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Is Lemmy growing or shrinking? (sh.itjust.works)

submitted 7 months ago by threelonmusketeers@sh.itjust.works to c/fediverse@lemmy.world

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How is the size of Lemmy's userbase changing? Is it growing or shrinking? How diverse is it? What do the current trendlines look like as we approach a year since Rexxit?

I feel like I used to see graphs on this sub fairly regularly, but haven't seen one recently. There was also some ambiguity in the numbers as commenting and voting were added to the active user totals. Now that most (all?) instances have switched to 0.19, do we have a better idea of where things stand?

Aside from sticking around and posting, commenting, and voting, is there anything users should be doing to help grow the platform? (!lemmygrow would be a good name for a sublemmy, if anyone wanted to organize something)

In any case, thanks to everyone who has helped grow Lemmy to its current size!

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[-] threelonmusketeers@sh.itjust.works 4 points 7 months ago

I'm not quite as pessimistic, but I agree that inclusivity is important to keep in mind.

If people actually want Lemmy in these areas to grow, it is important to be a lot more inclusive, and understand when to not participate in order to foster better community growth.

Android users commenting irrelevant anti-Apple sentiments in Apple Enthusiasts community

I've noticed similar behaviour as well, and it concerns me. There was a related post a few weeks ago on downvoting etiquette which received a surprising amount of pushback (+63/-108).

I think this is a side effect of Lemmy's small platform size pushing users towards browsing by /all. I never browsed /all on Reddit, and I don't think this the best way to regularly use Lemmy either.

Ideally, I think users should mostly stick to their subscribed feeds, and browse /all only occasionally to discover new communities they might want to subscribe to. (I recognize that what I think users "should" do is irrelevant when it comes to actual user behaviour.)

As the platform currently stands, we have a bit of a "chicken or egg" problem. Too many users browsing by /all can stifle the growth of niche communities, and the lack of niche communities can induce users to browse by /all. I'm not sure the best way to fix this, other than to hope that niche communities manage to grow despite uninclusive behaviour.

Do you have any ideas which could help make Lemmy more inclusive?

[-] Blaze@dormi.zone 8 points 7 months ago

As the platform currently stands, we have a bit of a “chicken or egg” problem. Too many users browsing by /all can stifle the growth of niche communities, and the lack of niche communities can induce users to browse by /all. I’m not sure the best way to fix this, other than to hope that niche communities manage to grow despite uninclusive behaviour.

Promotion of communities to !newcommunities@lemmy.world and !communitypromo@lemmy.ca, and promotion of those communities to the wider audience