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Should we build a community building community? (lemmy.zip)
submitted 1 week ago by to c/fedigrow@lemmy.zip
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I've been tooling around with ideas for an "Obscure Games Club" community. Before making it I'd love to gauge interest, maybe get 1 or 2 people to commit to a certain level of involvement, and get feedback on the setup. But I don't actuallly know a good space to do that.

Most communities on the fedi are monuments to one passionate person talking to a brick wall, with the last post being sometime between 1 and 3 years ago. Perhaps less would peter out if the starting seed was more than one individual.

I can see problems with this idea. But I also see a lot of problems with the current way of doing things. It might be worth a shot.

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[–] 13 points 1 week ago* (8 children)

This is pretty much already the community for it.

Try suggesting your obscure games community here https://lemmy.zip/post/73962307

People might let you know that they are interested, but not that many people subscribe to !fedigrow@lemmy.zip

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  • [–] [S] 6 points 1 week ago (7 children)

    You're not wrong, but I think a dedicated community building space might be more effective. I've never seen much activity in those threads

    Though that might be an indicator that a dedicated c/communitybuilding would also be ineffective.

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  • [–] 4 points 1 week ago (4 children)

    You're not seeing much activity because most people aren't really that interested in community building.

    There are the usual people discussing some progress on their communities, but that's about it.

    I used to be quite more active myself, but real life is busy at the moment so I don't have as much time as I used to.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 week ago (2 children)

    Your presence is missed and your absence is definitely felt. I hope you're busy in a good way! Always happy to see you around whenever you do pop out.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 week ago (1 child)

    Definitely busy in a good way, preparing for the arrival of our first child!

    I hope you're doing well as well

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  • [–] 2 points 1 week ago

    Oh I had no idea, congratulations! I hope everything will go smoothly for both of you!

    I am doing well, I have also been less active around here the past few months but I don't think my absence is noticed as much. I still pop out from time to time giving my unsolicited opinions on games, hah.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 week ago

    Blaze (he/him) This is the real issue. The majority of people do not want to build community -- hell, they don't even want to be in a community! -- they just want to consume content. They'll comment on content, because they want to be seen and because 500 other people are commenting, but they're not interested in doing anything proactive.

    This is why the network effect is so powerful. It allows you to be a passive consumer of social media, rather than a real participant in anything.

    There's a lot of hand wringing on Reddit these last couple of days following the announcement that Reddit is going to block access to people who aren't logged in, but seemingly none of the people who are complaining and calling Reddit "over" have any interest in building something new. The question is always "is there a viable alternative?", and not "where can we build a viable alternative?"

    And that's the forever problem of the Fediverse. There's seemingly no one to build the social infrastructure. Everyone here who's interested in building something is a software engineer, not a social engineer.

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    • [–] 6 points 1 week ago (2 children)

    If you go to most instances and sort by "top month" You'll get a list of the demographic that frequents most of the fediverse: Late Gen X/Xennial IT professionals in "project lead" or "supervisor" roles. The problem is that for most mundane niche interests Reddit fills the role adequately enough, despite it being a centralized space. The fediverse is like the local Coffee shop of internet news/information aggregators: Tailored product, exquisite curation, but most people still go to Dunkin' cause they make a reliable cup, it's fast, and you'll trip over them in some areas.

    you want the fediverse to grow? Get Google to promote the fediverse as a Reddit Alternative. You may not like it, but that is the mountain that must be surmounted.

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  • [–] [S] 3 points 1 week ago (1 child)

    I can't say I agree with needing goog's help to grow. That doesn't seem to follow from your first point.

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  • [–] 4 points 1 week ago

    My point was that what's necessary, and what is popular to do are not the same, so it's not likely to occur. You would need to get apathetic internet users to wake up to how Reddit is using them, but at the same time it's those same people arriving on Reddit that made it the shithole it is today. They were too attractive to corporate data mining. Sure, they fill out Subs, but they also come with a load of emotional baggage, trigger warnings, and pearls to clutch.

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    • [–] 2 points 1 week ago (2 children)

    Is this for video games or non-video games? If video games, there is already !Bside@fedia.io

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  • [–] [S] 3 points 1 week ago* (1 child)

    It'd be more of a game club, similar to a book club. Its a concept I think might eventually be able to do well on the fedi

    But really it was just an example, the post is more about my ideas for getting a group together before starting a community, rather than trying to always go solo and hoping for the best.

    For instance, if you had a friend or a group of friends that was into a topic, it might be easier to talk them into joining lemmy and starting a public space to talk about that topic, than starting from just 1 person.

    But you might not have that group, so a community building space might be useful ie

    any other metal fans interested in helping me start a metal community?

    Rather than just

    I started a metal community! Please come talk to me!

    Most of lemmy (me included) has been doing the second one. I think the first might be more succesful.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 week ago

    Well then, I would perhaps be interested in said Obscure Games Club. Although I do have trouble with commitment. But I equally like talking about games I play with people, and I like playing smaller more obscure games, and those two things tend to be in conflict.

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    • [–] 2 points 2 days ago

    Escaping the opening question and commenting on the contextualization, something I'd recommend for whatever community you'd make is to not burn all you have to post too quickly. Like making a fire for a barbecue where you have to gradually heat the coal up so you can get a consistent fire, a slower posting rate, but not too slow, should gradually make more people notice it, and when the stars align, someone else will start posting too.

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