You think 8k MAU is a chicken and an egg problem though?

No.

Any moron can flood a community with content. All it takes is an RSS bot and thirty minutes of free time. Take a look at !fantasyfootballnewswire@lemmy.inbutts.lol. Don't subscribe to that community on Lemmy or it will drown out all other posts once the NFL goes to training camp.

(Following the community on Mastodon, in its own list, works wonders.)

Maybe ask the community if they want your contribution before whipping it out.