Build a good community, the growth will come

While a part of me doesn't think this will last forever, it's nice to be a part of a growing community in which you were a part from the relatively beginning (of an exodus, if we'll be more specific about it). It makes people feel more involved and closer to each other, and see each other beyond just being a random name or a number or a statistic. Honestly, the fact that there isn't a million eyes looking right now and scrutinizing every word I say gives me more confidence to simply... comment. Put myself out there. Like what I'm doing now. I've probably commented more in the past two days than I have from years on Reddit.

And I feel like even if it does get bigger (maybe not exponentially; I honestly doubt Reddit will lose a lot of people as some people just don't care for change. Look at Twitter :/ ), I feel like the fact I've been here from when it was in its infancy to whatever point it may become in the future would give me the courage to keep expressing myself.

Just my two cents!

the real treasure is the lovely human beings all around us

The longer ive stayed off reddit, the more I have grown the love the benifits of Lemmy. Discussions are civil, the vibe is a lot more chill and if anything, it invites users to participate. I wasn't sure if I would manage to avoid reddit given how addicted I was to it. Suddenly, I feel like I've found a better place...

I've noticed that with Lemmy and a couple other alternatives it feels like the first days of 4chan and Reddit. People are actually being civil and conversations are happening instead of people staying quiet because they know their comment will be lost in the thousands.

It's really relaxing tbh.

One of the major flaws of R*ddit was the upvote/karma feature, which turned posting into a performance and a popularity contes, as you've mentioned. I hope as Lenny and the fediverse develops, we can shed those features in favor of a more simple and equitable system.

I agree somewhat when it comes to the giant subreddits, but the best thing about Reddit is that there were vibrant communities around an absolutely high variety of interests. Some of those communities were reasonably sized, but provided excellent discussion. On a smaller service like Lemmy, those small communities become ghost towns, with 1-2 people in there, and that's not fun at all.

I think the beauty of a community-of-communites platform like Reddit/Lemmy is that we can have both in a way. Sub-communities should be encouraged; where high-level communities can grow for the increased engagement and content while sub-communities can remain small and connected.

I'm personally looking forward to growth here because I want niche communities to form like they did on reddit. And you can only do that when there's enough critical mass of users.

Bigger is not always better. Smaller communities are exactly why the old internet used to be better. Less centralization of userbases meant more productive discussion and friendlier communities.

I think you're 100% right, but frankly this issue is more important than just a nice home for us

Social networks are being pressured to start extracting value with interest rates no longer being nil, and their efforts aren't just inconvenient, they're bad for mental health.

And how long until they start selling control over debate to the highest bidder? Musk has pretty explicitly gone over plans to do exactly that - he wants to charge per-user to send out tweets to your subscribers. He says there would be a large limit before you have to start paying, but this is a great way to control voices that rise out of the crowd

Social media has been a disaster, but there's no putting it back in the box - it's the primary way we communicate. It's terrible for mental health and can be leveraged as a tool of control, so a decentralized system is very important right now

That being said, I think it'd be great if the fediverse encorages fragmented groups instead of a main subject monolith and refugees in fringe groups - smaller communities are just healthier and more fulfilling

Im old enough to miss chat rooms on aol. Anything like that still exist?

You are absolutely right, you are hitting the nail on the head with the issues I had with Reddit too. I was pretty much just a lurker because it seemed like every time I tried to reach out or make a connection with a community, it was largely unseen or ignored.

Cheers to a new start friend!

In general, I prefer quality over quantity. I never joined Reddit, and only visited under duress (i.e. troubleshooting Linux install & Reddit was the only place w/the info I needed).

For some reason, using Lemmy feels like I'm using old-school forums like EZBoard (I know...dating myself). I don't think that it needs to "become the next Reddit" to be an effective community platform.

Kind of a weird analogy, but it's like Mallrats...practically NOBODY saw it in theaters, but over time, it found its audience.

Just focus on quality community interactions, and the user base numbers will find the right level.

Better, not bigger.

I guess it depends on what you're here for. I'm not really looking for friends as much as insightful comments from people of similar interests. Quality posts need a certain amount of people to show up. Like the guy spending months and years making the perfect photo of the moon. Would that happen in a forum with ten people? I don't think so. Not to say that quality content wont happen here. It's all up to each and every one of us in the end, and people seem to leave longer comments of better quality and substance. Lets do our best and see where it goes!

I agree. I'm still hoping some subreddits will move over to Lemmy, but I'm really enjoying Lemmy anyhow. The Lemmy communities seem generally really positive so far and there is enough content for me to enjoy. It even helps with reducing my time lost on the internet while still providing me with the community and information-influx that I enjoy. Quality over quantity. I also really love the idea of the technical parts: federated, open source and self-hostable.

As a "reddit refuge" I agree with this. I showed up on Lemmy a few days before the blackout, and even that small amount of time has been enough to notice a difference. I know people are hoping to recreate the things about reddit they love/miss here, but I really hope it doesn't become a carbon copy of that place. Like many have said, I didn't feel the urge to engage on reddit since it just felt a bit pointless, no one was gonna read it. Here I've felt like I can actually have good conversations with people, and have been doing so. Ultimately things will be what they will be, but I hope we can maintain that friendly community feel for a while longer.

A concern that I haven't seen mentioned is Eternal September. Right now, Redditors are the school kids who are barging into someone else's space and trying to make it their own, without first knowing what the community is like.

The same thing happened on Reddit. I've always seen the Obama AMA as triggering Reddit's Eternal September, though it can be argued that it was happening before that. The influx of users killed the Alot Monster, and forget about anyone helping with grammar; they'd be ridiculed and downvoted into the negative. Then, Reddit got rid of the up/down counter altogether, so nobody coming from Facebook would end up with hurt feelings.

Anyhow, there's a risk that Redditors are going to ruin the fediverse. I'm new here and can already see it happening. Fingers crossed though, I'm staying optimistic!

Totally agree. We should worry less about coaxing redditors or about how many users joined etc etc. Interact with people. Post and comment. Create good content and share it. That's what drives engagement, and all of the other concerns depend on engagement.

Sort of sounds like my little Arizona town. "No, we don't want this economic opportunity, we like the town small and manageable!" The average age ten years ago was 55, and now it is 65. What is going to happen to the town in 20 years?

I am not interested in irc chats. Reddit was home to many interesting niche communities that are not replicated here.

On one hand, yes, it will be nice to not have posts or comments go unseen because they are lost amongst the masses. But without those masses, there is not enough to cover specific topics that have only a small community associated. This is even a larger problem due to to nature of the fediverse, were similar communities are being founded on different instances rather than a single community on the topic.

This is one of the biggest things I have been saying. While a bigger community is great, I’d be happy with a community of just 1% the size of Reddit. The small community vibe really gives me memories of the older days. Glad to see other people feel the same way.

Kek for now I just recognize @[email protected] because he's everywhere

I'm here for good. I quit reddit for a year and started peeking back again a couple weeks ago and saw all this drama unfold. This place is exactly what I have been looking for since reddit went south (years ago imo). Cheers everyone :)

I don't need size, but I would like diversity of communities. That implies a size to fill out niches, but it doesn't require it. It just needs niches to move. I can do without the default subs here happily.

You're right. I think there is a lower limit of required users, but if all the world moved to Lemmy by some miracle, most of the problems would be brought with them. I have the feeling Lemmy is a colelction of people missing the internet from before the big sites like facebook or reddit. It's been missing a long time and this is our chance to get it back :)

"Forget growth"

Helps grow lemmy

Completely agree..... I see so many posts with "I would like this feature from Reddit etc." But honestly, it's quite refreshing to have something different.

The API changes were just the straw that broke the camel for me as after 13 years plus on the platform, it didn't even resemble what I initially signed up for.

I legit hope Lemmy doesn't turn in to a Reddit 2.0 where every reply to question is someone trying to be a smart ass and where not conforming to the ideology of the masses gets you nuked.

I too remember the days of IRC and I remember sitting in certain channels where we would all take turns in staying silent and allowing someone on the chat to hit the record voice and play a Jazz song they loved. I would sit there all night listening to and sharing music with people from all over the world drinking beers and chatting among ourselves.

Man, the early days of work arounds and early internet I miss. Every night of surfing was seriously exciting as you never knew what you would stumble on or find. Now it's the same dozen websites over and over rinse and repeat.

Anyhow, nostalgia and gripe over..... I agree 100%.

I'm really enjoying Lemmy as is and don't want to be wishing it away any time soon !

i like that i almost dont see any short form video content, like why does evertything needs to be a tiktok clone now, give me text and pictures

This place is exactly what I have been looking for Glad I quit reddit

I kinda love the anonymity of Reddit, I could talk about my personal life with strangers who won't remember me within 5 minutes so I felt safe being open about things I can't talk about IRL even if I didn't get any feedback. I'm hoping that regardless of size, the communities here allow me to do that and still feel safe. Obviously I'll be more cautious here with a smaller user base, but I was still cautious on Reddit too because bad actors who would do you harm exist everywhere and can't be totally avoided if you engage online at all. Sometimes a larger user base simply helps alleviate the stress because you are just another random user rather than a recognisable user for people like me, but it definitely cuts both ways and sometimes people forget you are a human too. The quality of the community is absolutely the most important thing tho, and good communities will grow naturally.

Agreed. I don't want this place to explode. Smaller communities are ALWAYS better.

I agree completely. I like the feel of what's here so far. Changing to be appealing to the masses is exactly how Reddit got to where it is today

think the difference is community vs attention (or lack there of). while i personally am not currently looking for the latter, don't think i appreciated how much i enjoy the former until this whole spez driven melt down happened.

am sure things will evolve as they're meant to, in the meantime just happy to be here.

Can't agree on this.

Small irc network and reddit-like public communities are vastly different. Both have their worth. Lemmy is surely capable of either of them.

I was happy with a handheld CB radio hoping to catch a conversation with passing truckies, so yeah, you're good with me.