We are now at 48,859 monthly active users vs 51,172 a month ago, decline seems slow but steady. Anything we can do about it?
Link to the graphs: https://lemmy.fediverse.observer/dailystats
People who don't want to be here, leaving, isn't necessarily a problem until their absence begins affecting the level of activity.
As long as the total user count keeps growing, that means new people are trying out Lemmy, which should mean new people who actually want to use it, are finding it.
That that is currently happening more slowly than the rate at which people are leaving the platform, isn't cause for alarm IMO.
Lemmy doesn't need a billion users, it needs enough to be worth using if it's something you want to be using, and it does.
Stuff like the Reddit API drama put it in front of a lot of new people, and I think even brought it up to critical mass in terms of user activity. But except for something like that happening again, the only "fixes" I can think of are small and slow ones.
Stuff like spreading knowledge of the fediverse through word of mouth. Or purchasing ads for it with your own money.
I've also been playing around with the idea of creating activist stickers that "advertise" federated social media, to place in public around my city.
I've thought about doing stickers too but I'm not sure if I'd want to do it for a local community rather than a specific instance.
Might need to be both, with how the fediverse is structured.
Overall since November, its been trending upwards. Given the big spike in March, I think its only natural some people realize they didn't want to be here in the couple months that follow.
Also there's bit of a controversial topic lately that has made a certain demographic feel like this place is about as unwelcoming to them as much of the internet.
Also there’s bit of a controversial topic lately that has made a certain demographic feel like this place is about as unwelcoming to them as much of the internet.
Genuinely asking, is it about the bear? I saw a post about it in !unpopularopinion@lemmy.world the other day, I felt sorry for women who encountered such toxicity
That is what I am referring to. And the broader attention it has brought to the topic of misogyny in general, even when bears aren't really the topic of discussion. From pull request discussions to discussions about misogyny vs misandry, it seems like a lot more popular topic lately.
The bear thing? Yeah, its stupid, but its based in ignorance of bears. You can educate without being toxic. Its tough to do in an internet comment section though.
Natural growth is better than surge. Lemmy will eventually be the defacto. Reddit will do something stupid and people will star pouring in.
I'm usually on that side, but I'm afraid we might just go down to 30k, 20k then snowballing to a very small number that would just kill the platform
I've been a bit concerned as well. I had gotten to know a fair number of regular commenters, but I haven't seen probably half of them recently.
New subs are still joining the community, but it's still low participation. The big communities still seem to be growing steadily, but it's not necessarily bringing the positive attitude that initially won me over to Lemmy.
Lol, no it won't.
We could stop implying that everyone who uses Windows is a moron...
But then how would I get my kicks in the morning?
(I use random.choice(linux_distros) btw)
Why does it seem like this function always returns Arch?
Spotted the Windows user
Yep, you sure did!
Maybe fix the problem where a lot of users can't post half the time they're on
OKAY I didn't think this was unique to me. I seem to have been muted for pretty innocent stuff? I have been muted at least 6 times. The posting bans have lasted anywhere from a couple days to a couple weeks. It's very frustrating when you type out a well thought-out comment, click to submit, and it never posts. 😑 I try to select all & copy my comment before I submit.
If I know some mod has muted me, I just comment 'A' on random posts to see if I'm allowed to speak again. If it doesn't post successfully, ban remains in effect. 🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄
It almost has to be a muting ban of sorts, because I can't post on my main but on a secondary I can post just fine. I haven't left Lemmy (yet...) because I'm not going back to Reddit & aside from this, Lemmy is a decent substitute. Lemmy has been really frustrating, trying to be a member of the community. Forced into being a lurker six different times by some anonymous coward(s). Not knowing when your ban will be lifted.
If my theories are correct, I'd like a little more transparency in the process. Who issues the muting bans, WHY, and when the talking ban will expire. It can be a simple, private direct message. "Butthurt Bob has muted you for: hurting his fee-fees. Butthurt Bob's ban will last 6 days."
Both of you seem to be on Lemmy world, is there a technical issue on their side?
About your last point, you should be able to see exactly that in the modlog (orange button in community sidebars)
All instances and communities have public modlogs, that display all moderator actions, the mod that did them, and why, if they provided a reason (I always do).
Thunder recently got support for accessing them, but you can always find them in the webUI in a browser.
Some of the dropoff is likely due to college being out for the northern hemisphere summer, and just less people online due to the nice weather. Reddit sees a similar seasonal change I believe
They posted today on !dach@feddit.de that they were organizing to retake this.
I wish them good luck, and I hope they succeeded. Feddit.UK was also there a few months ago, hopefully people like @Emperor@feddit.uk took over
Wait until reddit shoots itself in the foot some more.
The Valve strategy.
The problem is that the average user on Reddit doesn't give a fuck about the ways the platform is shooting itself in the foot, because it's still functional, has a critical mass of users, and is still the de facto online global discussion forum.
Lemmy doesn't serve the function well enough because there are not enough of a variety of users driving niche topics. It's the same dozen topics I see every day. Star Trek memes, Linux discourse, data breach reports, stupid bullshit about Musk, incredibly biased political content and straight up propaganda; it gets extremely tiring to see the same stuff over and over knowing that's just what the current userbase enjoys discussing. It also doesn't help that the development team tacitly endorses the extremist propaganda spreading behavior on their server. You can go check mod and vote logs and see the development team actively encouraging all of this destructive behavior across the fediverse.
Star Trek memes, Linux discourse, data breach reports, stupid bullshit about Musk, incredibly biased political content and straight up propaganda; it gets extremely tiring to see the same stuff over and over
Agreed, it's tiring, that's why I recommend blocking all of these.
Then stuff like !gardening@lemmy.world or !map_enthusiasts@sopuli.xyz starts to show up
A lot of users being centralized on Lemmy.ml doesn't help, lot of toxicity comes from there and you can't just block the instance unless you also want to lose a lot of content in your feed
Most of the .ml communities have a .world equivalent that is usually more active, but I see your point
This is definetly something to keep an eye on, for now I wouldn't say this means much
In the original thread there is a discussion of those numbers which suggests they are wrong, which would fit with the fact that all other metrics are trending upwards.
Stop harassing and brigading people who support Israel.
Stop turning every thread into discussion of how much liberals are genocidal fascists.
I am of the opinion that we should not, in fact, welcome genocidal fascists.
If you disagree with the majority opinion on this matter, you may create or join an instance which does not federate with the majority.
I think the extremist politics on here drive people away. I don't even tell anyone I use Lemmy because of that.
Hexbear is obviously the worst, but Lemmy.ml is also openly spreading propaganda.
This is pretty much my beef with Lemmy.
The fact that the development team is also the ownership and administration of the instance spreading propaganda is just absolutely insane to me.
Vote logs just show them supporting the extremist behavior.
I see where you come from, my usual advice to new joiners is to block hexbear and to avoid news and political communities
It's hard... when a user blocks an instance, the propaganda still shows up when the offending users comment on other instances.
Not just the politics, but the news threads I feel have degenerated into ragebait topics with shallow conversation. I used to find a conversation or 2 a day to participate in, but now I don't want to touch many news or politics threads.
Not just spreading propaganda, actively censoring anything critical of their Chinese overlords as well.
Yeah, it's a malicious instance that shouldn't be federated.