this post was submitted on 18 Jan 2026
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First and foremost, before the usual argument happens, I know that more is not necessarily better.

Having said that, it would be better if lemmy's userbase were much bigger. There are many, many, interesting communities that are basically dead. We need a bigger userbase to drive some content to those communities.

If person A wants to discuss topic X, but there are barely any people with whom to discuss topic X, person A will go back to the usual for-profit corporations to do just that. This is obviously not good, for obvious reasons: just look around.

And an equally important point: for profit services, such as reddit, need to die. The userbase create the content and a select few get rich from it? Fuck them.

So the question is:

  • In your opinion, what can we do to increase the userbase?
(page 2) 50 comments
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[–] Quazatron@lemmy.world 3 points 7 months ago (2 children)
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[–] Flax_vert@feddit.uk 3 points 7 months ago

I think instead of promoting Lemmy as a whole, promote individual instances separately (but evenly)

[–] ZombiFrancis@sh.itjust.works 3 points 7 months ago

Stay federated and up prayed.

[–] nutsack@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 7 months ago

you can link to posts and comments here on other platforms if they are interesting or funny or cool

you can also post your dingus on the NSFW one

[–] Nemo@slrpnk.net 3 points 7 months ago (1 children)

We don't need more usebase, we've got perfectly good userbase at home.

[–] Ferroh@lemmy.world 3 points 7 months ago

Honestly it's a double edged sword. The tight-knit feel of Lemmy is really cozy, but with a larger user base it will allow for more posts/interaction on niche communities.

[–] SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 3 points 7 months ago

Nothing.

Twitter was fine until it got popular, as was Reddit.

[–] Jarix@lemmy.world 3 points 7 months ago (1 children)

First thing is gain enough support in the presumption that increasing userbase is a desirable outcome.

Chasing bigger numbers for bigger numbers sake is one of the biggest problems with capitalism

[–] floppybiscuits@lemmy.world 2 points 7 months ago

Honestly memes on lemmy are orders of magnitude greater than ones I see on reddit. If growing user base makes the memes more lame I don't know if I support it

[–] Babalugats@feddit.uk 2 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

Just keep using it. Ask questions, post solutions, as time goes on they will be more relevant.

Post everything here.

Today I Learned is a good one for old info, as people post repetitive stuff all of the time, so when people look up an unusual fact etc.. They get brought straight to one of those.

DIY, Woodworking, hobbies etc. and all the main things that people want to look up.

[–] Nanowith@lemmy.world 2 points 7 months ago

I mean for me it was a recent decision to delete for-profit and algorithmic social media. But that was internally driven as I realised they were making me more miserable and I couldn't stomach the advertising anymore. But I've always failed to replicate that feeling in other people who are stuck in a mixture of sunk cost fallacy and boiled frog status, no idea how to do it consistently.

[–] Sergio@piefed.social 2 points 7 months ago

Occasionally I'll tell one of my friends about it. I point them to one of my low-politics / low-tech feeds:

[–] chicken@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 7 months ago

Mention and link to it on Reddit when it is especially relevant

[–] MantisToboggon@lemmy.world 2 points 7 months ago (1 children)
[–] blarghly@lemmy.world 3 points 7 months ago

honestly, the real answer

[–] bridgeenjoyer@sh.itjust.works 2 points 7 months ago

Biggest thing, make it easy to understand.

I STILL dont really get the fediverse. Ive had it explained to me multiple times and I'm still shaky on how to explain to a normie.

Reddit is easy. Fb is easy. Lemmy has to be easy or it will never work. Humans are above all lazy.

And, give them a reason to leave. Why would my friends leave reddit or x, where the content is? (They dont care about bots or fascism). Lemmy has way less content.

[–] disregardable@lemmy.zip 2 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

I don't think this site is for everyone. You need your own internal reason to use this site (anti-enshittification, banned from other places, or whatever). On a regular social media site, you log in, and you immediately are shown a feed of fun and interesting content. Unless you're like really into programming, Lemmy doesn't have fun and interesting content. Of the content that is here, people don't engage with it much, and it's poorly moderated (actual calls for death and abuse, weird sexual anime stuff, etc). Lemmy is also not easy to use or understand. Most people don't understand what an instance is, and why do I need to read paragraphs on federation just to use the site? The only way this place could compete with polished, plug-and-play social media is if the US continues getting so authoritarian that regular social sites become exorbitantly censored to a regular person's perspective.

[–] beSyl@slrpnk.net 2 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

It is possible to increase the userbase without inviting the whole world. Lemmy may have a bigger learning curve than, say, Instagram, but that is fine. Maybe not having people who can't understand how lemmy works is a good thing. There are, however, many many people who would understand how lemmy works that have not yet learned about it or have but are not using it. Those are the people to whom we should cater.

We should still, of course, improve the UI/UX as much as possible. Though I feel like Piefed is better for this. Lemmy devs are not receptive to suggestions, not at all. I tried. If the idea did not come from their heads, they reject it.

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