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Meta: How can we grow this community? (programming.dev)
submitted 2 years ago by to c/rust@programming.dev
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The title says it all: How can we grow the Rust community here on Lemmy? Many users fled Reddit or are here for different reasons. But compared to it's commercial big brother, the Rust community here, feels more or less dead. I would like to discuss ideas, on how we can changes that and make Lemmy the default for Rust related discussions, instead of Reddit.

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[–] 6 points 2 years ago* (8 children)

I don't think this works. The communities which are successful here on Lemmy are the ones where a large group of people left Reddit at once. For example the piracy people or the german meme community and a few other examples.

I've seen several communities in which one or individuals post daily, but it somehow doesn't really lead to more engagement. It stays more or less the newsfeed of that person. It is better than a dead community and a few people read it and maybe upvote, but I've never seen this approach generate traction and change things around in a substancial way.

At least that's my observation. Feel free to send me counterexamples if I'm wrong... I'm also interested in how to foster healthy and nice communities... But at this point I have no solution to offer.

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  • [–] 3 points 2 years ago (7 children)

    @h3ndrik @Blamemeta I wonder if having fakebut interesting comments would help (ie. written by alt-account of the author) . I noticed that I have significantly higher chances to participate in the conversation if there are already 5-6 comments than 0-2, especially if they open the dialog.

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  • [–] 6 points 2 years ago* (5 children)

    I think we just need more open ended posts. A lot are just "check out this blog post," which is super long and technical so little just nope out.

    If most of your posts are like that, you'll get minimal engagement, and people with more "basic" questions may be intimidated to post.

    So post some stuff like, "I went to do X in Rust, but the borrow checker isn't happy. Can someone explain what I'm doing wrong?" I think that'll drive some engagement and encourage others to post similar questions. I don't want this community to only be code reviews and whatnot, but a mix can help the community feel a bit less weighty.

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  • [–] 4 points 2 years ago* (3 children)

    Yes. I agree. A majority of the posts in my timeline is just someone posting the news. Lots of the posts get no engagement. Upvotes, yes, but zero comments. I kind of dislike it. I already have a feed reader and I don't view Lemmy as a news feed... I'm here for the discussions.

    So, news maybe, if people engage and use this to write their 2 cents beneath that. But I'd definitely appreciate genuine conversations and helping people or just talking or learning things.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago* (2 children)

    I see it as a news feed with discussion, but a news feed first and foremost. But either way, I like engagement too, sometimes people bring up really good points that aren't in the original article.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago* (1 child)

    Hmmh. I think 'link aggregator' is somewhere in the description. You're right. My issue is that oftentimes it doesn't work because it's just the link and no comment. While hackernews or my favorite tech blog with just their (unfederated) readership has dozens or hundreds of comments to the same thing. And sometimes I ask a question about the news article and don't get a reply. It often feels like the people posting just dump random news without engaging and the community also just scroll past...

    I'd be okay if it were a news feed WITH discussion...

    Maybe I'm a bit negative. That's mainly because I envision Lemmy to be more. And there are news articles that get attention. But I got a bit disappointed with that. In my eyes it's mainly world politics and negative articles that get people to express their opinion and dissent. Rarely the positive ones. And I need a balance. I'm okay with discussing the wars in the world and the rise of right-wing nuts or useless politicians if I get on the other hand positive news, meaningful discussions about OpenAI's Sora, computers and societal and technogogical progress. But it's a bit skewed here, one thing happens, the other one gets 3 comments at best. I understand it, it's always easier to disagree or talk about emotional topics. And it's the same on other platforms. But it got me mildly annoyed with people and I restrain myself a bit from being part of that. I've lately focused more on talking about my hobbies, answering personal questions and helping people with tech issues. And less politics and news. But that's just my 2 cents and I don't want to tell anybody what to do.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago

    Sure. I think there is a name for that specific kind of sockpuppeting but I don't remember. People do that, comment on their own post and it works. I don't think it's bad per se. What works best is replying something outrageous or wrong... Because people like to object and correct people more than they do write positive comments.

    In my opinion it needs to be genuine. I'm okay with lots if things if people are interested in an answer. What I don't like is artificial boosting of engagement or manipulation. If people only do it so the number of comments increases and they aren't really interested in my answer... It just wastes 10 minutes of my day replying to them instead of helping someone with their computer troubleshooting.

    Ultimately, I'm not sure where Lemmy is headed. I had quite some good conversations here. And I had some bad encounters. Overall I think it's a positive place. I don't think we have to grow just for the sake of it. But we definitely need more people and more engagement to make some communities useful.

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