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Meta: How can we grow this community? (programming.dev)

submitted 10 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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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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[–] [email protected] 6 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (2 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.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 10 months ago

That's true. If you are a rust beginner, you find so many good posts on Reddit for simple questions just by googling. Lemmy never pops up with a good answer.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 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.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 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.

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

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.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago

Yup, "outrage sells" is very much a thing here as it is on the Internet at large. The best we can do imo is to post a lot of the positive stuff as well, and hopefully enough people engage to make it interesting.