Might be an interesting project for Fediverser or !fedigrow. Start with the most popular subreddit, create a Lemmy community on an appropriate instance, find mods and contributers (???, profit). Repeat with the next most popular subreddit.
I really got started here by posting the few owl pics from my travels that I had, but that wasn’t too many. I didn’t want to let the community die down again though.
A lot of my interactions with owl have been by visiting wildlife rehabbers, as owls are typically very illegal to own or display without proper licensing. I wanted everyone else to have a chance to see an owl, so each day I looked at the licensing information for each state and found a rehabber to highlight, one open to the public at least a few days a year if possible, and featured one of their rescues that people could go see. I had a few people that had visited some of these places chime in, and a few learned there was a place near them where they could actually see an owl, and one person even signed up to work as a volunteer at one of the places I showed them.
That all got me a lot of sources to pull new info from. They all share great photos, rescue stories, medical and rehab procedures, near behavioral stories, and so on. Whenever I learned something, I just shared it with the group. It made me curious about new things, so I went and read up on them. People asked questions in the comments, and I needed to learn answers to not leave them hanging. That got me curious about even more technical things, so I got into the scientific research papers.
I’ve heard before that if you want to become an expert in something, just go around acting like you’re the expert. People will come to you with things and you’re going to want to answer them so you don’t look like some dope. But then after you answer them, that knowledge is yours forever. After more and more rounds of this, it starts to be more than an act.
It helps that I love reading and research and that I value teaching. Knowledge is one of the most important things anyone can be given, so I’ve worked hard to learn how to explain things and to not make other people feel dumb for not knowing things. As I make myself smarter, that opens the door for me to pass new knowledge down as I become able to explain it to my audience. The primary audience for my stuff is me. No one pays me to do this, so I’m not burning myself out learning whatever. I learn what I want to learn, and as it amazes me, I share with you all, so I could do this forever.
It’s fun for me, and I want it to be fun for you all. I try to make it so you can just look at pictures and be happy, or you can go to these places in person, you can sponsor your local rescue, or you can learn so many facts you want to be a volunteer or researcher or rehabber yourself. We all start somewhere. A few years ago, I never paid owls much mind. Now I know all kinds of anatomy and body functions and find them to be absolutely fascinating and diverse animals. We all just need that spark of curiosity.
It focuses on pet rabbits specifically. I wanted this one I saw on how interacting with owners affects rabbit welfare, but I couldn’t find a free copy. This one though has handling instructions, dietary guidance, medical examinations, anatomy, medical conditions, and housing requirements. There are technical terms, but the simplest way to approach it is to read a paragraph or section, google the terms you dont know, and then make a post explaining what you read while pretending you’re teaching it to some junior high kids. If you can do that, you have a good post that should teach people something new and interesting, because you found it new and interesting, and it’s something they probably don’t know because you didn’t know it, and you’ve spent more time on rabbits than most people will have spent on them. By aiming at a junior high-ish level, you’re speaking them them pretty much as you would to an adult, but being mindful to not use all these big words you just learned without explaining them. If you write stuff they don’t understand, they won’t read it. But if you share your delight at learning new things, they will catch that excitement too. Not always, but enough.
The end of research papers always site sources as well. This one has over 40 references, and you can google them and some you will find free to read. Keep following the references and you’ll never run out of content.
That’s my process that works for me. If you like it, steal the whole thing or any parts you think would be helpful. Everyone should always be learning, no matter what subject, and I like encouraging that.
This is too long so I’m stopping now. 😅
I’m always around, or check in on !fedigrow where other creators hang out and discuss growing Lemmy and our communities for advice.
!cyberpunk - mostly games, movies, shows, and music in the cyberpunk sci-fi genre
!wavemusic - music: synthwave, vaporwave, etc. A fairly new community, a couple different people have been posting
!gothindustrial - music community. I was hoping someone else would make the 300th post, if not I’ll post something later today.
!fullmoviesonyoutube - a larger community, a couple of us are posting regularly, but could use more discussion
!fedigrow - a community about how to help grow the fediverse. @Blaze has been posting a weekly thread on “how is your [niche] community doing?” which is kind of like a support group for people keeping communities alive
edit: how could I forget, !shortstories - links to short stories online in all genres
It’s usually easier to discuss in one place that across several. Feel free to post on !fedigrow, there are already 302 subscribers, you should get some reaction.
visiting a neat-sounding community and realizing all the posts are by the single moderator (and are getting less and less frequent).
This will be a key moment towards Lemmy’s growth or decline. Especially in non-tech/meme/politics communities, it’s so easy for the only poster be a single person who is posting daily, and who then simply runs out of content. Maybe the solution is for each frequent poster to post non-daily on several different communities. Anyway, check out !fedigrow, @Blaze has started posting a weekly thread on “How is your niche community doing?”
For all your boycotting needs. I’m sure there’s some mods caught in lemmy.ml’s top 10 that are perfectly upstanding and reasonable people, my condolences for the cross-fire....
Especially the derogatory use of the word „tankie“ is unacceptable imo.
Not a fan either.
I‘d prefer if people started debates and tried to find common ground instead. For the reason of decentralization I would like less popular „versions“ of the communities to thrive.
Are you on !fedigrow? That’s a topic we discuss quite often there
Following the other thread (550 upvotes and 366 comments at the moment: lemmy.world/post/16211417), one of the complaints that people had what that some communities only exist on lemmy.ml and don’t have alternatives on other instances....
So if there’s an issue with lemmy.ml, boycott it - unsubscribe, give the other communities on more agreeable instances your time and they will grow and prosper. If there isn’t a relevant alternative start one.
And this is a key step - identify where there aren’t alternatives and start them. It might also be worth compiling a list of the alternatives so people can make the switch.
It’s also worth bearing in mind that Lemmy isn’t like Reddit in that you could just passively consume content all day. If there’s a problem, we all need to roll our sleeves up and pitch in.
Worth also mentioning that !fedigrow is a good place to discuss topics on how we can help Lemmy grow and thrive.
I feel like we need to talk about Lemmy’s massive tankie censorship problem. A lot of popular lemmy communities are hosted on lemmy.ml. It’s been well known for a while that the admins/mods of that instance have, let’s say, rather extremist and onesided political views. In short, they’re what’s colloquially referred to...
If there’s a community that only exists there, be the change you want to see: create it somewhere else and give it time to grow. You’re not the only one making this complaint about .ml, and you probably wont’ be the last.
Maybe we should open a thread on !fedigrow about this
Reddit CEO Teases Paywalled Subreddits (www.pcmag.com)
600 more active users in the last few days, from 47225 to 47827 in two days
Source: lemmy.fediverse.observer/dailystats...
Is there a community to find other communities?
I know !findacommunity exists, but I’ve blocked lemmy.ml…...
Has anyone here ever been permanently banned from reddit? If so, is there any way to get unbanned?
deleted_by_author
Just created AMA Request for anyone can ask a question to a person you have questions for. The first post was for the creator of lemmy
What would you like to change about Lemmy culture?
Weekly active communities promotion thread
Hello,...
Active communities promotion thread
Hello,...
Welcome to Content Boosters!
Welcome to Content Boosters!...
[email protected], for beautiful data!
!dataisbeautiful...
what Lemmy communities don't exist but you wish they did?
I’ll go first. I wish Lemmy communities existed for: destroyed tanks. Ukraine War video report. sopranos duckposting. benzodiazepines....
PSA: Alternatives for the most popular lemmy.ml communities
For all your boycotting needs. I’m sure there’s some mods caught in lemmy.ml’s top 10 that are perfectly upstanding and reasonable people, my condolences for the cross-fire....
Following the other post, which lemmy.ml communities don't have alternatives on other instances?
Following the other thread (550 upvotes and 366 comments at the moment: lemmy.world/post/16211417), one of the complaints that people had what that some communities only exist on lemmy.ml and don’t have alternatives on other instances....
Lemmy.ml tankie censorship problem
I feel like we need to talk about Lemmy’s massive tankie censorship problem. A lot of popular lemmy communities are hosted on lemmy.ml. It’s been well known for a while that the admins/mods of that instance have, let’s say, rather extremist and onesided political views. In short, they’re what’s colloquially referred to...
Number of monthly active Lemmy users rising again
lemmy.fediverse.observer/dailystats...