I hate big tech controlling social media. I desperately want social media to be federated.
I really love community-driven social media like Reddit. Lemmy feels… too small. I really loved that Reddit let me jump into any niche hobby, and instantly I had a community. Lemmy, you’ll be lucky if that community even exists, and if it does, chances are nobody has posted in ages.
On the other hand, Lemmy is full of political content lately. I’ve basically been doom scrolling everything US election-related, and it’s really starting to take a toll on my mental health.
I know I can filter content. I know I can post and be the change I seek. Yet, it feels like an uphill battle.
Not sure what the point of this is, or if it’s even the right community to vent about this. I just really want to replace Reddit, but I find myself going back more and more (e.g. r/homekit is very active compared to Lemmy version).
The problem, as already stated, is that there are not many communities in the first place. And if there are, they're likely more or less dead, with weeks or even months old posts.
Disagree. I use subscribed and I get plenty of content, a couple hours worth a day. You may just be used to reddits firehose. If there's a missing community, you can always create it and start posting consistently
I'm not here to post stuff, that's the opposite of what I want. And the things I'm subscribed to I can scroll through within a couple minutes before they're dry. It's just too empty here with only a few threads and comments here and there.
Well then I can tell you you're in the wrong place. There aren't algorithms. There aren't bots. Just people like me posting. It is run by and for individuals, and all posts are made by individuals. If you don't want to post then you are the one to be mad at for not enough content
The fuck are you talking about? It's not about algorithms (which there are some, just not content based), it's about the lack of people. Maybe work on your reading comprehension. It's simply a matter of the fediverse lacking critical mass.
Lol okay dude, sure, my fragility. I run a server for myself and a few others, I pay out of pocket for it, we here don't owe you anything.
I don’t know why you people keep suggesting people do something that’s not within their interest & use case.
I’m not here to post stuff, that’s the opposite of what I want
Which I see that you comment a lot, which is great, it seems like you enjoy it here. Sure I'd like to see more posts, so I post a lot, and that drives up engagement. I've nurtured a few little communities that have grown steadily since I started them, but you don't just get that from being upset that there's not enough content. If you want more communities/posts around topics, then here you need to be the one post the stuff about it. So why so resistant to posting?
It's honestly easy, it was a mental block for me at first but it's just if you see an article/story about a topic you like, just post it to a community that applies. I started posting youtube vids that I thought were interesting. If there's not a community for your topic work with your admins to create one.
You're absolutely right that we're tiny, we don't have a critical mass - which is why I tell anyone who complains that there isn't enough content that we don't have the luxury of lurking here. If you want to be a part of building this platform then do your part. If you don't want to help build it, then at least for god's sake don't just complain here that there's not enough content to admins who run their servers for free when you can't even be bothered to post. So I guess that's probably what you're picking up on.
So it's not fragility - it's frustration. Frustration that we have devs who built these platforms (for mostly free), and admins who pay out of pocket to run them, and in result we get users who are upset they might need to just occasionally post to help keep engagment up. I mean, what more do you want from us? I pay monthly to keep my servers up, fedia I'm sure pays hundreds a month, Lemmy.World here probably into the thousands, and people want to complain that they just want to lurk and that we don't provide enough content. Well, then start posting!
Huh? There are a looot of communities. Of course, a good number of them are dead. To get a good idea of which smaller communities are active, I'd recommend following the [email protected] posts. @[email protected] did "active communities" overview threads a while ago at [email protected] too.
Yes, it is a problem - depending on your tastes "subscribed" won't be enough. But going "subscribed" and then "all" is bound to show less political posts than going straight for "all".
A lot of the small communities are not dead, they simply have a low post rate. If you actually post something of interest to them, they get engagement.
Social media suffers from the curse of the Pareto principle: The overwhelming majority of users do not generate content. They also suffer from the network effect: Most people will be where the content is, and most content creators will stay where the audience is. What we have on Lemmy is a group of people that skews more heavily toward consumption or commenting than posting new content, and the ever present thief of joy.