this post was submitted on 30 Sep 2023
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Asklemmy

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Since my favorite reddit app came to Lemmy I'm really keen on getting more people into the fediverse to pump up the volume of content around here. Are there any initiatives that we can assist to get folks onboard?

I had my wife join, and she likes it, but laments the slow pace of new material in the communities.

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[–] [email protected] 178 points 1 year ago (11 children)

laments the slow pace of new material in the communities.

Participation. We need more of it. Like...a lot more of it.

Lurkers shouldn't lurk, and people should give others the benefit of the doubt far more often than they ever did on Reddit, if they ever did at all. Make Lemmy a community where engagement is valuable and fun and actually useful.

[–] [email protected] 103 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Artificial engagement only gets you so far.

I only say something when I have something to say. If I don't, then it becomes a chore.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I try to say it when I have something to say though. I didn't always bother on Reddit.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago

Mostly this

On Reddit I usually didn't comment anything, even if I had something to say. I do comment here, and a big part is that more people actually engage here.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Oh, right. The poison. The poison for Kuzco, the poison chosen especially to kill Kuzco, Kuzco's poison.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

Sudden, but appreciated reference to The Emperor's New Groove.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago

To add to this, artificial engagement is disingenuous. It's akin to corporate-owned comment sections inviting people to "speak their mind" which, of course, no one does.

It's a balance that should be kept: being willing to contribute, but not feeling forced to contribute. Quality begets quality, and if we compromise on quality chasing quantity, we would end up copying the worst of Reddit.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yeah, don't just post for the sake of posting. Find something you're interested in and try to be active there. If a community doesn't exist, make one!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

This is daunting. I don't want to make one. I have a full-time job and a house to take care of. I haven't had a day off in over a month. I'm not set up to moderate a community. I'm not even set up to vet moderators. People say this on Lemmy all the time like it's the easiest thing in the world. It's not for everyone.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

That's just the state that Lemmy is in right now. It's not a massive community like Reddit is. It's not easy! It's very time consuming, and probably not a very rewarding experience. However, if you want to use Lemmy that's probably the best solution. Either that or come back when it's a more mature software. You would have had a similar experience in the early days of Reddit.

[–] [email protected] 37 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

OC brings people. Adopt a community you wish was bigger and make a personal commitment to post to it daily.

For bonus points convince two other people to adopt their own community. We'll pyramid scheme this sucker with content.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)

That's what I did over on kbin. I'm responsible for posting 95+% of pro wrestling news on Lemmy/kbin, and another person sets up most of the discussions. The community wasn't picking up speed back during the early redditpocalypse. Now we're getting tons of activity.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Nice!

You're our LemLM success story. We'll put you on the cover of non-existent magazine.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

A non-existent magazine suits my looks so that works out perfectly!

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (2 children)

So I was wishing that r/korea woukd be a thing on lemmy, I found an instance hosted in Korea and subscribed. I started posting, now after like 3 month it's full of only my own posts, each gets 3-7 upvotes and every 5th gets a comment from someone outside of Korea ^^.

I feel that if I'm the only one posting anyway I perhaps should bring it to my own instance which I have controll over and could moderate if it became necessary. I have no idea who is the admin of that one.

[email protected]

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I had no idea that [email protected] existed until you posted about it.

I am in Korea regularly. I joined the community.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

The instance is a little small and the community doesn't have many users. It could help advertising it a little so interested people find out about it. Looks like someone even made a post after your comment.

This is a community I help with, but there are others like it: [email protected]

perhaps should bring it to my own instance which I have controll over and could moderate if it became necessary. I have no idea who is the admin of that one.

I agree. I've been shying away from some instances. Since that community is small anyway, you could make it on your own / find a different instance for it.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

MLMEMMY LEMLMY MLEMMYM

I dunno which one works, but the only way we’ll get enough Huns to pull this off is with a solid tagline.

Maybe something like, β€œUpvote your down line, lest ye receive downvotes from your up line.”

[–] [email protected] 34 points 1 year ago (3 children)
[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

Is that true though? I used to be a major lurker, but now I post relatively often. I think having other people post about stuff you care about, rather than just screenshots of other websites, can be a big factor.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

commenters gonna comment

posters gonna post

[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It took a serious change in attitude for me to not become a lurker anymore. I always figured that if I have nothing interesting to say, I should just be quiet.
Eventually I realized that people are often happy to just get some feedback and interaction, even if it isn't the most interesting or original response. As long as it's done in a positive and friendly manner, you're creating a sense of community.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

Yes! One kind comment is worth 1000 snarky or rude ones.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago

Lurkers shouldn’t lurk

you're not my real dad!

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Very much this. Every time you see something interesting make a post about it please. It doesn't need to be polished. You don't need to worry about it.

Save hot takes and negativity for posts made by bots. Pay attention to who is posting what, because the poster has to see that negativity and it is not sustainable. You are making every comment to a person. When you bitch about a title or article, it is going to a person that gets a notification and has to see it. Everyone that has tried to do this regularly with the goal of just making regular posts has quit, myself included. It is straight up unhealthy from a mental health perspective to have to read or see what the bottom 5% sludge post. This is one reason why we have so many bots and memes.

The single biggest change that would make this place better would be a negativity filter to wreck the few mental health patients that are always on here down voting every new post. Simply filter for the 0.01% of users with abnormal negativity and sandbox them so they are the only ones that see their own negativity. Posting something here for the first time and seeing this kind of response right away is totally disenfranchising. People that troll the world like this belong in little sandboxes of their own sadistic self gratification. I think down votes are useful and important, but their abuse should be eliminated systematically.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

Sometimes (probably most times) people don't have anything to add to a conversation. In these moments it's better not to comment at all. Just look at how shitty reddit is with dozens of people making the same stupid joke in the comments on any popular post. Quality is better than quantity.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

I think giving the benefit of doubt is extremely important. Being welcoming to newcomers, slowly integrating them into the different culture here, will help a lot (FTR I'm new myself, only been here a few months).

That's not to say we should give every jackass a soapbox to stand on, but at least learn if they're willing to converse in good faith before shouting them down.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'm a lurker, but want to contribute. It took a lot to get an account (and then got a bunch of hate because I picked lemmy.world), but I can't find any guidance on how to create a new sub. Is there any advice on that?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

got a bunch of hate because I picked lemmy.world

That was rude of them. I usually recommend people start with lemmy.world, and then move to something else if they want to, once they get a feel for what they want.

Is there any advice on that?

I'll see if I can find a guide, but it's fairly simple. On desktop, you click on "Create Community" at the top. This will create a community (the equivalent of a subreddit) (for you it will be on lemmy.world). After that, you should pick a good name since you can't change that (it's the thing that goes in the url, like if you did cats: lemmy.ca/c/cats. Everything else you can change up later on. I found it easier to learn by doing.

If you want to make a community on a different instance, you will need to create an account on that instance, make the community the same way, and then add your original account as a moderator. This is more annoying, so I'd recommend just making communities on your home instance for now.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yes. I have this issue in a new subs that people want to lurk but not post. Really hard to keep posting.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Stay strong, it's the hardest phase. After a while, other people will post too.

Also, take breaks if you need to.