Why YSK: We have a significant number of users now, and yet the amount of content to scroll through is still fairly small. This is because not all users are the same, and while the majority prefer to lurk, and a much smaller minority prefer to comment, the percentage that really likes making posts, memes, art, rants, videos etc is extremely small.
One way that we can all assist with this is to simply make content ourselves. But even if you don’t want to do that, you can still help by finding productive creators elsewhere on the internet and telling them about us.
Many reddit users are still simply unaware that we exist. They don’t know that there is a community of consumers here, waiting for content. They don’t know that if you can navigate reddit, then you can navigate this. Lemmy is just not as complicated as it can sound at first.
So, if you want, simply invite them. Give them a link to a community down here that would fit the content they like to produce, and let them know we’d love to have them. Because we really would love to have them. Let them know that you, as a fan, would love to see them here. After all, wouldn’t you?
Thanks for reading.
I can see both sides of this, and I’m honestly not sure which I’m on. To use the World News bot as an example, I am glad it’s there. I can hang out in here and stay up-to-date on the news without having to leave because of it, which I appreciate. But the flip side is I will not myself make a post in that forum, because the bot will just flood me out.
Eventually there will be enough of us that people start posting there more, anyway. But until then the bot probably does serve to discourage some posting participation.
Pros and cons. I like the news bot for sure, but I can see bots being problematic in certain kinds of communities. It’ll just depend on the local culture.
And speaking of culture, don’t forget everyone here has some kind of early adopter personality trait. That’s not representative of the public at large, it’ll be a heavily skewed sample that leans younger, at first.
Yeap agreed. While bots can be really useful for communities like World News and others, !NoStupidQuestions already banned them before anyone else, as they would disrupt the user experience there. It might deploy an automod soon but that’s pretty much it.
I can see bots becoming a part of the user experience here, and some communities even having fun with them. I believe that as the user voice matters a lot more here, people’s reactions will largely determine what happens & where. It’s an interesting situation where as the platform grows, the collective user voice shapes it and accelerates it and boosts its activity. It’s like a whole bunch of people looking back and trying to bring the best parts of their favorite forums.