Why most posts (so far as I can tell) have very short lifespan tendency?
So basically 24 hours after posting, there is almost no contributions coming in, and after another 24h, it’s nearly impossible to see anybody chipping in to the subject in question. Everything goes silent, almost as if it didn’t matter anymore.
Probably because most of us are sorting by top 6/12 hours since there isn't enough content to keep us entertained every couple of hours if we sort by top day, which will obviously improve as we grow.
From bulletin board experiences back in the aughts - I don't know how this wasn't a similar problem? If it was a recent thread - it got interaction. I think that had the benefit of not having a "front page" so you could see 10 or 20 posts for each sub-forum. Which is similar enough to just going to a subreddit and looking at the most recent posts - but most folks, I think, don't interact like that with these types of interfaces unless they have a specific thing to look for?
Because people tend to browse and comment whatever appears on New. If you are lucky, and your post makes it to Hot, you may see replies for slightly longer, but there's only so much that can be said.
When joining a post, if there are already hundreds of comments, I'm unlikely to read all, and it's very likely someone else already voiced my opinion so there isn't much else to add there.
Within Lemmy, I think active is most used as it's the current default for most instances. I'm not sure how it's implemented, but based off my observations, I suspect it has some massive drop off after 2 days, because I regularly see posts up to 2 days old and never any older.
Though OP mentions just one day and I don't have a good explanation for that. Personally, I don't like to comment on anything older than a day and often self censor accordingly. I consider "within the last day" to be the sweet spot for engagement. Beyond that, it often doesn't feel worth my time to comment because fewer people will see it and be able to respond.
I'm impatiently awaiting a "best" algorithm and will switch to it as soon as it's available. I dislike literally all the sorting algorithm choices. I just dislike active the least because comments are what I'm here for. Sure would be nice to see smaller subs too, though.
I am always worried about replying to "older" threads after being brow-beaten on R×ddit with messages like "Dude, it's been 48 hours. Why are you replying to this?".
Plus the old "don't necro old threads/posts" I'm used to from other sites and forums, as well.
Same for me. Sometimes I run into new communities and I'm itching to respond to a thread, but it's maybe a week old and I don't want to be told off for it.
Perhaps I could try and see what happens if I include in my posts a notice saying I welcome replies far ahead in the future (I guess thoughtful exchange posts, not simple question ones likely answered to perfection already).
In lots of the old forums I used to use, commenting on a thread would subscribe you to it. I have no idea if the software supports it, but I'd like the ability to sort by New Posts to Subscribed Threads, or something similar. I think being able to keep tabs on activity in threads you have posted in might help prolong the lifetime.
The comment about thread necromancy also brings back memories. I'm not really sure why that was ever such a taboo, especially since reposting old topics was also frowned upon...
I think the necro ban comes from the forum days, when unsuspecting users commenting on something old would push down new threads out of view. On platforms like these or Reddit, I find the rule a bit unnecessary though.
Because I'm only sorting for New or 6 to 12 hours. Anything older I care about I already commented in, and will show up in my inbox when anyone replies.
I think at least on kbin that the sorting / surfacing algorithm could could use some improvements. I'm pretty keen on seeing dozens of comments on articles and surfacing good content would help that (though both search and sorting are notoriously difficult, it'll take time before things are refined)
I think it’s still better than Lemmy where many of the top posts are from several days ago, when it’s clear from Kbin there are enough content it doesn’t have to be like that.
The default sorting on lemmy is "Active" which can keep the same posts at the top, I've changed my home page to "Top Day" as default and it's become much more varied.