Is Lemmy actually growing?
Is Lemmy actually growing?
Per the title, is Lemmy actually growing, or will it stagnate and fade into obscurity like many other similar discussion boards?
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I think the premise is flawed. Most of us have been brought up in a world that preaches "if you're not growing, you're dying." That mindset is harmful in a whole host of ways. I have no idea if lemmy is growing or not, but it's quite possible, perhaps even preferable, for a service/site/mom-and-pop shop to be sustainable without unending growth.
To add, a lot of sites that “Fade into obscurity” still have active communities, they’re just not mainstream anymore.
I would prefer if it grew because so many communities are dead. It seems that only political and shitposting instances have constant activity.
For me it’s still not a real Reddit alternative. Which sucks because I’m permabanned from Reddit.
Lemmy is slowly accumulating mass - I’d really love it if we gained a number of strong niche communities, but didn’t turn into a reddit due to mass influx.
I think the best thing of reddit is them having so many actually active niche subreddits. Many people saying Lemmy doesn't need to grow don't seem to care much about that which surprises me a bit.
Which communities are you into?
I like the political aspect of lemmy tho. Much more civil and decent, especially disallowing the usage of slurs. The major benefit with that it avoids the discussion being derailed into personal attacks and ultimately people forgetting about what the topic was.
Make a new account ?
Doesnt work. They ban your ip, MAC address, email, everything. They even have a tool that flags people that may be doing ban evasion based on behavior and communities that are joined by said account. You could get around it but it’s way too much effort just to use reddit.
They can't ban a MAC address. They don't have any way to find it.
Ah well I’m just parroting what I’ve read. I’m only superficially familiar with most tech stuff. I do know that the ban at least applies to the device, email and ip address for sure.
Correct. We don't have need to be growing. 40k mau are nothing to scoff at and is bigger than most other online forums who can feel very busy even with 1000. So long as we're getting as many users as we're losing, we're good. And the continuous enshittification of reddit will ensure there's always people looking for a new home.
We need somewhere to go online to get away from the handful of mega-corps that have taken over the internet. With the US now full-throating fascism that need is greater than ever.
This is exactly on the nose. It reminds of articles I've read about the oldest continuously operating businesses in the world. Here's an example: https://www.theceomagazine.com/business/management-leadership/japan-oldest-businesses/
Note that one thing in common between many of these businesses, some of which have been around for nearly 1,500 years(!), is that they are family owned and operated. In other words, they prioritized stability over rapid growth. I feel that there's a huge lesson in this.
Cancer grows continuously. Obviously we should model everything on that.
for a service/site/mom-and-pop shop to be sustainable without unending growth.
I've been on somewhat niche sites which have lasted decades, with waves of people coming in whenever related sites screw up and trickles of people leaving when an alternative community becomes more popular. It's a comfy, slow existence, which works for some communities, but not for ones like this which thrive on diversity and chattiness, rather than really well thought-out replies days apart from each other. On reddit-like sites, time penalizes how high a post goes (unlike a forum where years-long threads are very normal to see on a front page) so there is an inherent benefit in having consistent activity. That doesn't imply boundless growth, but at least sustaining a decent level of activity. We're not chasing ad revenue, growth for growth's sake is not what we want or need.
But with that said, a community with no new visitors can only lose them. That can be a slow process, but it's inevitable. Been there, done that. Again, doesn't imply that pointless growth is a good thing.
That's some serious copium, and the other replies are worse. "If you're not growing you're dying" is bullshit when you control a large portion of the potential market, but not when you're a bit player. Being less popular than a manifestly shitty platform like Reddit is not a flex and not a sign of long-term health.
It's not copium, it's just an acknowledgment that I, and presumably many others, don't care or need to care if it's popular- it is already useful to me as is. In the same way, I've never given much of a shit about "the year of Linux on the desktop"; Linux has been useful to me as a daily driver for the past 28-ish years and neither my enjoyment of it nor its utility to me were in any way hampered by its failure to achieve supremacy of numbers.
It's fine to use something other than the most popular service.
Now, if you think the purpose of federated social media is solely to supplant the corporate, centralized platforms, then I understand, but disagree with, your position.