this post was submitted on 01 Jul 2023
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Reddit Migration

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### About Community Tracking and helping #redditmigration to Kbin and the Fediverse. Say hello to the decentralized and open future. To see latest reeddit blackout info, see here: https://reddark.untone.uk/

founded 1 year ago
 

Gaming, news, tech, general literature. All of these are somewhat thriving, with a steady influx of posts and comments. At the same time, the userbase is sorely lacking for more niche communities. In my case it'd be stuff like poetry, yoga, religion, linguistics, meditation. Or many other communities I'd doubt they'd form a larger userbase here, at least to the degree that it'd foster good discussions. Communities where there are a larger amount of "normal people", that are not tech-aware, and who have no interest in migrating off centralized corporate solutions. That just want a large space to discuss what they're interested in.

This for me at least, makes it hard to completely leave reddit (or even Facebook and their groups!). Do you think the fediverse will ever reach the point where this would become a non-issue?

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[–] exohuman@kbin.social 111 points 1 year ago (4 children)

It just takes time for these communities to form.

[–] donuts@kbin.social 81 points 1 year ago (4 children)

On top of that, we can't expect communities to POOF into existence.

We have to be part of them to build them, which means making them if they don't exist yet as well as posting and commenting in the ones that do exist. I hope that people who are used to lurking on Reddit will go out of their comfort zone a bit and start to participate in fediverse communities so that we can build things up more quickly.

[–] sadreality@kbin.social 46 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (5 children)

Yesterday lurkers are going to need to be today's commenters and posters!

I see y'all lurkin'
Not postin'

[–] defeater@kbin.social 29 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] sadreality@kbin.social 19 points 1 year ago (2 children)

You are being drafted. We are sending you out to colonize the fediverse!

[–] metaStatic@kbin.social 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)
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[–] Orbitrix@kbin.social 17 points 1 year ago (5 children)

Yea I was a prolific commenter but I think I only created maybe 6-8 posts in 14 years on reddit, and certainly never created a community. So I might have to step up. Regardless of reddit, I absolutely love the idea of the fediverse and the decentralized nature of it, so I really would like to see it succeed. It really does have to be the way forward on the internet to avoid corporate interests.

[–] warden@kbin.social 9 points 1 year ago

Same here. The voice in the back of my head says "be the change you want to see in the world", then I'm like "nah that's too much work"...

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[–] NomadJones@kbin.social 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

What is the consensus on the etiquette of creating new communities/magazines with the names of the still extant old subreddits (particularly when you're not a mod of the old subreddit)?

[–] cacheson@kbin.social 5 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I've seen some magazines put a note in their description that the owner is willing to hand it off to the mod team of the corresponding subreddit. I think that's a decent compromise in order to welcome the old subreddit to migrate over and maintain continuity, while also not waiting around for other people to act.

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[–] Gull@kbin.social 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

There are existing communities and there is an exodus, so it shouldn't be necessary for the entire process to repeat from scratch.

[–] sadreality@kbin.social 7 points 1 year ago (3 children)

From culture perspective, sure... But content don't generate itself.

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[–] flta@kbin.social 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I was on Reddit for over 10 years and it only became a place for niche communities when they got rid of defaults. Kbin/Fediverse will get there in a few years.

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[–] Hatchet@kbin.social 71 points 1 year ago (5 children)

Working on it! Right now, with this huge influx of new users, is a great time to create content that is very search engine friendly. In an effort to promote such content, I started the dance community here on kbin. Please join!

https://kbin.social/m/dance

[–] fearout@kbin.social 9 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

I created a couple of communities that I used to post to on Reddit:

Industrial Design and Jewelry Design

I’ve been working in both fields for years and I’d like to help build up these communities within the Fediverse.

Whether you’re a designer working in one of those areas, or are simply interested in them, feel free to join :)

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[–] xXGanondorfXx@kbin.social 8 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Thank you for starting a community! I hope it's a great experience ^^

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[–] AzureDusk10@kbin.social 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Ooh, fantastic! Amateur house and locking dancer here. Joined!

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[–] drumdonuttea@kbin.social 36 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I noticed there didn't exist a niche community that I'm passionate about so... I created it! It's like any other new platform, it just takes time.

[–] TriLevelSync@kbin.social 19 points 1 year ago (3 children)

I really want to take this attitude but I just don’t have time to become a moderator.

[–] drumdonuttea@kbin.social 4 points 1 year ago

Yeah that is understandable.

[–] borzoiteeth@kbin.social 3 points 1 year ago (4 children)

My hope is once a community has built up enough that I can dump the mod powers on someone else.

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[–] sadreality@kbin.social 6 points 1 year ago

Chad approach on life

[–] delirium@kbin.social 33 points 1 year ago (2 children)

why do you doubt it? there are thousands of new people flooding in daily. set up the mags and post for engagement? sounds like a lot of work but I understand what you're missing, my communities are not here either, but I'm going to do my best to make a space for them.

[–] Treedrake@kbin.social 12 points 1 year ago

Just because it'd require a larger momentum than what we have now. But yes, I've been trying to contribute as well, so I'm trying to not sit idly by. I might just be a tad pessimistic, even though I like what we're all trying to do.

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[–] 0x1C3B00DA@kbin.social 28 points 1 year ago

The fediverse grows in waves. This was the first wave for the threadiverse, not The Big Wave. Nows the time to let the lead devs catch their breath, prepare for larger userbase and contributor base, and work on critical issues and let contributors start to polish UX issues. The next time there's a wave, this will be a much better place and we'll be ready. That's when you'll start to see a lot more niche communities able to sustain themselves

[–] cacheson@kbin.social 19 points 1 year ago (3 children)

While lots of people are suggesting creating communities for your niche interests, I think it's even more important to to find niche communities that others have created and contribute to them. Obviously you can do both, but if you've got limited time to post it may be better to focus your efforts, and be the "first follower" rather than the leader.

I've been doing this for /m/Animemes and /m/anime_irl, just making one post per day in each. There hasn't been a ton of other activity yet, but the subscriber counts have been growing steadily, so we'll get there.

I've also been wanting to build up /m/Bitcoin in the same way, but I don't feel like I've got much to contribute right now, so I'm focusing on the anime communities.

[–] Coelacanth@kbin.social 3 points 1 year ago

Yeah, keeping the content flowing will be the most important thing, and it's much less daunting than taking on moderator duties. Everyone on Kbin/Lemmy right now is basically an early adopter, so they might need to take more responsibility to keep momentum up. It's too much to ask people who usually just read news on their niche subreddits to suddenly start up their own community here, but everyone can take one step "up the ladder" so to speak, and we're already seeing this to some extent I think. Lurkers trying their best to be commenters, commenters putting up their own posts and regular posters starting their own communities.

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[–] dumples@kbin.social 16 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I've been pretty disappointed with the DnD community so far. So I've been trying to post a lot about the new playtest material in a magazine I want to grow. So far it's like 5 of posting often but I hope the engagement will bring more

[–] ArtieShaw@kbin.social 16 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I think what you're doing so far is key. And it's really the hard part. The rest is just being a friendly place.

No one wants to be one of those 5 people howling into the void when something is getting started, but it needs to be done to demonstrate that people are willing to participate. You might also consider posting easy polls or open ended questions to invite engagement. (If you haven't)

[–] minnieo@kbin.social 4 points 1 year ago

this is my mindset. its gonna take some of us to kick things off. i do it in my mags where im the main one posting

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[–] FaceDeer@kbin.social 6 points 1 year ago (8 children)

I just came across https://ttrpg.network/, a Lemmy instance that's specialized toward tabletop roleplaying games. Haven't explored it much but I suspect we'll be seeing this pattern more in the future - whole instances devoted to a particular topic, with the specialized subgenres being communities on there.

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[–] curiosityLynx@kbin.social 12 points 1 year ago (3 children)

I was part of the Linguistics subreddit, but I don't feel qualified to open a kbin magazine or lemmy community for it. While I did have linguistics as my major in university, I had to quit after getting my bachelor's credits but before finishing my thesis (due to depression).

I edited loads of my old comments to suggest people join kbin, but it seems the mods of /r/linguistics hate that. They were all removed with no exceptions.

[–] abff08f4813c@kbin.social 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You could always start a community here now, and hand it over when the right person comes along. In the mean time the one you make now might be the perfect place for your comments.

I figure there must be an admin among the mods of that sub.

[–] aidan@kbin.social 6 points 1 year ago

That’s exactly what I’m trying to do for all the communities I want. I’m starting them, making some placeholder rules, letting them attract a community, then I’m going to have the community vote on permanent rules, and then, once all of that is in place to keep the community stable, recruit mods to take over. At that point, it’ll be clear which users would make good mods (I hope)

[–] Gull@kbin.social 3 points 1 year ago

This post is helpful for highlighting some of the reasons the migration is slow. People who want to chart the future of the Fediverse need to listen to this kind of feedback and think about how to fix the pipeline.

[–] Doll_Tow_Jet-ski@kbin.social 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Hi there. I wasn't in the linguistic community in Reddit, but I am a linguist and I would be willing to create one here and moderate it. Linguistics is very broad. What were the topics discussed in the reddit community? I am a psycholingusit, so the focus of my contributions would be mostly in that field, and I imagine mostly scholarly content being shared and discussed, but I would like to know what someone like you, who used to be a member, would expect from such a community.

EDIT: There's already one! : https://kbin.social/m/linguistics

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[–] pgetsos@kbin.social 11 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I know my community will take many months or even years to thrive on the Fediverse. It took 3-4 years to gain good momentum on Reddit and only in the last year did more users start posting on the sub

But I will continue posting even for the 5-10 people that may read them right now. It's the only way forward

[–] SpermKiller@kbin.social 5 points 1 year ago

Yeah I feel I have to do the same. I also created a community for my niche hobby and I found I have to be a bit more of a poster than I used to be, even if it means that for now the magazine is mostly me and pics of my garden.

[–] HandsHurtLoL@kbin.social 9 points 1 year ago (4 children)

I commiserate with you on this. I miss my crochet and knitting communities from reddit, but I did make the severance anyway. I also don't use my Facebook account at all, so I don't have an online fiber arts community anywhere.

I belong to a small social knitting group, but I'm the most advanced knitter there, so I don't feel like I have any outlets for finding and appreciating master knitters other than YouTube. But I only turn to YouTube for tutorials/entertainment, not for a sense of community.

[–] HeartyBeast@kbin.social 3 points 1 year ago (4 children)
[–] Nepenthe@kbin.social 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

@HandsHurtLoL (lmfao at the fitting username)

I'm sure neither of you will mind if I plug crochet@lemmy.ca here as well. It seems they're finally beginning to work out their federating problems again and I've only not posted yet because I haven't quite finished my projects yet. Like you, I'm sorely missing it, but that's just gonna make me contribute all I can

[–] HandsHurtLoL@kbin.social 3 points 1 year ago

I love that you get the reference in my username LOL

I am subbed to all the crochet magazines/communities that are federated with kbin, but now that I've replied to someone else it dawns on me that the real issue is that those communities participate via the microblog and not via threads. This is probably a major reason why I'm not seeing those communities as active.

I wonder if there isn't a way to get microblog content to appear on my front page along with new threads.

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[–] abff08f4813c@kbin.social 6 points 1 year ago

I think those will come in time. We just need the volume, and also some time to polish (e.g. improvements to the web interface, official apps released for kbin, etc). A lot of tech folks are streaming in but with more polish those who are non-technically inclined will join in as well.

[–] minnieo@kbin.social 6 points 1 year ago

there's tons of niche mags around, but when i go to them, no one is participating. we have to help grow them if we want them to thrive. i try to post in them if I see they are empty. we cant expect them to magically appear and grow, we must be proactive

[–] Catch42@kbin.social 6 points 1 year ago

If you build a linguistics magazine I will join :) I think the thing to do is pick the subject you're most passionate about/ most knowledgable about and create a magazine for it. Post things regularly and people will start to notice it. That's what I've done! https://kbin.social/m/Otomegames (@Otomegames@kbin.social for my federated gals)

[–] Varyag@kbin.social 5 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Yeah it's going to be a process. For an example, the Gundam and Gunpla communities are relatively niche compared to other anime or model kit building (which are already niche things in of themselves) and while their subreddits are quite active, we still don't have that critical mass (or much mass at all) of posts and content to engage with here. I have been meaning to, and plan on, making more posts to those so they get more activity.

[–] TriLevelSync@kbin.social 5 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Care minding linking those communities? I love Gundam. Hoping to come across some Evangelion communities.

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[–] EmptyRadar@kbin.social 4 points 1 year ago

For what it's worth, this is exactly how Reddit was in the early days. I remember a niche sub being something that had maybe 30-50 members, now basically every subject has a subreddit with communities in the 5000+ range.

Just give it time. If there is a particular community you're missing, use this as an opportunity to start it over here and start getting people involved.

[–] drcolress@kbin.social 3 points 1 year ago

I just feel like as we get new users. These communities will start to pop up more. The great dig migration didn’t happen overnight. Well, it did, but the community still took time to grow. We can do the same thing here.

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