Help retain users by discussing more than just politics
For real we need more uplifting subs, my feed is just Musk and Trump diarrhea.
be the change you want to see. Post and upvote.
Instructions not clear. Posted upvotes.
I think this is an artifact of what’s oddly the biggest weakness of the fediverse: decentralization.
When I used reddit back pre-api stuff, my front page was 100% niche subs I’d subscribed to, but those niches have trouble le growing here because there’s so many instances.
I was super active in the scuba subreddit. Here on Lemmy, there’s several scuba groups that tried to form, but none of them stuck because they were all on different instances instead of one central location where everyone could work together to make the community.
As a result, most of us haven’t been filtering out 99% of Lemmy because the 1% where we’d be active doesn’t exist. It’s like joining reddit and having your frontpage be /r/all. It’s a shitty experience that g9ves a lot of weight to political posts.
I don’t think the subs failed to get off the ground because of federation, I think they did because they didn’t have a dedicated person tirelessly filling them with posts and single-handedly carrying them. Because that’s still where we are population wise. 50k+ MAUs is very nice, but not nearly enough for niche subs to be self-sustaining. Look at any small but active Lemmy sub right now and it’s often a single person doing 90% of the posting. The only real way to get a new sub going is to be that person.
At least now we have stuff like Lemmy Federate and places like !newcommunities@lemmy.world and !communitypromo@lemmy.ca that are both fairly active, so getting a new sub off the ground should be much easier than two years ago.
But you don’t need to be on the same instance to contribute?
It doesn’t matter almost at all which instance a community is on. People could just unite the different scuba groups into one. Basically any they see fit. I’m not sure the decentralization really causes this effect. Or does it make it too difficult to find communities? I’ve been plenty able to find communities from various instances, at least.
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Help retain users by discussing more than just politics
One of the things I feel like Lemmy is still missing or is under developed is the niche hobbyist and tech help communities. I’m referring to places users can go to ask questions and start to build up a knowledge base of sorts that people will find and reference. Kind of like how if you want to actually find useful information for something, you used to add “Reddit” to every search to get meaningful results. Hopefully, that can become Lemmy. Assuming of course search engines even index Lemmy well enough
One way to start could be just having people post small tutorials or solutions for popular problems or topics in respective communities. I know the internet has changed a lot but “back in the old days” that was a great way to get engagement going at least on tech forums.
search engines hardly index lemmy unfortunately. Probably due to having too much repeated content on different URLs.
I have a gimmick sublemmy, !horseblindness@lemmy.world. Post images that may or may not contain horses!
I see no horses posted – oh, right
Worth noting is that what counts as an “active user” has changed between now and then. During the Reddit API exodus, an “active user” was a user who had posted or commented in the past month. Now, it includes users who have voted. If the 54k MAU record was set using the first algorithm, it is likely that the MAU using the new algorithm (which includes voting) would have been much higher.
Huzzah, us lurkers now count towards the global stats!
Good point
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I think that change was done way back when. Do you have a reference for the algorithm change? I tried a quick search and came out empty.
The change was merged in Dec 2023 (see here). The Reddit Exodus was in summer 2023.
Thanks 👍
Probably in the 0.19.3 changelog. There was a bump when LW changed, and I don’t think they’ve updated since
The growth in 2025 has been staggering, ngl. And this is the kind of thing which converts from a trickle to a tsunami very quickly. It never happens with one shock. But a consistent amount of enshittification shocks. Reddit’s desperate struggle for profitability practically ensures those will keep happening, so this is all inevitable at this point. The only thing that is uncertain is whether digg can recapture the fleeing masses who are not cognizant of the dangers of corporate vc-backed enshittification yet, like bluesky did to Twitter.
But a consistent amount of enshittification shocks
I think the proper term is enshittification sharts
Lel
The user growth we’re seeomg could result in an overwhelming flood of users at anytime. Which is why people should consider supporting the lemmy devs and instance admins either financially or through contributions so that the lemmy software and infrastructure is ready to handle the growth.
And then in 5-10 years the users will destroy it like everything else on the Internet…
Seriously, though, make me wrong - because this kind of model is so new to me, I don’t know, is there anything different about this that will resist it going the way of things that were once good and eventually weren’t, like Craigslist and Reddit?
Obviously a lot of Reddit sucks due to how it’s run, but let’s not overlook that part of its downfall, like with Craigslist, is the users as it grew having no respect for the model. I’ve been on my way out since well before the API exodus (and yet I was addicted and too lazy until now, that’s on me). People posting whatever they want wherever they want and having very little understanding of nuance in language (“oddly satisfying” doesn’t just mean “I like this”), misusing downvoting (I know I’m yelling at clouds, but that was where Reddit was doomed from the start to become an echo chamber, and I didn’t know if Lemmy is different in that respect - do votes determine visibility here?), moderators becoming more power hungry, and I’m sorry if this is mean, but the userbase trending younger steering content much more to “mah crush, aitah?,” fake stories for “points,” and I feel the general populace there being more gullible. Not to mention the same comments being made over and over, and I’m not talking about bots, I’m talking about constant “this is the way” and “username checks out.”
I’ve seen so many actual discussions here already that are full of real passion and good points even when they’re heated, some lovely user created and has posted around a really through socialist reading list. I’ve only seen “this is the way” once. Reddit is lazy one-word answers and downvotes. How do we encourage this and discourage that?
Anyway, I rant. This place is great now and will only get better as it grows, but I hope this model will in some way resist that downfall. But I’ve come to accept that nothing on the Internet is permanent. And also that people are gonna people and if I don’t like that, it’s on me to leave.
The difference is the way it is run. You got it. And if one day Midwest.social starts doing things you hate and treating it’s users like crap, then come on over to lemmy.world or lemmy.ca, or one if the other thousands instances.
People hosting the database are not the owners of the platform unlike Reddit. They get to tell us how we can use it just because they host the database.
I’ve already moved at least once and have been very happy it was as easy as it is.
I’ve never moved, but I assume you just create a new account and start over. Or is there more you can do?
it’s possible to migrate your subs on lemmy
it’s possible to both migrate your subs and make a redirect on mastodon for followers, but the redirect requires the old server to remain in service.
Gotcha. That sounds like a good solution.
You bring up some good points and I do believe that the model that Lemmy use can insulate it from a lot of those issues.
People posting whatever they want wherever they want and having very little understanding of nuance in language I dont think this would be a huge problem, mods can remove unwanted content and instances can decide what type of users they want to accept. As for misusing downvotes I think that issue never has ever mattered and the difference between reddit and lemmy is we have a open source algorithm to decide how content is served. If anyone can think of a better way to server content they’re free to put that in.
moderators becoming more power hungry This is an issue on every platform but Lemmy is more insulated against it than reddit for two reasons. First is that we can have the same community name shared across servers. On reddit once someone gets the catchy community name they can camp it forever. On Lemmy you can just make the community somewhere else with the same name. Second, each instance can decide how it wants to moderate its communities on Lemmy ML they are OK with power hungry mods but on other instances its frowned upon. On reddit its ignored completely.
One thing that makes Lemmy better is that its made by the users for the users. We have the code, we have the protocol its built on. This means we can have Lemmy tailored to however we want. We are not at the whim of a massive company that only cares about profit. If I have an idea for a feature i can goto the github and suggest it, better yet if I could program it I could help build that feature. If I dont like a change that is made by the lemmy devs I can fork the project and remove the change and still interact with the rest of lemmy.
This seems unrealistic in my opinion. Normal people really don’t like to donate, unfortunately. I think that Lemmy needs to make it so anyone can easily self host an instance without too much fuss. Something like docker on an old laptop. I know they have docker containers for Lemmy already, but in my opinion, they aren’t simple enough to set up. And there should be an option to bundle it with a wireguard VPN tunnel, so that they really don’t need to fuff about with reverse proxy to browse on your phone. This way, the cost is distributed across all users. It should be that setting up a domain and port forwarding should be the largest hurdle.
Normal people really don’t like to donate,
I’m on a medium-small instance; if %5 of users donate a dollar a month, the hardware would likely be paid for.
If lemmy.world had %0.01 of users paying, they could probably cover their hardware, storage and network fees.
If you’re not paying the admin’s mortgage, it not that hard to chip in. Unlike the other “options”, no one is getting ad revenue or selling your data, if that’s not worth a cup of cheap coffee a month for 1:20 people they have their priorities in the wrong places. .
Its not unrealistic. I don’t think anyone expects 50% or 100% of users to donate. Also sites sustained off ads get less than a few cents per user. Donating literally anything puts you ahead of an ad supporting user. If Every lemmy user donated a dollar a year there would be 500k in rev to support the development. When the culture shifts from everything must be free to everyone giving a little to the services they use we can easily fund the costs of these platforms.
You can host an instance very easily on low spec hardware but its a lot harder than giving a small donation.
In the sims modding community people pay $5 for a dress and modders make over 100k a year. This is because sims players are happy to pay for things they find valuable.
I can tell you as a sample of one that everything you just said would scare me off
Yeah. Reddit is currently enshitifying in overdrive. They used to just do dumb features nobody wants, but now they are actively harming the base. The entire Luigi over-moderation this is just bad, and it feels like they want the formerly leftist site to go full maga now. and even if I do have to use it, the website often tends to not function properly these days, with the site constantly reloading, or voting functions to be broken. This is the year of lemmy.
I figured the planned paywalling of content was going to be the last straw for me, but then they gave me a fucking warning for upvoting. I made a Lemmy account the same day. Fuck them.
The paywall shit is still planned for this year afaik so be prepared to see more of Reddit heading this way.
I got a warning for a comment. Ive been on reddit for almost 13 years and have never been warned before. It’s crazy. My beliefs and writing style haven’t changed. Reddit has.
Yup. Literally the day they announced that shit I peaced out.
want the formerly leftist site to go full maga now.
Reddit and X, sitting in a tree.
I’ll just say, the more I hang around Lemmy, the more I enjoy the genuine conversations. It feels like less snark, less joke replies, and just a generally more community-type feeling. Reminds me of when I first tried Reddit after leaving Digg way back when.
Hopefully, us exiles can leave the Reddit back at Reddit.
I find a bunch of snark here, but it absolutely feels more genuine. With reddit it felt like half the comments I saw were from bots. More than half, maybe.
I hate everyone on lemmy but at least I’m hating people
Aw. We hate you too.
I feel the exact same, and I’ve been hanging around here for almost two years (the great 3rd party app exodus of ‘23).
This place feels more like a community filled with people versus a firehose of internet wrapped in layers of corporate and right wing BS.
Reddit was almost exclusively read-only for me. Here, I am commenting all the time.
This is one of the reasons I stayed. It was still small enough back then that you actually started to recognize people you had conversations with, and not just the troll farms.
I like a lot of things here better than Reddit. For one thing, I don’t see the stupid buzzwords like literally or cringe in 98% of all posts. There’s no hivemind here…yet. And hopefully there won’t be.
Also not the same 5 memes repeated for 15 years.
hey! fuck you! i resent your sentiment somehow and also want you to feel bad!
but seriously I agree.
Woo! That’s awesome. I am seeing quite a few more people.
We are already successful, I’m seeing stories, news articles, and videos that normally would never get pushed to the top. We can actually talk about things without overwhelming censorship, strange algorithms, or ads.
We can actually talk about things without overwhelming censorship, strange algorithms, or ads.
Reddit refugee here. Can I say Luigi?
It’s more frowned upon to not do so.
Can you say Luigi lol. Son, you’re required to pledge allegiance to Luigi before every post you make here.
Friend, you can say Luigi is a hero.
lemmy.world might have some rules against endorsing violence, but on most Lemmy instances, I can even tell you I hope all the healthcare CEOs are assassinated the same way. No corporate overlords to appease here!
Can I say Luigi
This is exactly what I was wondering.
It’s more of a requirement than a punishable offense on Lemmy.
And we love you for it❤️
✨️
Lemmy is more polished and populated now than before. Hope influx stays and we got all the real people from reddit and bots stay there.
Downloading an app instead of using the web gui helped me a lot, almost gave up on Lemmy couple days ago. But some of these apps are so well made. Really shows commitment
To anyone new wondering about phone apps for Lemmy, I use “Thunder” and it works great.
Also, feel free to say Luigi without getting banned.
Voyager also work good.
Or if you like it simple I can only recommend Jerboa
Yup that’s what I’ve been using. The only downside is it’s hard to know who responds to whom.
Luigi!
I personally prefer Raccoon at the moment, but the gestures are starting to wear on me, so I might be switching back to Thunder. Honestly, can’t remember why I left it. I’m a persnickety bitch about apps sometimes lol
Just stay on the right side of pineapple on pizza.
/s
Insta-ban!
I love that neither of us made it a point of which side is right :P
We all know the right answer…
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Because 3rd party apps provide a native app experience to the mobile. Its far nicer to browser with all kinds of gestures than be limited to a 3rd party web browser
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“Hello, HR!”
I’ve just looked at my instance on both my app (Voyager) and my mobile browser (DDG)
The difference in presentation is stark.
I’m calling this one the exodus of st mangione
Luigi Migratione
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Have you considered reddit? I hear it’s a great platform for people without any sense of humour.
lol what did it say
Just some very basic moaning about tankies and pro-luigi memes, I don’t remember too well
Slow and steady wins the race. Also helps to not be shit. looking at reddit.
Also helps to not be shit.
Yeah, we also turn a lot of people away by having boring UI and no Algorhythm, but I consider those to be more of a personality filter.
Fuck the algorithm. Idk why people like that shit.
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They’re being diluted though! It was so much worse last year
Block lemmy.ml if you don’t like it
(Actually, is lemmy.world on too old of a version to have instance blocking? They’re so far behind on updates)
Yeah in a few days I’m going to delete my Reddit account, liking this place so far, you get news and genuine discussion.
Please keep it, it can be useful to promote Lemmy a bit, like we do on !fedibridge@lemmy.dbzer0.com
Glad that you like it here!
Don’t close it. Get permabanned instead. Make those fuckers miserable.
Get in some good trouble.
You know it’s bad for Reddit when people were even talking about going back to Digg
Digg still exists?
They just announced they were coming back the other day 😂
Yup
It’s so nice to see the servers are not crashing anymore this time around like how Lemmy.world did for me a few times back when I first joined in 2023 and I remember when the only app that was available on ios was just Wefwef before Memmy and Mlem came out of testflight. Today the apps are much more developed as we now have: 6 ios apps, 10 android apps, advanced search, moderator tools, user tags, in-app video playback, baby account indicator, advanced markdown editors, crossposting, watch support, expanded customizations, content filters, fediseer integration, side by side posts, alternate sources menu, song service integration, direct messages in app, gallery view, local sub count on communities, troll buster, user theme directory, open web post in app, gestures, media bias check, alt check and personal contribution stats.
Yes I remember the lemmy.world servers being DDOS’ed every couple of days and having to switch between 3 clients and the webinterface because all of the apps were missing some features. The alternative frontends like photon and tesseract have really improved and imo should be the new defaults.
Makes me happy to see it, a future for a platform that is not locked by a single large player. Instead, I can have my own profile that I actually own and do not “lend”.
Yep! We come from all over.
MAU? Mostly Anal Users? Martian Appalachian Upholstery? Mass Ass Underwear? Missing Alligator Utensils? Moldy Apple Uterus? Massive Arctic Uranus?
Monthly Average Users
as opposed to DAU (Daily) or WAU (Weekly)
For a live product, the number of average users / time is a pretty telling metric.
I wonder what the arc will look like this time.
Thanks
Make Americans Useful.
Start at the top.
