Thank you so much for your persistent contributions and expertise! If you have any thoughts on dealing with shouting into the void, we'd love to hear them!
I've had times when I felt I was shouting in the dark on a number of different platforms over the years, but those community don't last long as they usually grow. The Mars communities here on Lemmy have grown nicely since I came over here from Reddit. I'm sort of paying it forward for all those that preceded me that gave me joy in the late 50's and 60's when I was young developing space nerd. I simply gather the data / images to satisfy my own curiosity. Sharing it with a few like minded souls, is only but a few clicks in this digital age :)
I think there's a pressure to come up with good and thought provoking questions to end our posts with, but in many cases, I don't think this is necessary.
Don't set the bar high. Especially if you're doing something niche. If we want people to interact, give them something simple, since they may not know much about your topic. Many of my subs say they don't feel they have anything to add since they don't have the knowledge of the topic I do. Not that I'm an experts, I'm just a few months of personal research ahead of them.
I can tell them more in one post than they know about the whole topic and that can be intimidating. My regulars will interact with that stuff, and some new people may be impressed, but the simple ones where it's just a neat pic and I say "hey, what do you like about this?" or "you prefer the one on the right or left?" are typically more popular because anyone can say something, and that first comment is the critical one because it gets other people to comment as the ice has been broken.
Also, not sure if it helps, but I'll often add my question as a comment so it will look like someone already engaged while they're scrolling and hopefully be more inclined to click through and maybe comment.
I cheated the system and just politely usurped an existing comm with a few hundred subscribers thanks to prior Reddit fame! 😇
On a more serious note, I was telling someone today that I mainly try to give them content they won't be able to get anywhere else, including on r/superbowl. I filter through the hell of Facebook to pick out things they don't want to sort through, or I do summaries of research papers they don't have time to read. I search for sources of content with small audiences.
I also try to engage with everyone that replies to me. I value all my commenters, and them chiming in grows the group as much as me posting, so I want them to feel like kings and queens for participating so they come back. They can go anywhere for content, but they gave me a chance, so I want them to come back to me first next time.
Owl of the Year was also a big 2 or 3 week event that really picked up steam quickly, and will hopefully draw people back again this year. Not sure how replicable that is for most of you, but I'm glad I tried it.
I just added my own community building approach in this thread, but you've both articulated some stuff I hadn't mentioned as well as given me ideas, thanks.
Lol, it feels strange being invited here as someone not a mod or instance admin, and my original intent was to just lurk silently.
I do feel protective of this space now though, since participating so much more than I ever thought I would, and there are a few names in this thread I recognize for their contributions across Lemmy and I'm very thankful of the work you all have put in as well.
I'll make an effort to follow this community and share any helpful thoughts I have. I think we really have something good here, and I want to see it grow happily.
Lol, it feels strange being invited here as someone not a mod or instance admin, and my original intent was to just lurk silently.
That's the whole idea, all the people here are regular posters. They might be mods or admins too, but that doesn't really matter. We are here to talk about how it feels to post regularly, and it's something that only a few people really experience.
I haven't been posting / commenting as much recently because I've been busy with life stuff, but I do like seeing the posts (ex. I enjoy seeing the Lego posts). It would be nice to have more comments, but otherwise I usually upvote or save the post
One thing I've noticed is that even on Reddit, there are more posts with lots of upvotes and no comments. I'm not sure why that is
I'm planning to get posting again, but what I've found is that a lot of posts in the niche communities didn't go anywhere. Then every now and then a post takes off and a lot of people see it.
Best is when other people start posting too (ex. !publichealth ). I guess it takes time for an active contributor with similar interests to find the community, since others might not encounter enough content outside of Lemmy to post them
Best is when other people start posting too (ex. !publichealth ). I guess it takes time for an active contributor with similar interests to find the community, since others might not encounter enough content outside of Lemmy to post them
Definitely. I'm kind of waiting to find another poster on most of my communities, feels almost like searching for a soulmate ha ha
Just trying to keep adding interesting content to the community, in the hopes that other reddit migrators find a place full of good stuff and discover what a breath of fresh air we have here.
A lot of people simply are lurkers. I know so many people irl who browse sites like reddit, 9gag, news sites or whatever all the time, and never in their life would consider to post comments.
Oh, definitely. The 90 lurkers - 9 commenters - 1 poster ratio seems to apply on Lemmy too. It might even be less, because it would mean that out of 50k people, there would be 500 posters?
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