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Trying to build critical mass for small communities (lemmy.world)
submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by Crul@lemmy.world to c/newcommunities@lemmy.world
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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/2693464

Hi, I'm focusing on generating content for a few communities that I feel can be successful and have less content than I expected:

EDIT: I did not create any of those communities

I would encourage anyone to participate if you like those topics.

Do you know any other niche-but-not-too-niche communities in which we could focus efforts?
Please, don't post very long lists, I'm already subscribed to almost 300 communities and the idea is to focus on a few ones.

Thanks!

EDIT: Added descriptions for each community.

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[-] freamon@communick.news 11 points 1 year ago

I wish you well. Personally, I'm a bit gloomy about the prospect of growing communities.

To share some data from shittymoviedetails@lemmy.world:

2023-07-19 521 subs 05 posts
2023-07-20 533 subs 13 posts
2023-07-21 633 subs 18 posts
2023-07-22 677 subs 19 posts
2023-07-23 710 subs 20 posts
2023-07-24 740 subs 21 posts
2023-07-25 753 subs 22 posts
2023-07-26 760 subs 23 posts
2023-07-27 781 subs 24 posts
2023-07-28 785 subs 24 posts
2023-07-29 794 subs 24 posts
2023-07-30 794 subs 24 posts
2023-07-31 798 subs 24 posts
2023-08-01 802 subs 24 posts
2023-08-02 807 subs 24 posts
2023-08-03 807 subs 24 posts
2023-08-04 826 subs 24 posts
2023-08-05 846 subs 24 posts

I was involved in an attempt to grow this community. Two or three of us posted on the 20th July and 21st July, and you can see the subs jump from 533 to 677.
I kept posting 1 post a day until the 27th, but found that, the more I posted what I thought was amusing the more you actually had to be me to agree. If anyone ever commented on a post they didn't get or thought unfunny, there's maybe something I could do about it.
From then, subs have grown (I assume the recent jumps are due to Sync users), but posts and comments have not.

So it's not just about getting more subscribers - it has to be the right kind of subscribers.
Lemmy Kings sitting on porcelein thrones, dis-interestedly calling out for "More content! No! Not that kind! Get me some more Content Creators from the village!" are of no value.
If you're increasing subscribers, but it's still just you posting into the void, it's hard not to get disillusioned.

[-] CrypticCoffee@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I resurrected: Degoogle!degoogle@lemmy.ml and have been trying to grow it a bit.

It was on 3.56k subscribers and 152 active monthly users on 21/7/23. 117 posts.

Now 4.54k, 333 active monthly users, 135 posts.

Best techniques I found was reach out to larger subs in a similar area with similar interests, link to their communities in your description and ask if they could do the same to help users find what they like. Also crossposting is great from larger areas. You can see crossposts from the main post and it's easy to click and deep dive into there. Crossposting about 3 posts which resonated with the users did most of the heavy lifting.

[-] Crul@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

You are probably right on your pessimism. Growing communities is hard. That's why I'm trying to focus the efforts in a few, but more than 1 community. Which community will succeed in the long term is impossible to predict, so I think it's better to just keep trying with different ones.

I find !shittymoviedetails@lemmy.world a very good attempt. If I get it correctly, is like fakehistoryporn but for movies, right? I think that's the kind of niche-but-not-too-niche topic that could work. I'm not very familiar with the format but I will keep it in mind in case I find something worth posting.

Thanks for the efforts and the feedback!

[-] freamon@communick.news 3 points 1 year ago

If I get it correctly, is like fakehistoryporn but for movies, right?

I think so, yeah. My own posts there vary widely in popularity (to phrase it euphemistically), so I'm maybe not the right person to ask though.

[-] Crul@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago

In case it helps: IMHO the hard part of !shittymoviedetails@lemmy.world is that is an all-or-nothing regarding if you get the joke.

Note that the communities I listed on OP have content that can be enjoyed without any previous reference. Of course, the more you know about any topic, the more you will get from the posts, but I think that for the short term, it's good to focus on things that people can vote because "they look pretty" even if they don't understand the context.

[-] SomeoneElseMod@feddit.uk 3 points 1 year ago

I’m really late to this because I’m going through the community posts in order, but I wouldn’t be pessimistic just yet. I’ve created a number of communities I missed from Reddit and they grew really well - they’re photo/screenshot communities though.

Confidently_incorrect is 3 weeks old, has 27 posts and 2.3k subs.

Terrible estate agent photos is 3 weeks old. 46 posts, 3.5k subs.

Don't you know who I am? is 2 months old, 35 posts and 2.5k subs.

Clever comebacks is only a week old; 7 posts and 108 subs. I haven’t even listed that on this community yet and that where a lot of my subscribers came from for the others.

!badrealestate is the only community that anyone other than me has made a post in. I was just really diligent with posting - maybe twice a day for the first few days, then once everyday, slowing down to every other day. The only communities I’ve created that haven’t grown are the ones I haven’t posted in daily. You should keep at it - the people will come eventually!

[-] 2tone@lemmy.world 10 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I've just created

Both can be very active communities once people are there

[-] zecg@lemmy.world 8 points 1 year ago

High five, I opened those two subs on reddit in the olden days

[-] Crul@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

Good luck!

Sadly, I don't have much to contribute to these communities, but I will post if I find something relevant.

[-] CrypticCoffee@lemmy.ml 10 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Do we need to create a community growing community (CommunityGrowers - The Community Growing alliance) to share hints and tips on what does and doesn't work so that people can follow successful patterns and all of Lemmy benefits?

[-] Crul@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

That may be a good idea. The 3 communities I found relevant to crosspost this are:

[-] Bilbo@hobbit.world 6 points 1 year ago

More hobbits are always welcome at: !hobbit_art@hobbit.world

[-] Crul@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

Posted one there!... I hope Bakshi is not too hated :P.

[-] Zeus@lemm.ee 5 points 1 year ago

a few others and i are trying to get some of the imaginary network off the ground - the ones i'm particularly fond of are imaginary trains and imaginary dieselpunk, but there's a whole list in the sidebar

unfortunately a considerable chunk went down with lemmy.fmhy.ml, but i'm in contact with the guy behind them and he plans to reopen them soon

[-] Crul@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

Posted one on each community, good luck!

[-] Zeus@lemm.ee 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

thank you!

(also, i'm flattered that you think i look organised, i'm very new to this so i don't feel organised at all)

[-] Crul@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

Note that I said: "you look a bit more organized than small subs", and that's not a very high bar, hehe :P.

More seriously, I thought you were related to reddit's Imaginary Network, which is huge and with some big power-users.

If that's not the case, then more props to you!

[-] Zeus@lemm.ee 1 points 1 year ago

Note that I said: “you look a bit more organized than small subs”, and that’s not a very high bar, hehe :P.

oi! and i thought you were nice

More seriously, I thought you were related to reddit’s Imaginary Network, which is huge and with some big power-users.

nope, not at all. they're just the only subs i still follow by rss, and no-one else was making them here so i took up that mantle. and now i have 7 imaginary communities... and there are at least 2 more that i want to exist, so i'm hoping someone makes them soon

[-] hitstun@fedia.io 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Thank you for giving the Fediverse some of that Imaginary Network action I crave from Reddit. I tried asking them to move to Kbin and they aren't interested. You and @Martineski have been doing a fine job making quality posts and always citing your sources. I hope Martineski's Imaginary communities come back soon. I want to contribute more to ImaginarySliceOfLife here!

I'd offer my own @FloatingIsFun to join the Imaginary mix, but it wouldn't work because we accept floaty things that aren't fictional and aren't static images. Besides, with that Lemmy/Kbin bug making all my posts appear to come from two hours in the future, I feel like I've already gotten more exposure than I actually deserve.

[-] Zeus@lemm.ee 0 points 1 year ago

actually i'm also going to reply to you here just to check my message went through, as i'm not sure if lemmy -> kbin messages work

[-] Crul@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Then I will include them on my watchlist and will try to post at least from time to time.

As I said in other comments, thanks to all of you who create and moderate communities. For now, I'm just trying to generate content, which I know is the easier part.

[-] Zeus@lemm.ee 1 points 1 year ago

Then I will include them on my watchlist and will try to post at least from time to time.

thank you, i do appreciate it

As I said in other comments, thanks to all of you who create and moderate communities. For now, I’m just trying to generate content, which I know is the easier part.

well i haven't actually had to do much moderating yet — i've mostly been balancing seeding some content without spamming the local feed; as well as discussing them on matrix, and sometimes promoting them on threads like this when i remember

[-] Crul@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

Indeed, you're doing a great job, thanks for the efforts!

I've been seeing Imaginary Network's posts on my timeline. I thought about including them in the OP, but you look a bit more organized than the usual small subs, so I chose to focus on other parts.

[-] ForestOrca@kbin.social 4 points 1 year ago

Reddifugee here. Since no one else had done them yet, I've started @SantaFe (a small capital city in the SW of Turtle Island), and @photobiomodulation (for the discussion of the therapeutic usage of light). I don't expect these to ever get big. My hope is that they will become useful for a small group of interested parties.

  1. I made the magazines, and populated them with a few posts to get things rolling
  2. I posted on m/newcommunities, and and at least one other place, I think.
  3. What next?
[-] Emperor@feddit.uk 4 points 1 year ago

A few that I created or mod:

[-] atlasraven31@lemm.ee 3 points 1 year ago

Invertebrates can be cute, especially insects.

[-] soupspoon@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

I found three of your subs, not realizing one person started them all, thank you! I was especially missing awwnverts, and then was happy to subscribe to comic strips and hadn't ever thought about weird wheels but was intrigued enough to join : )

[-] Crul@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

Sorry for the confussion, I did not create any of those communities. I'm just trying to help them grow. I will edit the post to make it clearer.

[-] r3df0x@7.62x54r.ru 2 points 1 year ago

I subscribed so that they'll show up in my instance.

[-] cacheson@kbin.social 2 points 1 year ago

I had been trying to grow these two:

They were reasonably popular on reddit, 3m+ and 2m+ subscribers respectively. I started posting once per day to each of them soon after I migrated over, though my meme stash has mostly run dry at this point (I do have a bit more to post to anime_irl). There are some regular posters in anime_irl now, but animemes has been pretty dead since I stopped posting. I've also promoted them in the usual places.

There's also my own community, kbin.social/m/specialized_instances / /c/specialized_instances@kbin.social, for cataloging topic/location focused instances. It works fine as a solo project, but I wouldn't mind having more suggestions of things to add to the list.

[-] Crul@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

I'm subscribed to specialized_instances, I think it's a great idea for a community, although I expect it to be more relevant on the long term.

Thanks!

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this post was submitted on 05 Aug 2023
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