317

Why are so many people so fixated on Lemmy's growth? (lemmy.ca)

submitted 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) by AstralPath@lemmy.ca to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world

105 comments fedilink hide all child comments

...relative to Reddit's size?

I see so many posts and comments voicing disappointment with Lemmy's lack of massive expansion.

I too want to see Lemmy gain more users, but I do not want it to grow to Reddit's size. If Reddit is the yardstick, I'd say that a population that large attracts a lot of negative behaviours; degeneration of discourse, amplification of echo chambers and hive mind behaviour, etc...

I started on Reddit in 2010 and found that by 2016 things were really bad in comparison. A fun and engaging site was experiencing an obvious devolution that persists to this day, accelerated by Spez's enshittification of the platform. Obviously the fediverse insulates us from that occurring here but I think you get what I mean.

Do you you think Lemmy is too small? I don't. I've been here since the great migration last year and have had a really good time. I see a lot of familiar names in the comments on a daily basis. It actually feels like a community here. I guess I just don't understand the fixation on the size of Lemmy's user base. Curious to hear your thoughts.

[EDIT] Thanks for all the responses, everyone! Lots of perspectives I hadn't yet considered.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[-] v4ld1z@lemmy.zip 20 points 1 month ago

As a mod of three niche Soulslike communities, one of which that probably has less than 10 active users at best, it's really hard to put out quality content and keep a community alive all on your own. I had to resort to a bot filling two of the communities with regular posts so there is some semblance of life in the communities, but reception has been mixed so far and the engagement didn't grow as much as I had hoped.

Unfortunately, I don't see any other way for these communities to be sustainable if like 95% of users on here are lurkers. Plus, I'm not the best fit for moderation and pumping out posts asking for engagement constantly since I'm a lurker at heart myself.

'All' is pretty good, though. It's where I spend most my time on Lemmy.

[-] Blaze@sopuli.xyz 6 points 1 month ago

Feel free to join on !fedigrow@lemm.ee

[-] v4ld1z@lemmy.zip 3 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Am subscribed already, haven't really checked it out yet. Thanks for the reminder

[-] Blisterexe@lemmy.zip 2 points 1 month ago

I think itd make more sense to not have /c/ommunities dedicated to certain games, just post that stuff on /c/games

[-] v4ld1z@lemmy.zip 5 points 1 month ago

I get the idea, but I think general all-purpose games communities are just too general

[-] Blaze@sopuli.xyz 4 points 1 month ago

Maybe one community for Soulslike that you would promote on the weekly !newcommunities@lemmy.world thread would be a good compromise?

[-] v4ld1z@lemmy.zip 3 points 1 month ago

I already did that for all three communities back when I created them. Reception for the last one was quite good, I thought!

[-] Blaze@sopuli.xyz 3 points 1 month ago

Feel free to promote them weekly, there are always new people joining

[-] v4ld1z@lemmy.zip 2 points 1 month ago

Gotcha 👍🏻

this post was submitted on 08 Aug 2024

317 points (100.0% liked)

Ask Lemmy

26291 readers

831 users here now

A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions

Rules: (interactive)

1) Be nice and; have fun

Doxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them

2) All posts must end with a '?'

This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?

3) No spam

Please do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.

4) NSFW is okay, within reason

Just remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either !asklemmyafterdark@lemmy.world or !asklemmynsfw@lemmynsfw.com. NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].

5) This is not a support community.

It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions. If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email info@lemmy.world. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.

Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.