I feel the same way about some of the subs that I’d like to see on here as well. I just worry about how to gain traction. Like how to get more people to engage and actually use the community. Is it just random people stumbling across it? Or is there a better way.
Like how to get more people to engage and actually use the community.
When you create it, populate it with as many posts that you can, that are original/legit, before announcing it to the public.
When someone shows up and they see a new sub and there’s no posts they just leave and never come back.
Then I would try to figure out a way of advertising it on Reddit, letting them know that the Lemmy equivalent exists. I’m not sure Reddit will allow you to get away with that, but that would be important to do.
But most importantly, you got to ‘prime the pump’, you have to make it look like it’s already got traction, it’s already got attention, before announcing it to the world.
I agree with you there.
I imagine Lemmy doesn’t have it nearly so bad yet, but it was sad finding a cool-sounding subreddit that was positively littered with spam.
With like one post saying “So is there anything relevant about the topic here?”
You could tell there was an idea there but it needs gardening. I’m honestly surprised there is such a high percentage of people willing to be active, unpaid mods on some of those higher traffic subs!
I like the phrase you used for maintaining a community. “Gardening” seems appropriate. You’ve got to till the soil (infrastructure), plant the seeds (content), water and fertilize (users), and watch it grow as you pull the weeds (moderate). Lemmy definitely needs more and better gardening tools so we, the community, should build them.
I could do with a guide on how to start a community to try bringing over a couple of the niche subs I used to love.
I’ve never really wanted to mod, but I know I have to be the change I want to see.
I feel the same way about some of the subs that I’d like to see on here as well. I just worry about how to gain traction. Like how to get more people to engage and actually use the community. Is it just random people stumbling across it? Or is there a better way.
When you create it, populate it with as many posts that you can, that are original/legit, before announcing it to the public.
When someone shows up and they see a new sub and there’s no posts they just leave and never come back.
Then I would try to figure out a way of advertising it on Reddit, letting them know that the Lemmy equivalent exists. I’m not sure Reddit will allow you to get away with that, but that would be important to do.
But most importantly, you got to ‘prime the pump’, you have to make it look like it’s already got traction, it’s already got attention, before announcing it to the world.
I agree with you there. I imagine Lemmy doesn’t have it nearly so bad yet, but it was sad finding a cool-sounding subreddit that was positively littered with spam.
With like one post saying “So is there anything relevant about the topic here?”
You could tell there was an idea there but it needs gardening. I’m honestly surprised there is such a high percentage of people willing to be active, unpaid mods on some of those higher traffic subs!
I like the phrase you used for maintaining a community. “Gardening” seems appropriate. You’ve got to till the soil (infrastructure), plant the seeds (content), water and fertilize (users), and watch it grow as you pull the weeds (moderate). Lemmy definitely needs more and better gardening tools so we, the community, should build them.