this post was submitted on 05 Oct 2022
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Asklemmy

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Is it really even possible to create a 'successful ' lemmy instance? (lemmy.ml)
submitted 2 years ago by TimothyMcFuck@lemmy.ml to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml
21 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Ok , here we go.

I like lemmy a lot.

Mastodon and all the others are too complicated with too many dam options for threads. Not to mention I hate the Twitter layout.

Like look,

I want lemmy to have more users. The lack of engagement here is just beyond sad.

I've seen a lot of lemmy instances with like 1 user a month. Seriously? What the fuck?

I'm entertaining a thought to create a lemmy instance, but is there even a point? Should i even bother?

I feel like the issue with these reddit alternatives, is the LACK of content and users.

What do you think?

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[–] coldhotman@nrsk.no 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I’ve seen a lot of lemmy instances with like 1 user a month. Seriously? What the fuck?

You don't understand the nature of federation. It's perfectly valid to create a single-user lemmy instance (just like many mastodon servers are for a single user) and use it to connect to other instances.

I'm on a low-population instance. You're on an instance with roughly 350 users. My instance blocks no servers, your block around 20.

Even if it was just me here and 1000 users on lemmy.ml, I'd still have access to more of the lemmyverse than you can ever have.

[–] TimothyMcFuck@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

can you help me with that?

[–] coldhotman@nrsk.no 1 points 2 years ago

Go to a different server, check their "Instances" list at the very bottom, find one that doesn't block or block very little, create a new account there.

You've said you can't access some of the other servers. Your account is at lemmy.ml. You have to make a new account with the new server.

Go to join-lemmy.org/instances, find a server that suits you, click "join" or "apply to join", YOU HAVE TO SIGN UP AT THE NEW SERVER! YOU CANNOT USE YOUR LEMMY.ML ACCOUNT!

[–] jackalope@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 years ago (3 children)

Honestly don't get why the devs don't just write some bots to auto clone content from reddit.

[–] Redo11@szmer.info 1 points 2 years ago

God no, that sounds like an awful idea on multiple levels.

[–] coldhotman@nrsk.no 1 points 2 years ago

Each to their own, I'd rather have RSS bots than Reddit bots.

[–] _ed@sopuli.xyz 1 points 2 years ago

Someone is already doing that on https://goldandblack.us.to/ as a live example.

[–] Openmastering@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I think the only way is to start a community and care/animate it. Even with several hundreds of people, instances aren't really lively. But we're responsible for this. If we offer regularly quality content, some people will come and stick around. In 2 words: provide value.

[–] coldhotman@nrsk.no 1 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (2 children)

some people will come and stick around.

I've been browsing around a lot of communities on practically all known lemmy servers. Some communities or instances provide regular content, several times a day, for months or years. Still no upvotes, discussion or visibility.

Why? Well, how do people "come by" before they stick around? They have to actively browse every single instance and hunt down anything that isn't already "mainstream" enough for other users to already subscribe to the community and pull it to the instance.

The complete lack of organic sharing when it comes to communites is a big hold-back. If lemmy-instances automatically shared all ~~instances~~ edit: communities with eachother instead of just the ones individuals subscribe to it would be much easier to gain visibility by "offering regular quality content" because more posts equals more visibility.

For the majority of communities at this time, regularly posting content is regularly shouting into the void.

[–] graphito@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

You got me curious! Could you share some of your hidden gems of lemmyverse: has <10 subs and posts quality content at least once a month?

[–] coldhotman@nrsk.no 1 points 2 years ago

What one consider quality content is very subjective, but one example could be https://exploding-heads.com/c/digitslfreedom with 400+ posts, 6 users per month, 3 per week, 1 per day. 5 posts last 24 hours. 19 subs tbf, but very little activity beyond the occasional upvote.

NRSK's own communites like https://nrsk.no/c/norway and https://nrsk.no/c/videos are two other communities who posts largely extraordinarily good content (me practically being the only poster could be relevant to this statement) on a regular basis. Yet the only "significant" growth I've seen is directly related to advertising the community by crossposting, mentions and in other ways actively pushing it on others.

Of course it could be due to most others consider it low quality, but I believe the lack of visibility is a bigger factor.

[–] guojing@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Isnt this similar to Reddit? There I also found interesting communities mostly when other people recommended it, and not through some kind of algorithm. If you just got a list of all federated communities, most of them would probably be dead or irrelevant.

[–] coldhotman@nrsk.no 1 points 2 years ago

found interesting communities mostly when other people recommended it

That's one way of doing it. The way I found the most interesting and nichΓ© subreddits was by hanging out in /all/new.

just got a list of all federated communities, most of them would probably be dead or irrelevant.

That seems to be the current status quo on lemmy. When you browse your homeinstance's federated communities or visit a different instance and list their local communities, it seems there's not very much logic to the sorting. There's no way of sorting them by i.e. activity.

That's why I go to /all/new on lemmy as well. I see every new post to every federated community. It's a gauge of activity and I see communities I didn't know existed because other users subscribed to them and pulled them in.

The ideal /all/new for me would show new posts from all communities.

[–] chobeat@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 years ago

I feel like the issue with these reddit alternatives, is the LACK of content and users.

You've just found out that software by itself doesn't create communities. My teacher of Online Communities in university used to say that "you can't create communities online, you can just intercept them".

Reddit is successful because it managed to give space to plenty of communities that had no space before.

Lemmy won't grow until reddit starts kicking out bigger chunks of people beyond nazis and tankies larpers that go too far or until it develops features capable of serving communities that reddit cannot serve (very unlikely, but not impossible even though I have no idea what those communities could be).

If you have a community that you think could benefit from lemmy, then go on. Hosting an instance won't make a difference if you don't.

[–] jackalope@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Yeah I think lack of content and engagement is a problem.

I agree in many ways with the politics of the devs but I think it means that lemmy instances generally attract a pretty narrow range of people. Want to talk politics and tech? Lemmy isn't bad. Want to see cute pictures of cats? Not much here.

I think it also doesn't help that the native app for it isn't great. I can't get jerboa to login and lemmur has some seriosy ux issues.

[–] XpeeN@sopuli.xyz 1 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Facts. I'm actually using the web version because the apps are just less convenient.

[–] frivor@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 years ago

I'm using Jerboa right now without problems. For me Jerboa is more organized than the Reddit oficial app

[–] coldhotman@nrsk.no 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

politics of the devs but I think it means that lemmy instances generally attract a pretty narrow range of people.

As long as lemmy.ml is considered the main lemmy instance, lemmy will for ever be a far left platform.

Want to see cute pictures of cats? Not much here.

There's several cute communities, and since I'm subscribed to them instead of the most political communities - I see more cute cats than absurd political takes. By saying that lemmy isn't for cute cat pic enjoyers, we'll drive away those who want to post cute cat pics and make lemmy a place not for cat pics but heated and often aggressive political discussion.

[–] jackalope@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 years ago

Any cute cat communities you'd recommend?

[–] picoblaanket@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I guess that depends on how you define success:

  • If I make an instance for writers, and 30 writers use it ... success.
  • If I make an instance for my friends, and we use it ... success.

Personally - I’d rather have a tight-knit community than a zillion spammers regurgitating low-effort posts (like many reddit subs).

The cool thing about success is - you get to decide what it means.

[–] frivor@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 years ago

That's the answer