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Addressing the Exponential Growth of Communities (lemmynsfw.com)

submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by OptimusPrime@lemmynsfw.com to c/lemmyworld@lemmy.world

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Over the past few days, I've witnessed a remarkable surge in the number of communities on browse.feddit.de. What started with 2k communities quickly grew to 4k, and now it has reached an astonishing 8k. While this exponential growth signifies a thriving platform, it also brings forth challenges such as increased fragmentation and the emergence of echo chambers. To tackle these issues, I propose the implementation of a Cross-Instance Automatic Multireddit feature within Lemmy. This feature aims to consolidate posts from communities with similar topics across all federated instances into a centralized location. By doing so, we can mitigate community fragmentation, counter the formation of echo chambers, and ultimately foster stronger community engagement. I welcome any insights or recommendations regarding the optimal implementation of this feature to ensure its effectiveness and success.

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[-] OptimusPrime@lemmynsfw.com 26 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Cross-instance "multireddits", that are also automatic and topic-based. #1113

TL;DR: The suggestion is to implement an automatic multireddit feature in Lemmy that displays all posts from communities with the same name across federated instances. It aims to promote decentralization, avoid echo chambers, and ensure high availability. Community moderators would have the option to opt-in or opt-out their communities from being displayed. There are discussions about potential issues such as community name collisions, duplicates, abuse, and practical implementation. Some propose using a new link format, while others suggest providing users with a list of related communities.

[-] socialjusticewizard@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 year ago

I think what I'd prefer is a more supported version of Reddit crossposting... I'm brand new so stop me if Lemmy already does something like this. For example, if someone has a vegetarian recipe community, a more general vegetarian community might automate a feature to crosspost their content, with clear linkage to the source... But a new discussion thread as the default in the crossposting community.

This allows the different related communities to choose their own moderation and regulation, but can also allow communities to be content aggregators.

[-] true_blue@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 year ago

I can definitely see name-collisions being an issue, where communities on different instances have the same community "ID", but aren't actually about the same thing. I'm still overall in favor of the basic idea though.