Please indulge a few shower thoughts I had:
-
I wouldn’t worry about Lemmy having as many users as reddit in the short term. Success is not just a measure of userbase. A system just needs a critical mass, a minimum number of users, to be self-perpetuating. For a reddit post that has 10k comments, most normal people only read a few dozen comments anyways. You could have half the comments on that post, and frankly the quality might go up, not down. (That said, there are many communities below that minimum critical mass at the moment.)
-
Lemmy is now a real alternative. When reddit imploded Lemmy wasn’t fully set up to take advantage of the exodus, so a lot of users came over to the fediverse and gave up right away. There were no phone apps, the user interface was rudimentary, and communities weren’t yet alive. Next time reddit screws up in a high profile way, and they will screw up, the fediverse will be ready.
-
Lemmy has way more potential than reddit. Reddit’s leadership has always been incompetent and slow at fixing problems. The fediverse has been very responsive to user feedback in comparison.
I checked it out, and tbh I think that the post requirements are pretty restrictive, especially considering that Lemmy is relatively new and doesn’t yet have a critical mass of contributing users.
Assuming that the axiom that states that only about 10-20% of users actually post is true, you’re already facing an uphill battle in terms of growing your subscriber base. On top of that, the community theme (art with no context) sounds like an interesting endeavor, but it’s also pretty niche. It’s gonna be hard to find the community organically. Or for your community to find you, organically.
Also, by requiring that the post be a non-flash photograph of the work of art as displayed, you’ve placed additional barriers in front of those 10-20% of content contributors. I mean, how often does the average person go to the museum? Also, does the poster have to have taken the image themselves, or is finding and posting an image you found online (that is a non-flash photo of an artwork as-is and adheres to the community rules and post guidelines) acceptable? The last sentence that reads, “Mods reserve the right to ask where you’ve taken the photo of the art.” seems to imply that the image in the post needs to have been taken by the person posting it.
I enjoy the premise/theme of the community, but I feel that you’re either going to have to lower the barrier to participate/contribute, or you’re going to just have to accept that it’s gonna take a fair amount of time before your community grows into a self-sustaining body. It’s like you’re taking care of a newborn pet, and, at least in the beginning, you’re gonna have to feed your community/pet with fresh posts pretty often. You’re also probably going to have to advertise your community when it’s relevant.
Remember that at the start, even Reddit went out of their way to populate their front page with posts from various dummy accounts to create the illusion of activity. Anyway, best of luck with your community, I sincerely hope you’re able to retain and grow the community you’re looking for.
For those that want to check it out: [email protected]
Lack of posts is one thing, but lack of comments is something else. People seem to be engaging with the posts with the like button, but that is all that is happening for now.
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: [email protected]