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Lemmy fell off (lemmy.world)
submitted 5 months ago by to c/unpopularopinion@lemmy.world
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It used to be interesting before with engaging posts and looked like a burgeoning community. Now it's just stagnant, full of politics and tankieism has become more commonplace.

Idk though, maybe it's just me

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[–] 3 points 5 months ago* (13 children)

Any ideas on what to do? I mean you've been here for a long time. I've also been here for quite a while. I've also made disgruntled posts about the general atmosphere, waited for things (and people) to change. Or a different kind of people join and bring some breeze of fresh air. Some of that is happening, yet on a small scale and usually in niche corners of this place. But I think overall we're looking at something like stagnation. We have all this potential in the Fediverse... I see sparks here and there, but they never really ignite anything on a broader scale. So overall we more or less stay where we are (or who we are). So, what do we do? Because I think the usual ideas on how to change the atmosphere ain't working, or we'd see some progress.

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  • [–] [S] 3 points 5 months ago (2 children)

    I think the biggest problem the fediverse has is a lack of diversity. This is the same problem platforms like Bluesky have. It's chock full of Americans, so most of the content leans American. I'm not American and don't really have too much of a problem with American content (it's entertaining), so while I've gotten slightly used to Americentrism on the internet, at least on Reddit there were niches and local communities i could use to detox when it got too much. This is lacking here.

    I'm not really sure what the solution is. Back when i first joined, the niche communities were burgeoning and quite active. Now it seems like they've mostly stagnated.

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  • [–] 2 points 5 months ago* (1 child)

    Hmmh. Thanks for your perspective.

    By the way, the Germans kinda established their own niche with (I think) with a noticeably different atmosphere and behaviour towards each other. Not necessarily better, we're also doing mostly politics and the meme/shitlords are very active... But yeah, maybe we need some niches which aren't just because of some language barrier. And like... more than Linux content. We also have that. But I see how that's not everyone's leisure activity. 😅

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  • [–] -1 points 5 months ago (9 children)

    I've been working to change the atmosphere on the Fediverse and get weirder with all of this reality stuff.

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  • [–] 1 point 5 months ago* (8 children)

    So. Any prospect of the future? How do you feel with what you're trying? I mean you launched an entire instance a while back... Do you have insight on what works and which strategies don't work? And how willing or receptive are the people you talk to?

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  • [–] 0 points 5 months ago (7 children)

    Not gonna lie, a bit disheartened since dbzer0 defederated us. They didn't want the atmosphere to change. But I still believe in the Fediverse and in Piefed. I've met some pretty cool people in the Piefed space, like Rimu, and I believe in that guy. He's got the vision, the skill, and the dedication to build some great communities. I want to support him by being part of the Piefed community. And anecdotally, I see a lot more kind and accepting piefed.social users than on most Lemmy instances.

    I hadn't noticed this until I was reflecting just now, but I banned a lot of people on remote instances for using slurs when MULTIVERSE was new, and lately, I haven't seen many slurs. I think it done worked, I made a safer space for the people who use this instance. I was chatting with Rayne Blight yesterday, doing an interview about antirealist history, and they put an idea in My head I want to pursue: a soulist breadtube channel. So I've been speaking with an amateur film producer I know about doing some collaboration. And maybe Piefed needs some youtube ambassadors too. But I know if this youtube thing gets going, we're gonna point people to MULTIVERSE, and there's going to be an influx of weirdos posting into Lemmy's communities from over here.

    But yeah, it's a lot easier persuading people of antirealism face to face than on a social media like Piefed or Lemmy. People come to quicker snap judgements on here, so you need to react faster by giving up quickly on people you can't reach. And you need to be patient and just keep putting stuff out there, because people are gonna come to appreciate it slowly with exposure. So it's speed and patience. Some strong neutral jing stuff, which I kinda suck at and have been practicing.

    But in terms of the whole of the fediverse, it's bad apples. And you know what they say, a bad apple can turn a whole barrel rotten. So our leaders, and I guess that includes Me now, or admins, need to be willing to say no to these bad apples like Hexbear, .ml, lemmygrad. And I dunno, maybe dbzer0, maybe not. Can't say I'm proud of them for the recent pro-death-penalty drama. But that ship has sailed, I didn't need to make that choice in the end.

    And one thing everyone can do, is just post more fun stuff. Just post more about video games and cool sticks and the stuff that makes you smile. Anyone can make this big community a little bit better by doing that.

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  • [–] 2 points 5 months ago (5 children)

    Will do. Got a bunch of stuff I think is cool that I can post.

    By the way, do you have any advice for someone interested in starting their own instance?

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  • [–] 1 point 5 months ago* (4 children)

    Sure do.

    1. Use a VPS. Running your own server on premises gets complicated fast, especially if you rent. Pay someone else to keep your server healthy. Hetzner has fair prices and good customer service.
    2. Think about resource use. Lemmy sucks up a lot of RAM. Piefed runs lighter. Keep an eye on your disk space, anticipate problems.
    3. Get on Matrix. Lemmy and Piefed both have Matrix spaces for admins to help each other on the technical and political side. Be nice, make friends.
    4. Be predictable. Decide your rules before you need them. Keep it simple enough for users to understand. Give good removal and ban reasons.
    5. Cater to newbies. Don't use the word "instance" or "server", use the word website. Explain federation on the sidebar or in the signup process, but use general terms. Like "We're connected to a network of other websites, and you can see and interact with their posts from our site."
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  • [–] 1 point 5 months ago* (3 children)

    Thanks!

    1. Was already planning to do that, since on-prem isn't an option for me at the moment. Also heard of Hetzner and on top of what you said, I like that they are EU-based.
    2. Got it. (Plus, check my instance - I'm already feeding myself pie :P)
    3. I'm already on Stoat, but I guess one more Discord alt won't hurt (plus, better security in case my Stoat gets hacked)
    4. Makes sense.
    5. That's the plan, yes.
    6. Did you accidentally press Enter too soon?

    I'm also considering offering a premium contributor tier to reward people who help keep the lights on and Hetzner bills paid, with extra features like scheduled posts (does PieFed have that? The scheduled posts, I mean, not the premium tier)

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  • [–] 1 point 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

    Thanks for sharing your perspective and writing all of this down.

    To be honest, don't worry too much about the dbzer0 users. They've defederated from you, I've defederated from them. There's all this other thing going on with them. I share your perspective, I also get to read less slurs and toxicity since I started pulling some ripcords... I don't like it either. But maybe that's how it is.

    Best of luck anyway. I think the YouTube thing is a good idea. I mean you can probably make quite some impact, considering the current scale you're operating at. But I also think the entire Threadiverse isn't huge compared to YouTube people. Larger "influencers" sometimes fill Dicord communities larger than all of us combined. And smaller "influencers" sometimes have a very loyal and committed fanbase/community. All of that is useful and/or positive traits. I see how the hard part is finding someone with overlap and who wants to cooperate. And you're going to have to welcome them and provide them with whatever their wants and need are... All of this is quite some effort. But certainly worth it in my eyes.

    And I don't think there's an issue with weirdos in itself, just be a tolerant and positive kind of weirdo and it'll be alright.

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