How can we boost Lemmy membership?

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.

scrubbles,
@scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech avatar

Unfortunately it’s just a waiting game really, we grow slowly. Bringing people over is good, but they’ll follow the content. As people come, posters will come too, and commenters, and then that’s what ultimately brings over the rest.

PeepinGoodArgs,

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.

Blizzard,

Lurkers gonna lurk.

Granixo,
@Granixo@feddit.cl avatar
unreachable,
@unreachable@lemmy.world avatar

commenters gonna comment

posters gonna post

oscardejarjayes,

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.

deweydecibel,

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.

President_Pyrus,
@President_Pyrus@feddit.dk avatar

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

otter,
@otter@lemmy.ca avatar

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.

joemo,

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!

atrielienz,

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.

joemo,

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.

megane_kun,

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.

Bishma,
@Bishma@discuss.tchncs.de avatar

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.

GeekFTW,

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.

Bishma,
@Bishma@discuss.tchncs.de avatar

Nice!

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

GeekFTW,

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

HonkTonkWoman,

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, “Upvote your down line, lest ye receive downvotes from your up line.”

Bishma,
@Bishma@discuss.tchncs.de avatar

LemLM?

jeena,
@jeena@jemmy.jeena.net avatar

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.

!korea

otter,
@otter@lemmy.ca avatar

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: !communitypromo

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.

reiver, (edited )
@reiver@flamewar.social avatar

I had no idea that !korea existed until you posted about it.

I am in Korea regularly. I joined the community.

zainitopia,

Lurkers shouldn’t lurk

you’re not my real dad!

j4k3, (edited )
@j4k3@lemmy.world avatar

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.

thelsim,
@thelsim@sh.itjust.works avatar

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.

LibertyLizard,
@LibertyLizard@slrpnk.net avatar

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

BarterClub,

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

Blaze,
@Blaze@discuss.tchncs.de avatar

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

Also, take breaks if you need to.

bignate31,

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?

otter,
@otter@lemmy.ca avatar

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.

lightnsfw,

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.

XbSuper,

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.

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