There is a huge emphasis I see on just growing community size and creating an alternative to reddit.
Back in the day we used to hang out in irc chats with 5-10 active users or forums with few thousand users max. I made friends there I visted across countries. Years after Id log in and people would ask how you’ve been.
I had a reddit account for over 10 years and I dont think a single person would recognize my username. Its always felt like people aren’t talking to you but trying to appeal to the whole audience for points. Reddit exploits our psychology for attention but nothing humane is gained there. The super massive “community” ends up as a void where 99% of posts go completely unseen and any discussions suffer heavily from mod mentalities.
If this a place where even just ten people call home but feel good doing so, that is more good than a million being miserable. Maybe the best alternative is not to be reddit altogether.
Besides, good things have a natural tendency to spread, we don’t need to focus on it.
Hey! This post is not specifically related to the lemmy.world instance. From now on, posts such as these will be removed, in order for the community to stay on topic. However, as this is a highly upvoted post, I’ll just lock it for now.
Build a good community, the growth will come
While a part of me doesn’t think this will last forever, it’s nice to be a part of a growing community in which you were a part from the relatively beginning (of an exodus, if we’ll be more specific about it). It makes people feel more involved and closer to each other, and see each other beyond just being a random name or a number or a statistic. Honestly, the fact that there isn’t a million eyes looking right now and scrutinizing every word I say gives me more confidence to simply… comment. Put myself out there. Like what I’m doing now. I’ve probably commented more in the past two days than I have from years on Reddit.
And I feel like even if it does get bigger (maybe not exponentially; I honestly doubt Reddit will lose a lot of people as some people just don’t care for change. Look at Twitter :/ ), I feel like the fact I’ve been here from when it was in its infancy to whatever point it may become in the future would give me the courage to keep expressing myself.
Just my two cents!
I feel that. This platform doesn’t feel like it will necessarily be one to make it big. Or be mainstream. Or get all of reddit to move over.
I think what the platform does feel like is something I’ll remember fondly. When I think of my time on reddit, I mostly just think of arguments, power hungry mods, and spam. This feels like a community and I wouldn’t be happy to lose it to growth.
the real treasure is the lovely human beings all around us
The longer ive stayed off reddit, the more I have grown the love the benifits of Lemmy. Discussions are civil, the vibe is a lot more chill and if anything, it invites users to participate. I wasn’t sure if I would manage to avoid reddit given how addicted I was to it. Suddenly, I feel like I’ve found a better place…
Honestly, both sides of the coin have merits. A quiet place where people recognise each other is perfect for making friends, but bigger communities collect more information and participation. It’ll be significantly less personal, but it has its upsides.
Lemmy does deel a lot better than Reddit though, I have to agree :D
To me, the real benefit of growth is the ability to have active communities focused on niche topics, like discussion of a single book series rather than a genre or books in general.
I don’t know if it’s possible get there without creating an Eternal September situation in the broader communities, but it would be nice if we could.
I was just going to say this! I follow a few subreddits that involve a lot of theories and sharing of video game information. Those would be absolutely gutted/non-existent with a small community because discoveries would be too slow to maintain interest for most.
I probably posted and commented a combined total of five times a year on Reddit. Maybe I’m just a lurker by trait, but I definitely feel like the vibe here is much more inviting and I feel like I may participate in more discussions.
