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Do you think lemmy would be as popular as reddit?

Hi, do you think lemmy would be as popular as Reddit ? I mean, many subreddits have much more posts compared to communities on lemmy… sometimes I scroll through Reddit sub top of month and see no end. At lemmy mostly I see 10 posts monthly… I do like concept of moving to lemmy, but it might make no sense if people’s are no active here and tbh I see the trend of disappearing activity

Zak ,
@Zak@lemmy.world avatar

Probably not, but that’s OK. Reddit is optimizing to be popular, while Lemmy has the opportunity to optimize to be useful.

Reddit largely displaced independent web forums. It wasn’t originally designed to do that; it didn’t even have comments at first, but that’s its most useful niche. It’s not actively optimizing to be good at that though; it’s optimizing for a combination of getting more people to spend more time there and getting people to click on ads. The latter is probably best served by encouraging fast-paced low-value meme type content rather than deep discussions.

Perhaps oddly, or perhaps because my Reddit feed is more curated, I see the latter on Lemmy more than on Reddit. For those who care about Lemmy’s success, you have a role to play. Post in communities related to your interests, or start one if it doesn’t already exist.

Tippon ,

It’s not going to be as popular while it’s hard to browse and post in different communities.

If I’m browsing through the app, Voyager in my case, I can read and reply to anything that’s been federated to my instance. If I send myself a link to read later though, I might only be able to read it. Sent links open in the browser instead of the app, and that doesn’t let me comment on different instances.

On top of that, accessibility settings don’t carry over. Different instances in the browser are treated like different websites. I have trouble reading dark mode sites, so I set my home instance to light mode. Browsing to a different instance might switch it back to dark, and not let me change it without creating an account and logging in. That really puts me off wanting to stick around.

trailing9 ,

Why do you browse to other instances? Apart from channels on defederated instances you can subscribe to all channels on your main instance.

Does Lemmy need artificial ‘all’ channels that include all channels of an instance? Then there would be no need to directly visit other instances.

Tippon ,

If there’s a post with information I want to save, I email it to myself, same for FOSS posts where I want to try the software on the PC.

It might just be that I get a notification while I’m on the PC and want to answer. This post is on lemmy.ml, so if I opened it on the computer while I’m logged in to dbzer0, I wouldn’t be able to type this reply.

MBM ,

There is also just a dbzer0 link to this post (lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/5239822) that you should be able to send to yourself. I can’t imagine Voyager wouldn’t let you access that.

Tippon ,

Sorry, yes, Voyager lets me read and reply to everything. It’s when I try to open a link on my PC that I get the problem. I opened this thread from my replies, and get the dbzer0 link that you posted rather than the original lemmy.ml link, and I can reply on the PC. I’ve got programming.dev/c/learn_programming open in another tab though, a link that I emailed myself to read on the PC, and it asks me to log in, even though I’m currently logged in to dbzer0.

CommunityLinkFixer Bot ,

Hi there! Looks like you linked to a Lemmy community using a URL instead of its name, which doesn’t work well for people on different instances. Try fixing it like this: !learn_programming

Nemo ,

This post is on lemmy.ml, so if I opened it on the computer while I’m logged in to dbzer0, I wouldn’t be able to type this reply.

That’s very incorrect. I’m on midwest.social and I can reply.

Tippon ,

That’s odd, I can reply now. The link from my replies is lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/5239822 though, rather than the original lemmy.ml link.

I’ve got programming.dev/c/learn_programming open in another tab, a link that I emailed myself to read on the computer, and that’s asking me to log in.

CommunityLinkFixer Bot ,

Hi there! Looks like you linked to a Lemmy community using a URL instead of its name, which doesn’t work well for people on different instances. Try fixing it like this: !learn_programming

Nemo ,

Not odd at all. You’re logged in on dbzer, you’re not on programming.dev, because they’re different servers. Your server fetches posts from other servers before you can comment on them.

trailing9 ,

As the others wrote, you should be able to reply.

Additionally, I would like to remind you of the star. You can mark posts and comments and find them in your profile.

Tippon ,

Thanks, I always forget about the star. I’m so used to just sending myself links that I forget that there are other ways sometimes :)

ProperlyProperTea ,

I assume some will say they don’t want it to. I hope it does so more people are no longer giving money to giant social media companies, or being tracked by them.

trailing9 ,

It’s like MySpace and Facebook. The momentum can switch at any moment. Like others said, it’s better to fix some important issues before Lemmy becomes popular.

It’s very likely that Lemmy will be more popular because Lemmy is more open for innovations. This is not Linux where you have to learn something first. If the frontpage is better, people will switch. Reddit cannot rock the boat whereas on Lemmy, each instance can try a new feature and show its usefulness.

emptyother ,
@emptyother@programming.dev avatar

If a billionaire (or a very big bunch of millionaires) out of the goodness of their heart (yeah, not gonna happen) threw a massive amount of money into advertising for a open source product they dont own, Lemmy could be as or more popular. Even if it has fewer features. Even if its uglier. Even if its more complicated.

I can’t count the many times I’ve seen the worser product has won out because it had big corpo ad budget. Turned me a bit cynical.

beSyl , (edited )

I don’t want lemmy to be as popular as reddit as the signal to noise ratio was really bad… Way too much noise.

I do want smaller communities that are on reddit to have a lemmy counterpart.

elephantintheroom ,
@elephantintheroom@lemmy.ml avatar

This. The more popular it gets, the more people come, the more trolls and idiots are beneath them, the more toxic everything gets…

Advertisements and fake news will also skyrocket once the user bases are big enough to become adequate breeding grounds for them.

small44 ,

With the userbase we have now, there’s not enough active communities. We don’t need to be as big as reddit but we need to attract more user that are not just lurkers

beSyl ,

Indeed. But that comes with time if we keep on improving content engaging users and all that. Be a welcoming place.

laxu ,

Exactly. The amount of /r/adviceanimals level pure shit content on Reddit is high, paired with the bots that repost things until they start hocking some crypto bullshit links.

But I have kept using Reddit for years because every once in a while, you see someone write thoughtful posts about some niche subject you didn’t even know existed. That’s always interesting.

Lemmy is at a state where it needs more users writing about things that interest them.

Relay Pro just went to subscription, so the last 3rd party Reddit app is gone. I will probably read Lemmy much more on mobile from now on and hope it picks up steam.

Razputinsgirth ,

I don't think so. The apps aren't as intuitive as the old non official reddit apps. I know me personally I don't know how to use kbin that well and I overall don't love it here. I made the switch when RIF died and I haven't actually filled the void yet.

beSyl ,

I think the apps are fine. Check out boost for lemmy… All the apps really need right now is an On Boarding screen. Something like: “Choose instance X or Y or Z and let’s go”.

Razputinsgirth ,

That would definitely help someone like me who I guess is just an old person now

Blaze ,
@Blaze@discuss.tchncs.de avatar

pangora.social/join

Blaze ,
@Blaze@discuss.tchncs.de avatar

pangora.social/join

0485919158191 ,
@0485919158191@lemmy.world avatar

Lemmy has potential, sadly paid software will always be the king in the consumer space. Marketing plays a big roll too. I don’t see lemmy being bigger than Reddit sadly.

Chariotwheel ,

Yeah, the general public knows about Reddit, most people have no idea what the fediverse or lemmy are.

JasSmith ,

Open license software will never beat paid software in the consumer space. I know that’s a controversial opinion, but it’s been proven a thousand times. There’s no way to beat the user experience of Reddit when they have a hundred experienced UX designers doing nothing but optimising for engagement. We think the overall experience is worse, which is why we’re here, but we are the minority. Lemmy still hasn’t figured out basic problems like what happens to the user experience when an instance defederates from another. The user had no control over that, but suddenly their subscribed communities have disappeared without notice or explanation. Now they have to find another instance to subscribe to, and they lose their entire Lemmy identity.

OskarAxolotl ,

Well, the website and mobile app are overwhelmingly hated (just look at the reviews on the PlayStore). I think there are two major things helping Reddit: It’s easy to grasp (Lemmy has instances, dozens of different apps, etc.) and the fact that Reddit already has a community for basically everything.

iamthewalrus ,

I generally agree, but one counter example I keep thinking of is Wikipedia. Massively successful site with few rivals despite being a nonprofit. I imagine a social media app could build some degree of success with that model. The main obstacles to my mind are a good UI/UX and a community funding approach sufficient to keep ahead of growth. It’s not yet clear whether Lemmy is “the one” to provide either. As great as the fediverse concept is, it’s harder to use and to consolidate funding for than it perhaps should be.

JasSmith ,

Wikipedia is a good example but they actually employ designers and developers. I think the secret sauce is paying people to build great software. So a non-profit with donations could absolutely work.

mfigueiredo ,

If the quality it’s better don’t mind about popularity.

Polar ,

Sadly the quality isn’t better

amio ,

No, it likely won't be as popular. Might be pretty quiet in general, unless (until..) Reddit shits the bed again or something else happens to boost adoption.

I think maybe the design isn't working ideally, it's relatively complicated stuff and "federation politics" makes it infinitely worse. I think it's going to be a hard sell for casual users.

Of course, I don't think the place is dying off completely any time soon, either. (And the "bunch of nerds" era which we're at, relatively speaking, was arguably the least sucky Reddit period anyway - you can't have Reddit's user count without a large helping of extra toxicity coming with it)

Snoopy ,
@Snoopy@jlai.lu avatar

No, we shoudn’t. Framasoft, the french libre software NGO published an interesting article about mastodon and twitter (in french). To sum up, the article tells us we shouldn’t follow twitter footstep (it was before Elon Musk became the CEO) but embrace the fediverse.

So, imho, after reading their post, it is clear that we are just copy-pasting some proprietary software and it’s a mistake because we may integrated some problematic design that were intended for analysis and ads purpose. And those proprietary software were a golden cage.

The fediverse is not lemmy, it’s not mastodon. And the timeline is limited by its UI design to lemmyverse or mastodonverse. It shouldn’t. We should open them more while having good moderating tool.

But firstly, Lemmy should improve their moderating tool. As a moderator in jlai.lu, and because our admin explained us various issues : the current state of Lemmy is worrying.

So until those matter aren’t solved, i don’t want to see any community’s grow bigger nor openness to the fediverse because we aren’t ready and can’t protect other communities in the fediverse.

beSyl ,

Ya… I don’t know why lemmy devs are not focusing on moderator tools. What are they working on nowadays?

The first few weeks after the reddit exodus, releases were coming in fast with tons of changes, UI, performance improvements, etc…

Nowadays, I don’t notice much.

Blaze ,
@Blaze@discuss.tchncs.de avatar

0.19 is coming out in a few weeks, they posted about it on !lemmy

maegul ,
@maegul@lemmy.ml avatar

I think you can take this even further and ask if any social media platforms will be as big as those of this past (and rather long) period. Reddit, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube. It’s been a very notable period of centralisation of the web from about 2010 or so. And it’s worth wondering whether it was an anomaly.

There’s certainly been some fracturing lately and for good reasons (we were never the customer and the internet has always worked this way with people moving freely).

On the other hand, the idea of having a personal home on the internet, a true avatar and the idea that huge serious things can happen online … both have gone mainstream and probably can’t be put back in the bag.

Against these requirements, an open protocol is an obvious solution, as we’d all tend to agree, but not trivial as corporations still want to make money some how and so may not buy in. Plus getting the protocol right at the right time is non trivial (I personally suspect avtivitypub has not done this and as a result we’re in an awkward position at the moment).

luthis ,

I haven’t gone back to Reddit as an active user at all since the event.

Lemmy will get another boost of users as a side effect as Mastodon picks up in popularity with the continued elonning of Twitter.

It’s fairly active here, I constantly see new posts etc. But if you want more activity, post more!

Lemmylaugh ,

In the early reddit, there was that gallowboob user/group of employee. I think someone like that would help boost content

TwoBeeSan ,

It’s inherently niche. If reddit has more controversies can see more waves coming over.

I like the vibe of the smaller forum, but would be lying if I said I use it as much as reddit.

Lemmy still scratches my forum need, but I found myself devoting more time to other things. Probably for the best honestly. 🤷‍♂️

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