we need more users
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I’m happy to promote it. I tried to get a few non-technical people to check it out. They felt it was too complicated. I’ve shared it with tech friends and coworkers who use Reddit. They’re aware of Lemmy to varying degrees, and are not enthused about moving to another platform despite hating Reddit.
I think it’s because despite Lemmy being a great alternative, it is more complicated and lacks the user base that users of other social media platforms have.
Bluesky is marginally more complicated than Twitter, but compared to Mastodon it is user friendly. Bluesky worked to create a dedicated, easy to use app that most users use.
Bluesky existed for a while before experiencing explosive growth. This occurred during moments of controversy with X. Bluesky capitalized on these moments, with champions on both platforms that led their followers to change, and there were mechanisms in place to bootstrap a user’s feed with the followers and topics that they had in the other place.
I think Lemmy needs to follow this model. There needs to be a Lemmy app that has a user experience as similar as possible with the Reddit app. It also needs champions that have main stream recognition (George Takei, Mark Hamill, etc.) that can be willing to make noise about switching from Reddit to Lemmy when the next controversy occurs. Repeat with more and more promotion by this evangelists, and Lemmy could grow.
too complicated
Nani? It's 2026, getting an account on some lemmy and start posting is nearly two orders of magnitude easier than trying to sign up to an email account!
That people are brainrotten due to excessive Fortnite and Instagram is,
unfortunately, not our problem. At some point, the answer is "just get better users". -
Just talk up Lemmy, the issue is most people doesn't realize there's another option to the popular toxic trash fires.
They know there are other options, but they won't join us on the fediverse. That's because no celebrities or influencers have moved to the fediverse.
And as for reddit users, most of them just like "huh? I like staying here" or "the lemmy devs are tankies and lemmy is a toxic tankies dumpster"
But that's okay with me, at least we have fewer toxic people.
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I've been one of the people saying "we don't need more users. we need quality over quantity" and i was wrong.
the way it's going, lemmy needs active users who post content sothat the network stays relevant. networks like the fediverse benefit from network effects and that means that if we have more users, that improves the value and quality of the fediverse overall.
So please, everyone, when you can, make advertisement for the fediverse in your personal area. Go talk to friends, make attractive stickers and put them everywhere, stuff like that. We would all benefit from it.
edit: source for the graph
I do have the idea of making an app it makes an account for one instance and uses that "log in with Google/apple id". Then people can learn later that you you can join other instances or log in via web browser.
The server can be simple lemmy or mastodon server and the app can just be variant of Voyager or mastodon app. Someone need to get rid of copyright material then hard code an instance.
I would do it myself but I can't get an AI to code apps
The other option is to have an app that browser based
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I've been one of the people saying "we don't need more users. we need quality over quantity" and i was wrong.
the way it's going, lemmy needs active users who post content sothat the network stays relevant. networks like the fediverse benefit from network effects and that means that if we have more users, that improves the value and quality of the fediverse overall.
So please, everyone, when you can, make advertisement for the fediverse in your personal area. Go talk to friends, make attractive stickers and put them everywhere, stuff like that. We would all benefit from it.
edit: source for the graph
Lemmy is more stable than what that graph makes it out. I'm not sure how easy it is to track fediverse since instances can pop up at any moment then grow or even the domain can change for an instance
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I've been one of the people saying "we don't need more users. we need quality over quantity" and i was wrong.
the way it's going, lemmy needs active users who post content sothat the network stays relevant. networks like the fediverse benefit from network effects and that means that if we have more users, that improves the value and quality of the fediverse overall.
So please, everyone, when you can, make advertisement for the fediverse in your personal area. Go talk to friends, make attractive stickers and put them everywhere, stuff like that. We would all benefit from it.
edit: source for the graph
The source data shows that while active users are down, the number of posts and comments are near all-time highs. While you need new users to help counteract churn, I think the higher post/comments count points to what I think a lot of people feel here: that quality seems to keep getting better and better.
Regarding how to bring more people in, I personally like how different lemmy servers have slightly different characteristics but each seems to appeal to larger groups. I see a future where there’s probably a small-ish number of large servers that cover broad groups of people.
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I've been one of the people saying "we don't need more users. we need quality over quantity" and i was wrong.
the way it's going, lemmy needs active users who post content sothat the network stays relevant. networks like the fediverse benefit from network effects and that means that if we have more users, that improves the value and quality of the fediverse overall.
So please, everyone, when you can, make advertisement for the fediverse in your personal area. Go talk to friends, make attractive stickers and put them everywhere, stuff like that. We would all benefit from it.
edit: source for the graph
Do comments help also or we need to post topics etc.
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too complicated
This is an Us problem. Download jerboa. Create an account on world. Done. Simple as Reddit. We make it complicated by explaining federation, options, different instances, etc. None of that matters to the masses.
I could not find Jerboa in the App Store. I use Voyager. We need Lemmy.
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Here's my approach: over the holidays I suggested lemmy to 3 people I know. I did so by emailing or texting them links to the following piefed feeds of lemmy communities:
The first is non-political, non-tech, low-meme communities (tho sometimes those topics sneak in.) The second is non-political, non-tech meme/humor communities. One peson said they thought it was neat, the other said they bookmarked it, the third didn't say anything. Dunno if they joined.
oh wow! feeds are impressive! kinda like the feature i requested here
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i would even say searching and finding are about equally important.
finding means that you stumble upon good content by accident, which is i.e. with content recommendation algorithms. We need a system that shows you similar communities to those that you're already subscribed to. I even made a post about this here.
Also we really need a better way to link to other posts and comments. I.e. it shouldn't bring you to another site but open the link on your site/app/viewer.
it shouldn’t bring you to another site but open the link on your site
PieFed does that, FYI.
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oh wow! feeds are impressive! kinda like the feature i requested here
Yeah, feeds are neat bc they're user-curated, they're easy to copy, and you can easily tell which communities are active.
Your proximetry metrics is a good idea too, I bet it would work best in a tool like the Lemmy Explorer: https://lemmyverse.net/communities
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Lemmy communities could benefit from a webring concept.
You're right! That's perfect! that's what i was looking for, now i have a name to it. thank you. i think it would maybe work well enough if the sidebar could link to related communities?
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Yeah, feeds are neat bc they're user-curated, they're easy to copy, and you can easily tell which communities are active.
Your proximetry metrics is a good idea too, I bet it would work best in a tool like the Lemmy Explorer: https://lemmyverse.net/communities
yeah i get what you mean, but it would be neat if it was automated so it's personal to you, and just shows you new communities you might be interested in.
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yeah i just checked, amazing!
piefed also has this amazingly good dialogue when you sign up:
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yeah i just checked, amazing!
piefed also has this amazingly good dialogue when you sign up:
Haha Lemmy has way too much Trump news IMO!
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I've been one of the people saying "we don't need more users. we need quality over quantity" and i was wrong.
the way it's going, lemmy needs active users who post content sothat the network stays relevant. networks like the fediverse benefit from network effects and that means that if we have more users, that improves the value and quality of the fediverse overall.
So please, everyone, when you can, make advertisement for the fediverse in your personal area. Go talk to friends, make attractive stickers and put them everywhere, stuff like that. We would all benefit from it.
edit: source for the graph
A) "Lemmy" is an embarrassingly bad name.
B) Most of the content I see on here seems to be shitposts. Not saying it all is, but the immediate impression for new users is terrible.
C) Lemmy's biggest strength is also its biggest weakness. Moderation is near non-existent and the comment section of posts always devolves into shit.
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The source data shows that while active users are down, the number of posts and comments are near all-time highs. While you need new users to help counteract churn, I think the higher post/comments count points to what I think a lot of people feel here: that quality seems to keep getting better and better.
Regarding how to bring more people in, I personally like how different lemmy servers have slightly different characteristics but each seems to appeal to larger groups. I see a future where there’s probably a small-ish number of large servers that cover broad groups of people.
It's the same 10 people repeating the same shit-tier political takes that make /pol/ users look like intellectuals.
That's NOT a good thing.
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yeah i get what you mean, but it would be neat if it was automated so it's personal to you, and just shows you new communities you might be interested in.
that site is odd... looks like we have to go to https://lemmyverse.net/ and THEN click "communities"...
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A) "Lemmy" is an embarrassingly bad name.
B) Most of the content I see on here seems to be shitposts. Not saying it all is, but the immediate impression for new users is terrible.
C) Lemmy's biggest strength is also its biggest weakness. Moderation is near non-existent and the comment section of posts always devolves into shit.
C) Moderation varies wildly based on the instance, and the community. I wouldn't say Lemmy comment sections are any worse than Reddits though.
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If you ask me, users kind of suck.
I know I do
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God I wish
