So I've switched to lemmy since the reddit meltdown started, experienced quite some withdrawal symptoms, occasionally turned back to reddit, more often logged out than logged in. Now I am merely using Lemmy occasionally and by far not as often as I used reddit before. No more doom scrolling.
So far so good.
Today I went on reddit for the first time in like 3 weeks straight (I couldn't do that for the last years... yeah, I was very addicted in hindsight). I just... I don't know what it is.
Reddit just isn't fun anymore.
I turned away after maybe 5 minutes. There were maybe 2-3 repost-worthy pics, one interesting video and a few small niche discussions that all went straight tits up within a few replies.
If I ask a question on lemmy, it usually is a straightforward, honest discussion. Almost no blaming of the posters or answerers misunderstandings or senseless answers. It goes a bit back and forth usually and people tend to thank each other for corrections.
I can't remember when that happened on a reddit discussion. Maybe years back? Anyway, I'm not going back there anymore, not because I hate the CEO, but because reddit is not fun anymore. Lost all interest in it.
Did anyone of you have a similar experience?
Community building is more about moderation and evangelism than it is about clicking a button. Its a ton of work. People think a lot of the time you just kinda declare a forum and then it happens. I moderated a community of like 5 people for a while and even just THAT was exhausting and time consuming
I don't think you will need much evangelism unless you are a christian based sub. Agree with all the other points though it's not a if you build it they will come situation.
Evangelism wasn't necessary the right word, but its not a strictly religious word. I wrote it as "recruitment" at first but I hated that more since it made the process of letting people know about your community more mechanical and less personal. I wanted to emphasize letting people know about the community in a relationship building way, and couldnt think of a better word
Just an fyi Webster definition of evangelism: the winning or reawakening of personal commitments to Jesus. The google definition: the spreading of the Christian gospel by public preaching or personal witness.
You might not have meant it like that, but I assume most people will take it at face value of those definitions.
Huh. When I asked for a definition online I got "fervent advocacy of a cause"
Don't worry, Linux evangelism has been a thing for a while, and htere's no gospel there