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.

  • makeasnek@lemmy.ml
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    2 years ago

    We need a better site to link to than join-lemmy.org. It should concisely pitch lemmy to everyday users and suggest an instance for them to sign up at. Don’t get into the weeds about federation or choosing instances or selecting apps. Just select a sane default and point people to it. Rotate defaults to avoid overloading a given instance or making it too powerful.

        • Ategon@programming.dev
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          2 years ago

          The instance finder is built to encourage the use of topic specific instances rather than general use ones so that communities are grouped together better in the same site. The site can then manage all the communities effectively and have the site customized to accomodate them better (and make it feel more like a home for what you like looking at and discussion with others rather than one of many reddit clones)

          Categories are mainly so that people are sent to a topic instance that matches their interests. Science goes to mander, programming to p.d, sports to fanaticus, gaming to lemmy.zip, etc.

          If youve got some suggestions on how to improve it though let me know, still in progress

          • jelloeater@lemmy.world
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            2 years ago

            Sure! Maybe move Lemmy.World to general? I know we’re kind of a catch all instance. Other then that, great stuff.

            • Ategon@programming.dev
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              2 years ago

              lemmy.world is in general. Just instances appear in more than one spot (and some general communities appear for a category if they have the largest community for that category and theres no topic specific instances for it). For example of multiple spots lemmy.db.zer0 is in A.I., anarchist, and a couple others since it has those topics in it

  • linearchaos@lemmy.world
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    2 years ago
    1. We need to cut back the bot traffic a touch. All new people coming and see are a million posts with no participation. It’s good to have the content but we’re kind of lacking in curation and a lot of what’s coming over is not stuff we’re interested in commenting on. As long as we just keep carbon copying Reddit and Twitter and the Verge and hundreds of other places, we’re going to have a lot of empty post sitting around.

    2. Actual discourse and discussion needs to happen. We’re fairly low on trolls currently, which is a fantastic thing. But we also don’t have a lot of spicy takes either.

    3. More moderation, administration tools, better filters, easier ways to shut out bad actors. Right now the best we can do is defederate when somebody can’t manage their clientele. And we’re still way too bot-able.

    4. More migration tools something I can to what mastodon does if you need to move instances.

      • linearchaos@lemmy.world
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        2 years ago

        That’s what I’m doing too. But trying to bring people in and saying oh just block all the bots as the default is not optimal.

        • Sunforged@lemmy.world
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          2 years ago

          Welcome to the new web. Nothing is optimal, it’s a good intro for people. The setting is there and that’s what matters.

    • schnurrito@discuss.tchncs.de
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      2 years ago

      Where do you see bot traffic? From my observations, Lemmy has the opposite problem than what you describe in your point 1: all threads I see do get plenty of comments (not as many as reddit, but still plenty), but we get relatively few new threads. Or does that only happen in specific communities? I don’t look at communities I’m not subscribed to, maybe that is why.

      • linearchaos@lemmy.world
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        2 years ago

        Go hit up lemmyworld, hit all hit new.

        Every sport, every team, every game as a post. Every verge article ends up on every copy of technology on every service.

        • DogMuffins@discuss.tchncs.de
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          2 years ago

          wow ok I hadn’t realised. I only ever see the lemmit.online bot posts which kinda make me rage.

          If there’s multiple bots posting this spam then it’s not really a single-bot problem.

      • LillyPip@lemmy.ca
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        2 years ago

        ‘New’ is a bot orgy, which is a real shame because quality posts get lost in it and it’s harder for them to gain visibility and traction in the wider instance. If you stick to subscribed communities you won’t notice, but for new users who haven’t curated their communities yet (or people like me who just like discovering stuff I wouldn’t think to seek out specifically), browsing the general aggregate can be a great way to discover content and communities to follow.

        Or it would be, if it wasn’t bot bot bot bot bot bot thread, bot bot bot bot bot bot thread, bot bot thread, bot bot thread, bot bot bot bot bot bot bot bot bot bot bot bot bot, wait a minute, thread!

  • Margot Robbie@lemm.ee
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    2 years ago

    Make valuable original content here that’s not found elsewhere, post and comment thoughtfully as much as possible(No. Pun. Chains). Don’t try to turn this place into reddit, be better than reddit.

    People who are on reddit that wanted to come here right now has already done so, so it’s important to drew in people who has never used reddit before here instead of always waiting for reddit to do something stupid.

    Also less celeb gossip please, need a place where I can get away from that on the Internet.

    • jackpot@lemmy.mlBanned
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      2 years ago

      the last point should be ignored, the whole point of lemmy is to have as many communties as possible and subscribe to the ones you like. you can defederate ones you dont like

      • Margot Robbie@lemm.ee
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        2 years ago

        I respectfully disagree. The goal should always be to foster high quality discussion over raw quantity of comment and artificial engagement and the devs have said as much in their documentation of Lemmy’s design.

        Otherwise, this place would be no different from 9gag or imgur comment sections, much less reddit.

    • SirQuackTheDuck@lemmy.world
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      2 years ago

      Also less celeb gossip please, need a place where I can get away from that on the Internet.

      You get celeb gossip? I believe I’m somehow connected to the sewage hose that’s Elon Musk posts. I’d love for some more varied content instead of “[rich idiot] said [something incredibly stupid]”

  • fubarx@lemmy.ml
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    2 years ago

    Not-so-secret of Reddit success (vs other link aggregators) was that they allowed NSFW content. Set up a separate opt-in corner of Fediverse to post that stuff and a big chunk of reddit will migrate over.

  • atrielienz@lemmy.world
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    2 years ago

    If we could stop pretending we’re superior to other social media that might be a start. The number of posts talking shit about the “average redditor” or suggesting that we need more “high quality content than reddit”, or that everything needs to have a meaningful discussion is exhausting. We as a group seem to want to dictate who can comment, who can post, what kind of post is acceptable, and are fairly mean to newer people. You won’t keep new people if you’re rude to them or they see post after post trashing them.

    Engagement comes at the price of low effort sometimes. So does content. Not every post or comment will be a shining beacon of perfection. Sometimes people just want to talk. Some of them are starved for human interaction.

    Stop trash talking the lurkers. They may be sharing what content there is here and driving people to Lemmy instances. They’re an important part of the ecosystem.

    Ask what caliber of people you want here. Because it is very apparent to me that the loudest members only want a specific type of community member here. And they are very outspoken about that fact. But are they actively extending a hand to those people when they encounter them on any other platform? Word of mouth (or keyboard) works. It’s slow but it works.

  • makeasnek@lemmy.ml
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    2 years ago
    • Publish useful content on lemmy. Link to that content on other social media sites
    • Anytime you see a negative article about reddit particularly on reddit, remind users this will continue to get worse, link them to lemmy and explain what it is/how to join.
    • Donate to lemmy development to improve UX.
  • Knitwear@lemmy.world
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    2 years ago

    Might’ve missed it but I haven’t seen anyone say “Make it not awful to use”

    It’s helpful to say that we need better onboarding infographics to simplify explaining how to use Lemmy, but also, Lemmy needs to be easier to use. Finding and following communities is far too complicated.

    I come here everyday out of sheer bloody mindedness because I want it to work, not because I enjoy it. Yet.

      • Alborlin@lemmy.world
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        2 years ago

        I totally agree with this point that, Lemmy needs to be accessible easily, I started using it and find it useful because of boost app. Otherwise it’s very hard to understand and still is what is Lemmy.world what is lemmy.ml etc. And how to make them combined.

        Let’s not forget to comment this on I needed account , I tried to sign-up with lublnfrom boost didn’t work. I had to Google sign-up for Lemmy.world which takes me to special form , which has disable login with disposable email id’s. All in all TOOOOOOOOOOOO difficult process for common users. Doing this process I am still not sure if I comment on Lemmy.whatever subs.

        Finding community and joining it, I still have no idea. It’s all too complicated.

        Overall

        1. What is a different Lemmy’s means
        2. Simplifying sign-up process and make it streamlined
        3. Make easier to use Lemmy

        These would be my suggestion as Lemmy stands now.

      • /home/pineapplelover@lemm.ee
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        2 years ago

        I’m trying to wrap my head around this, the issue is a very long conversation. Basically two subs merge together if they agree, if a user wants to post, both mods need to see if it’s not a duplicate? This might add more complication with more merging like a 6 group merge or something, it could be chaotic with more mods and each other having conflict wars.

    • HonorIsDead@lemmy.world
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      2 years ago

      Yes this is the most critical. The apps that have been made are a good stride in the right direction but the fediverse is not intuitive to use

  • jazir5@lemmy.ml
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    2 years ago

    Community grouping. It would massively increase the available content, and make lemmy much easier to browse.

    • maegul (he/they)@lemmy.ml
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      2 years ago

      We’ve got a new sorting option that boosts smaller communities coming in v 0.19. That plus community grouping would be killer!

      • jazir5@lemmy.ml
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        2 years ago

        I don’t know if this can be adjusted at the platform level, but is it possible you could put in a filter for meme posts? That is 85% of my feed, and I’d really like to minimize them as much as possible.

        I come to Reddit(and now Lemmy) for discussions rather than memes, and the content I’m looking for just doesn’t appear in my feed at all really. It would be great if there was a way to filter out or diminish the quantity of those types of posts. Reddit has flair, which makes it easy to filter that way. I’m not sure if Lemmy has something comparable that would allow easy filtration like that.

        • maegul (he/they)@lemmy.ml
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          2 years ago

          I think some short of tagging system might be in the works. Not sure though, not whether you could filter by them.

          Maybe you could change what you’ve subscribed to?

          • jazir5@lemmy.ml
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            2 years ago

            I mean in the main feed, as opposed to the subs/community subscriptions tab. I’d like to use it for content exploration, similar to how I would use /r/all on Reddit, but with memes filtered out.

            • maegul (he/they)@lemmy.ml
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              2 years ago

              Right. Yes I’m the wrong person to talk to. I gave up on local and all a while ago. Sometimes local is cool I guess.

  • necrophagist@lemmy.world
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    2 years ago

    I think Reddit is going to make some new even more moronic decision after they IPO and there will be another exodus. This time around it can handle it and it’s mature enough to not have the same issues as before.

  • reddig33@lemmy.world
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    2 years ago

    Just casually mention it on other forums where appropriate. For example, any thread about how sucky Reddit is, explain there are other places to go, like Lemmy.

    • atrielienz@lemmy.world
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      2 years ago

      Can’t do that on reddit right now. Turns out that results in suppression of your comments and possibly a shadow ban.

  • The Picard Maneuver@startrek.website
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    2 years ago

    If you build it, they will come.

    It’s the reason I’ve been motivated to post as much as I do, both in broader communities and a handful of niche ones that I want to see grow.

    If you’ve thought about posting/commenting but just haven’t yet, take the plunge! I never used to post on reddit at all, and I’ve been pretty active since joining Lemmy.

    • Thelsim@sh.itjust.works
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      2 years ago

      I never feel like I have anything interesting to post. But I do try to encourage other posters by leaving a positive comment, even if it’s just a thank you or something nice.
      Upvotes don’t do much, but some positive feedback should keep people motivated to keep posting. At least, that’s how I see it.

      • BOMBS@lemmy.world
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        2 years ago

        It doesn’t have to be that interesting. It just needs to be content. I found maybe 5%-10% of posts on imgur to be interesting, yet I still went there everyday for years. Same with Reddit, but likely even less.

    • Capricorny90210@lemmy.world
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      2 years ago

      I find it’s easier to engage on Lemmy. One can share a different viewpoint and often find discussion rather than being shit on because you’re not part of the echo chamber.

  • Zak@lemmy.world
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    2 years ago

    Post things relevant to a hobby or interest that isn’t Lemmy itself or something closely related.