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Lemmy is popular nowadays, yet is losing its active users

Similar to Mastodon's spikes last year, it seems. Anyways, there is data to think about. Source

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  • Well, to keep a user is way harder than to attract his attention.

    I think that the key differences between this platform(s) and the more known alternatives are part of the problem - people are very dumb these days and lazy. Often the first reaction to something new and not working in the expected way is to skip it, or demand the solution, rather than look around, try different approach and such.

    I feel like I'm witnessing Diaspora 2.0 effect...

    • Yes, most people give up as soon as something does not work first time.

      Maybe there are enough of us to be enough abd to fix those annoying little things that make lemmy complicated to use.

      A lot if issues got resolved, apps are here,it is getting better fast.

      • I doubt it - too many people with different preferences they aren't willing to let go, I'm afraid.

        If you're asking me, it's "good enough" the way it is. I'd gladly have some more content filters, but even without them I perceive it as a platform with enough potential to consider it good.

        • A platform can always be improved, always. Lemmy is alpha software now and the growing problems we had in the beginning may have annoyed some users.

          I think the most important thing is to keep making improvements to attract new users. I'm already finding the content infinitely better than it was a month ago.

        • There's a flaw in your logic around people's preferences if Lemmy wants to keep growing - at the end of the day, Lemmy is a service, and people shouldn't be expected to give up what they want from a service. They'll just go somewhere else if they aren't getting the services they want.

          It's like if a restaurant told you what they were going to serve you and you better eat it or go find somewhere else to eat. Nobody's going to put up with that. They'll go somewhere else to eat. Just because you think the food is good doesn't make that a good service model.

          Now, I'm not saying that Lemmy should copy Reddit, or Facebook, or whatever else because that would defeat the entire point of Lemmy. But, taking into consideration the friction points people have with using federated platforms and coming up with ways to reduce that friction will only end up helping everybody. For example, finding a way to make a native aggregator for similar communities across multiple instances would not only help with discoverability for smaller communities, but would increase engagement by simplifying the process of users being able to find content they're looking for while also allowing for more instances of those communities to exist across more servers without splitting or isolating the userbase to those servers, which would increase the resilience of Lemmy's communities to specific servers going down.

    • I think those issues will be solved though. Apps will increasingly make onboarding simpler so Lemmy will be as simple to use as Reddit.

      At that point really its just a case of waiting for Reddit to fuck itself, which it absolutely will do eventually via corporate greed, and there we go, all the Lemmy content anyone could ever need.

      • I don't think Reddit will fall, sadly.

        It harbors too many people, who go there for a specific content and don't care about the internal dramas, or who leads the place and what he thinks about the userbase. In addition... Eh, it hosted Obama, Arnold, plenty of actors, celebrities.

        My assumption is that it will simply evolve into something different, but no less popular.

        After all, Facebook was caught redhanded on such abominable practices that it should be burnt to a crisp long time ago, and yet it's still there, led by that automaton, what'shisname...

        • I mean Facebook is actually a perfect example though no? I don't know anyone below 40 who uses it. Eventually people get fed up of these stupid websites and move elsewhere.

          Reddit will be around just like Facebook sure, but somewhere else will pick up the slack.

          In Facebooks case that was Instagram largely which you know, also they owned. In Reddits case it may be Lemmy it may be elsewhere, we will see.

          • But that's the point I'm making here. Facebook didn't fall and Reddit won't either. It's going to evolve, cater to different clientele, offer different content/experience. But it won't fall.

            • I mean fair I guess we're on the same page there then. But if it caters to a different clientele then the existing clientele will move elsewhere was really what I was getting at, and that may possibly be here.

              • Aye.

                This is both a blessing and a curse. Already there are some... less welcome, Reddit behaviors visible here. I'd rather people leave their old baggage at the doorstep, heh. 😬

    • One thing that bugs me is people asking for/using tools that replicate the look and feel of Reddit instead of learning the ropes. I left Reddit, I don't want another one. I get it, familiarity is comforting, but when the user base is a fraction of the other platform, no UI or app will ever give you the same experience. I say move on, get out of your comfort zone and participate.

      • Amen to that.

        I don't imagine staying on some site that resembles a drowning wreck, because "I got used to how things work here".

    • I’m just here because I like the pretty 3rd party apps.

    • I think I am on shitjustworks.. i don’t know how big my instance is I just chose it because it has a cool name.

      It has gone down a few times and at first my reaction was to go to is it down dot com to see if the problem was with my app… but then I had the realization that ohhhh, it’s just my home server is down… I thought about making a separate account on another instance but instead just decided to do something else with those few minutes I would have spent here….

      No big deal…. It’s happened a few times in the couple months I’ve been here, but it always works eventually… I really like this platform, and the philosophy behind it, but I’m not knowledgeable enough to understand all the inner workings and how the instances work together, but I don’t feel like I need to.

      But I can see how people who understand it even less than I do might get frustrated and so that is going to be a limiting factor with new growth here I would assume…

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