities take work to maintain and build. Bemoaning the state of them without actually being involved is truly counterproductive.
That’s just wishful thinking that doesn’t address the problem at all. Even though you might want the 90-9-1 ratio to change, it isn’t. It’s an established pattern for a reason. Even if the person you responded to was gonna post a lot, they might get a few upvotes, maybe a comment or two on their posts. Simply because there aren’t enough people here to engage with niche topics. And then it feels like your effort is futile (which honestly it is if your goal is an active community), they get discouraged and stop posting and we’re back to square one with no meaningful changes. Sometimes it is about numbers and this is one such case.
Nah, it’s simply defeatist to assume that ratio is inescapable. On big enough scales? Sure, it’ll probably fall around those percentages. But in small communities like we have on Lemmy, there’s absolutely no reason only one person in a community of <100 should be expected to provide 100% of the posts or comments. We can and should do better than that, and the best way to turn those 90% lurkers into posters is too encourage engagement and reward it with our own. Will it work for every community on Lemmy? No. But there’s no reason not to encourage it. It could only help.
Most communities on Reddit barely have any content. While Lemmy will never have the user base of Reddit, some more engagement would be great.
Gatekeeping like this will kill lemmy.
I’m not “gatekeeping”. Lemmy can and will grow fine on it’s own. That will be great. Campaigning to increases the user base by 500x “instantly” will just cause problems. I get people want more content, but wanting this platform to be the new Reddit overnight is simply unrealistic and frankly dangerous for the site. The platform maintained by volunteers, not a corporation, and it is regularly facing problems that it already struggles to deal with effectively. A Reddit sized userbase would just destroy Lemmy.
We’re already larger than Reddit was pre Digg/Slashdot migration. I personally believe we won’t ever have another major migration like Rexxit, but that’s mostly because the MSM will absolutely super babby hate the idea that they can’t control the flow of information, again, so they will refuse to even refer to the fediverse as anything other than Reddit, Meta, or X.
More users = more lifetime, for the platform. At the current level, I estimate that this platform will last about two years. Maybe three. Less, if some kind of significant problem occurs.
You’re right that the instant part could be dangerous. That could be the significant problem I just mentioned. But otherwise, Lemmy needs more users, desperately. All internet things have to grow or die. You can wish that wasn’t a fact, but it will remain a fact.
Based on what? I too can pull a number out of my arse and estimate the platform will last exactly 18,345 years from today, that doesn’t actually mean anything.
To me it looks like they think of the Internet like corporations do and needing growth to justify investment. I think that’s fair reasoning for sites that are profit driven but Lemmy isn’t.
Lemmy was already 3 years old when the API fiasco started. It didn’t need the users merely to survive.
But in the context of the meme, more users means more content which Is a good thing.
That’s all I meant.
No it depends entirely on your audience if your doing a yt kids channel sure because they grow up but if your targeting loyal users u don’t really need to
There IS still a minimum number of them that you need, in order to truly make the community secure against rotting away, naturally.
As I explained to someone else, if you come in here one day, and you realize that it’s been three weeks since you’ve seen a new post, you WILL eventually stop coming back to check. And then the few people who remain will also stop interacting with the platform. And it will die.
I don’t know the exact number of people that the particular community (or the Fediverse, in general) needs to be permanently viable, but it’s somewhere between 20 and 100 times more people than we currently have. Maybe more.
That’s not up for debate. It’s simply a cold, hard fact. You don’t have to like it, but it’s not optional.
I mean look back 8 months at the number of comments and post upvotes, Lemmy has been worthwhile at a larger userbase than now and as long as the influx isn’t too much (Eternal September style) the community can continue to grow. People who dont fit in will go back to reddit or find their own place somewhere in the fediverse where the old heads won’t have to put up with them. I dont understand the insularism, although I only got here about 2 months ago so maybe I need to lurk more and read the room.
“Grow or die”. What a bunch of corporate bs. And throwing out made up “lifetimes” doesn’t lend you the legitimacy you think it does.
Lemmy doesn’t “desperately need” more users. What it needs is less of this nonsense.
I’m sorry, but I’m simply correct about this. If you come in here in about a year’s time, and there haven’t been any new posts in three weeks, you WILL leave the platform, too.
You won’t intend to. You won’t do it out of spite. You’ll just keep checking for new posts, less and less frequently, until you eventually give up.
Growth is THE ONLY WAY to prevent that situation. Does that mean Lemmy has to “go corporate” and start monetizing everything? No. Does that mean Lemmy has to become as huge as Reddit? No. I don’t want that. I don’t want this place to become so big that it inevitably repeats all the mistakes that Reddit made, over the years.
But the Lemmy/Fediverse platform absolutely does have to grow larger than this, in order to become a permanent, secure thing.
Feel free to explain why that “will” happen without infinite growth.
I just did. Allow me to repeat it:
If you come in here in about a year’s time, and there haven’t been any new posts in three weeks, you WILL leave the platform, too.
You won’t intend to. You won’t do it out of spite. You’ll just keep checking for new posts, less and less frequently, until you eventually give up.
Growth is THE ONLY WAY to prevent that situation.
THESE ARE FACTS. THEY ARE NOT OPTIONAL.
EDIT: Also, I specifically said that the growth didn’t need to be infinite. But yeah, you go ahead and claim that I said that. Go ahead and just blatantly lie about what I said. Great intellectual honesty, right there.
So your explanation on why it will happen is that it will happen? You understand how nonsensical that is, right? YELLING that it’s a “fact” doesn’t make it so.
HOW MANY TIMES DO I HAVE TO SAY THIS???
IF. YOU. COME. TO. THIS. PLATFORM. AND. THERE. HAVEN’T. BEEN. ANY. POSTS. FOR. WEEKS.
YOU. WILL. LEAVE.
That is a fact. if you deny it, you are simply insane. We do not currently have enough people to avoid a situation where there can suddenly be days/weeks of time with no new posts, and certainly no good ones.
If that happens, the community will die. It’s like I’m saying “if you let go of a bowling ball in Earth’s gravity, it will hit the floor,” and you’re like “BUT PROVE IT! HOW DO YOU KNOOOOOW THAT’LL HAPPEN???”
It’s bloody goddamned obvious. This community is BEYOND TEENY TINY SMALL, right now. This SubLemmy has 1.8 thousand people active per day. That’s 75 per hour. You can fit that many people into a mid-sized bus. IT’S NOT ENOUGH PEOPLE TO GUARANTEE CONTINUED EXISTENCE.
Scream all you want, you’ll never make me incorrect about this.
Yeah, I’m the one screaming. Ok, bud.
Fyi, repeating the same made up scenario isn’t an explanation, nor does it remotely approach “fact”. You keep pulling bs figures like “2-3 years” and “20-100 times more users” with zero elaboration, then freak out when the hollowness of your statements is pointed out. News flash: “facts” have corroborating evidence and backing that can be shown to others. What you have done so far has none of that except your repeated insistence that you are right because you said you are.