I get there are still users but it feel empty at times compared “other” platforms.
Why isint lemmy more popular?
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Lack of marketing.
People stay on mainstream corporate platforms no matter how badly they enshittify because that’s where everyone else is. They don’t want to jump ship unless everyone else will jump ship with them, and so nobody makes the first move.
Lemmy isn’t more popular because Lemmy isn’t more popular. Lemmy wants to be an alternative to Reddit, but the best thing Reddit had going for it was all the niche communities for fandoms, hobbies, and other interests. That’s something that just can’t exist here, because if you take a niche thing and multiply it by a niche platform, I’ll bet that I might very well be the only person on this platform who is into some of my hyperfixations. So people who want to talk about topics that have no community here, leave and go back to bigger platforms.
I’m still here to try and push for a better future, but I honestly don’t know how we can grow this place to the kind of critical mass it would take to really get the ball rolling.
[email protected] il people want to help
most of them are still addicted to reddit thats why, when you have all under one house, its hard to beat, and thier communities there is still large and eclipses lemmy.
plus most niches have been on reddit for decade+, it will be hard to convince like 20k-100k people to move to lemmy.
network effect. There’s fewer people here so there’s fewer people here.
That said, I like it just how it is and would caution anyone against wishing for more users.
Don’t focus on getting more users. Focus on making the content here the best it can be.
It’s inevitable that the quality of the experience here will change with more users. Whether it’s a net positive or negative remains to be seen.
To be sure, these are the “good old days” of lemmy.
Whaaaaaat? It has a far better signal to noise ratio than those ‘other’ platforms. As long as you’re into Star Trek memes and Linux.
I’m into Star Trek, and all set to switch to Linux this weekend!
Do it! I made the plunge and have zero regrets. Everything works, it’s fun, and I get to annoyingly pester friends, family, and strangers about the benefits of open source software!
or ecology!
…or have ADHD
I don’t know a single person that knows it exists other than a few that ive tried to get interested. I have told a few friends that use reddit but they just don’t get it.
I started lemmy a few months ago, stopped using reddit completely a few weeks ago and I don’t miss it other than all the dog posts…more people need to post pics of their doggos on here !!!
Everyone to whom I mention lemmy - even some of those to whom I have before - responds by asking about a musician of whom I’d never heard before I started having these conversations.
To be fair, telling people it was founded by Motorhead fans is a better selling point than that it was started by Marxist leninists.
Same reason Mastodon isn’t as popular as Twitter… a lot of people really don’t understand the concept of federation, or why it’s important in order to maintain a robust and healthy discussion. They’re fine with dictatorship as long as it aligns with their sensibilities.
Also, the concept of “one website, one app” is infinitely easier to comprehend than “many instances, many apps, still one protocol”.
Critical mass does what they do.
It’s somewhat difficult to navigate at first and most users find the most popular platforms and don’t have a reason to move on, simple as that. Ease of access and, unfortunately, advertising would lead to Lemmy being more popular. But who would fund the advertising?
most users find the most popular platforms and don’t have a reason to move on
This is definitely a good point. Is even visible here, with not just Mbin but also Piefed still barely having users compared to Lemmy.
Guerilla marketing?
Wheatpaste posters or something.
Everything new starts in the underground.
Reddit has been around for 20 years and Lemmy not near as long. Reddit didn’t really hit it big until Digg screwed the pooch driving away users around 2010. I don’t see Lemmy hitting Reddit number probably ever, but reddit is one of the highest trafficked sites on the web. Lemmy is steadily growing, but I think to many non users, federation and instances is a confusing prospect, so they never try. As it grows, I would imagine it will get easier or at least clearer for the layman and the velocity of growth will increase due to that and a larger user base as a whole.
federation and instances is a confusing prospect
Which is why we shouldn’t frontload people with that stuff. They don’t need to understand decentralization from the start, let them familiarize themselves with the fediverse first before throwing that at them. Just recommend a default instance, maybe change which every few posts if centralization is a concern. They’ll pick up the idea of instances as they interact with the fediverse.
People tend to overexplain, just point people to an instance link and that’s it
only way lemmy will grow, if reddit is continously banning people, or enshittfying some major thing, that prevents a certain community to not be viable. reddit noticed of thier large purges were getting rid of too many people at once, they now do alot of background banning instead.
Also the client situation is confusing to normies. Search for Lemmy on the spyware cancer store and you’ll see what I mean.
Pixelfed and Mastodon have already figured that out.
Many reasons add up. PieFed is a bit better and evolving fast. In my opinion, it is primarily the scale and scope of niche content, and the toxic opinions of many towards genuine people.
A few of the big strikes have been the lack of moderator transparency, and occasional poor moderation. Tribalistic bandwagon behavior, unmitigated negativity by a few individuals, and astroturfing. The inability to block another user from actually seeing and interacting with posts. This place is not privacy oriented. The feed is unmanaged and the effort needed to block and filter the fluff is beyond the curation expectations of many.
These are all good points
I think it may be more popular soon because other platforms are bringing in age verification.
That’s one reason I am here and also Reddit mods are dicks.
Lemmy isnt immune from the law
Yes but it’s small enough that most people haven’t heard of it.
The trick would be to get more users but not so many that it becomes a household name and is then added to the list of sites requiring verification
other platforms are bringing in age verification.
Will be interesting to see how this pans out for lemmy.
You’re right there will be a movement away from the larger platforms. I don’t think it will be a movement to lemmy though.
Where else though? I mean there is always 4chan…
Because its got too much political bias and censorship which alienates one side and the centre. Elon did this by making twitter open all other platforms must be just as tolerant or cease to be relevant in the medium of the marketplace of ideas
Meh. Reddit had a very strong political bias.
Lemmy doesn’t have the same polish, it’s a little more difficult to create an account, and doesn’t have any marketing. Also success snowballs.
I respect the crap out of everyone that pitches in to make Lemmy as good as it is. But if I’m being real, I’m here to spite Reddit. Few people have that moral give-a-fuck. Spite is easy, following through to do something that is more challenging and pays nothing is not.
To the biggest degree it’s comfort elsewhere and numbers attracting numbers. To a smaller but still substantial degree it’s the same reason the top 3 phone brands have less customization and a more plug and play experience than rooted phones. It solves a huge amount of the problems with Reddit, but reddit is simpler to join, simpler to understand, feels more secure, and has so many communities and active users that even inactive communities can look active by how many people mistakenly post there.
