so i just saw this post in the new all feed … was deleted the moment i wanted to open it for being “off topic”.
pls, everyone, be nice to new users. don’t just remove their first post for being “off topic”. we’re already having a problem of not getting enough new users (link)
Counterpoint: those will happen naturally and don’t need planning.
Sometimes those are fraught with frustration though. Like I remember really enjoying discussions with the highly controversial user FlyingSquid, who left Lemmy at least a year ago. My discussions were about Star Trek, and I had already blocked all politics themed communities as well as the largest meme ones. It turned out that within the politics sphere, he seems to have shown a bit of a different side of his personality to people who tried to post in the communities that he modded. Was he right? Are all the people decrying against him - many of whom I note are often proven liars in other matters - right? Actually truth is significantly more complex than that, plus not having delved in depth I honestly and truly do not know (though suspect a bit of both).
And people say likewise about PugJesus too. I was never on the receiving end of his wrath either - perhaps I never could be, since my aim is truth and he wouldn’t have to be firm as I would literally welcome correction where needed? But now he is gone too.
Most of the people that I enjoyed speaking with the most are either gone, or comment far less frequently than they used to. Or in different communities.
A lot of the communities that I do frequent the most - among those that still exist anyway - have barely anyone who comments at all. I tend to avoid the largest ones (I make an exception for this one we are in now due to the subject matter), bc that is where the toxicity is highest. But then the niche communities barely exist at all… e.g. !ask_experienced_devs@programming.dev has only had one post in the last 4 months, !bestofthefediverse@lemmy.ca, oops that one seems to have died a year ago already, so I just unsubscribed, the last post in !dankmemes@lemmy.world was 2 months ago, oops I just noticed several places I am subscribed in were on lemm.ee so obviously those are defunct now, the last post in !dogsincostumes@lemmy.world was 8 months ago, one of my absolute favorites was !nathanwpyle@lemmy.world, but the only post other than one asking the content creator where he went was again from 8 months ago, and so on. There’s also just a WHOLE BUNCH of communities that have next to zero comments in them - maybe they are bot posts that people prefer to block? e.g. !publichealth@mander.xyz. Others are not quite as often fully zero but are still less than 5 per post, like !fediverse_vs_disinfo@lemmy.dbzer0.com, !globalnews@lemmy.zip, and every single poetry community I can find across the entire Threadiverse.
Don’t get me wrong, some people like ThePicardManeuver and LadyButterfly are holding up a good half of the Threadiverse by super posting to many many communities. But people used to say the same about FlyingSquid and also PugJesus as well. Like see this old appreciation post: https://feddit.org/post/3602869.
So anyway, you aren’t wrong, but it’s not as simple as that, when a good fraction of the communities here keep turning into ghost towns, and those that remain are either the largest, which again attracts the most controversial crowds, or else super super tiny.
But I do enjoy talking with you wherever I see you:-).
Yeap, and notice what I recommended back then to the person complaining right there, and notice how nobody seemed to take my advice…?
Rinse, wash, repeat?
Which echoes something I’ve pointed out many times (I think actually in this very discussion, but earlier?), which is that the body of FV users seem to have the non-sustainable idea that they don’t actually have to do anything on their part to help contribute in a positive manner to FV appreciation and content. Unfortunately, I find that such an utterly casual, nincompoop sort of belief that naturally it degrades everything it touches, to the ultimate detriment of said FV.
I could also give you a million specific examples of such, but as someone in relentless pain, nursing a terminal disease, I’m not specifically-aiming to write a novel with each comment. PJ was in a similar boat, and I feel like that should be understood and respected. FlyingSquid’s work on “Out of Context Comics” was awesome to my mind, but despite whatever toxicity he was a part of, I understand that he was in a rough life-situation during his time here.
Of course it’s not as simple as that, my dear OpenStars, but what I said sufficiently fit the context of the situation, and again I’m not here to write a novel every bloody post. The fact is that what I was getting at was moreso a small aspect, or perhaps the tip of, yon iceberg(s).
Communities founded with naive eagerness, then relatively-quickly abandoned are something I’ve been weighing-in on for years upon now, mate. So I appreciate the examples, but you’re preaching to the choir.
All part of why I feel like my pledge-posting project might help out with things, just that I’ve been in and out of the hospital to the extent that it’s gotten side-tracked, lately. But if you scroll through my comments, you’ll see the concept pop up from time to time.
Anyway, cheers mate!
Oh hey, that was you!!! Like I said earlier, I enjoy your contributions. Though so many other people - like PugJesus - keep leaving, and based on the number of empty communities in my subscriptions, nobody rises up to replace their level of contributions (well not nobody, e.g. there’s Lady Butterfly, tirelessly lifting up pretty much half to all of the most strongly encouraging communities:-).
I’ve wondered myself if I should help set up a community for comics. But there’s a legal liability issue, which I suppose is why I am able to enjoy older ones like Foxtrot and Calvin & Hobbes delivered daily to my Subscribed feed, but not modern ones like Nathan W. Pyle’s work.
So what I did instead was to create a community c/AskUSA. Virtually nobody reads the rules though - e.g. to avoid politics (there’s even helpful links directly in the sidebar to alternatives to post those to), and the reality of what is happening to the USA right now is too depressing to contemplate so… I became one of those people who abandons communities myself. Realistically, I just don’t think we have the subscriber base to support niche communities. Multiple times I have stumbled upon a community that someone created (to hold the name I suppose?) and became the exclusively sole poster to it, never to have been followed up with even by the creator of it themselves. Community discovery is exceedingly poor on Lemmy.
Hence I put all my hopes into PieFed instead, to be all that Lemmy never will… at least until PugJesus left due to the issue of shadow-censoring users contributions. That kind of thing is enough to kill off an entire project, causing communities to choose to not migrate there from a Lemmy instance or from Reddit, or to decide not to switch over their instance or open up a parallel one running PieFed (e.g. sh.itjust.works was considering that at one point in time, I am not sure if they still will now though…). My hopes that PieFed will “save” the concept of the Threadiverse are dashed - even though ironically there is now more reason to have hoped for it than ever before - e.g. Reddit has begun killing off old-reddit, which will cause many to look for alternatives to run to. They will not come here though, as my earlier link mentions in their very own words, nor can I argue all that believably that they should, when what awaits them is to be bullied here into expanding the base to receive tankie falsehoods and propaganda, and otherwise incel toxicity.
So I am choosing to listen rather than always only ever speak, and see if I can understand this shifting landscape better.
Oops, but here I wrote a novel along with that. Don’t worry - there is no expectation for me to receive one in return:-).
Time marches ever onwards. Each new generation (of posters) will figure out what it wants to use this space for, if anything at all, or not. In the meantime I hope it has been more enjoyable to meta-discuss these matters, or at least more so than to add to your already considerable pain.
Over here, I’ve been running a niche community for 3+yrs now on the FV, so I’m not totally receptive to your complaints & observations upon such, but that’s just me. Also, I average at least a post per day upon other communities that I appreciate and want to support.
And I’ve already spoken ad naus. above about all this (did you read?), for goodness’ sake.
Also, in terms of PJ-specifically, I love his efforts, hence why I sometimes initiate stuff like this:
https://piefed.social/c/bestoflemmy@lemmy.world/p/2215387/pugjesus-on-us-moderns-s-tendency-to-assume-everything-should-have-been-possible-in-ant
Well, fuck me if that’s some kind of impossible-to-achieve goal for participants upon a next-gen platform, based on the power of the people. In reality, in terms of other /c’s, it just takes a few minutes per day, minimum. Dammit.
Mate, I don’t mean to be totally rude, but it feels like you have a lot to unload upon, which is perfectly fair. And you make many solid points IMO. My personal suggestion is to take that right back to the top level of sublemmys like this, and you’d have every right to IMO.
I don’t expect another response from you unless you have a specific question for me, thanks very much.