I’ve been using Lemmy for a couple years now, and unfortunately I’ve noticed a significant decline in the niche communities that were originally active. When I first joined I saw much more variety when browsing the All feed. But over time, the communities I liked have faded as shitposting and meme communities have come to dominate the platform.
I think this shift has changed the culture of Lemmy. There seems to be more of a herd mentality now, where people downvote reasonable opinions they disagree with. The discussions don’t feel as nuanced. Some people have even been attacked for innocuous comments that don’t align with the prevailing groupthink.
The niche communities that made Lemmy special are fading away, and the resulting monoculture makes me less inclined to participate. I want a platform that supports substantive discussions in my interests, not just memes and shitposting.
I don’t know what the solution is on a platform level, but a culture shift is needed if Lemmy wants to retain users like me who valued the diversity of opinions. I may have to move to a platform that allows better filtering and proportionality between niche interests and funny or stupid content. I want Lemmy to succeed, but right now I’m finding myself drawn back to Reddit because the niche communities there seem more active. I’ll keep checking in, but Lemmy needs to recapture its original spirit if I’m going to make it my main home.
What are some examples of niche communities that are declining?
Granted, I’ve only been here since the reddit migration, but after a short chaotic period, I’ve only seen growth in the communities I’ve been an active participant in.
I’ve seen a decline since the initial jump. I moved over from Reddit. It was exciting new and fresh. That’s basically gone now and things are stagnating. I’m constantly going back to Reddit as there’s no discussion here. Half the time I’m the only one commenting on posts. It’s dead
No discussion? In the past few days you’ve commented in !games@lemmy.world and !technology@lemmy.world, two of the most active discussion communities on Lemmy. And you’re getting it here.
You also don’t have any posts in over three weeks and 13 in total over five months. People, if you want more active niche communities, you need to contribute to the discussion. You’re not going to be able to passively, endlessly doomscroll here. That level of content may never arrive, but there’s still plenty to build. Sure, it could be easier, with duplicate communities all over the place and defederation on the rise. For now, use Lemmy Explorer to see where the activity is and help us build those smaller communities.
Previously though. But yes I have reduced down my comments.
Personally I wonder if OP just saw the huge reddit community creation burst earlier this year and thought that’s it, it’s Reddit now.
I’d wager 90% of those communities are ghost towns right now, with the creators long gone. Everyone just wants to be in charge of a huge community, but very few actually want to hang around and build/nurture one.