I am almost done with the "Community Ambassador" feature on Fediverser and I'd like to get some feedback from members of this community.

The idea is to let people connected to a "fediversed" Lemmy instance (i.e, one that is running the Fediverser service) to apply to become an ambassador for their favorite community. The instance admin can then review the "application", and if approved they get access to some extra features in the "portal", namely:

• The ability to define "content sources" (RSS feeds and/or other subreddits) to have a central place to find interesting content that can be shared with the Lemmy Community.

• The ability to post content from these sources with one single click.

• Some basic analytics about users on Reddit (account age, if they are moderator, etc) to help identify users who would be interested in migrating to Lemmy.

• The ability to send DMs to those "good candidates" on Reddit.

The "development" instance is set up at https://lemmy.fediverser.io. It would be great to get more people taking a look. The earlier I get feedback about UX issues, the better. The preferred method to signup is through the portal.

So one thing I miss about reddit is the idea that I can just find any random topic, and there's an active sub for that.

Reddits biggest problem is knowing these subreddits exist. I was there over 10 years, and still finding new subs until the end.

Lemmys biggest problem is that these communities DON'T exist, and even if they did, theres no audience to support them. No point in making a niche community if theres 0 posts, and 1 subscribber.

But, I found one small fix. This won't be the thing that boosts Lemmy to the top. This will be more like the small spark that could lead to a bigger fire. Without more steps, this won't be the answer. But think of this as one step of many.

So over at [email protected] they have a content bot. I assume it's just reposting the posts on reddit from a predesignated source.

But, what if we did that all over Lemmy? Start up /c/Archer and repost everything from ArcherFX. I don't see a place to post Archer stuff to.

Now do this for thousands of different subreddits over here.

Yes, at first the content bot would have 0 posts. But thats where WE come in. We all start posting on these threads, to give them the sense of activity. Activity breeds activity. And soon enough you'll have enough organic activity that you slowly start reducing these bots roles. But thats years from now.

Basically, title. I'll list the existing options in the comments, feel free to discuss each of them there

Tried to sort out some communities with icons. Not sure it matters, but it's my deed for the day.

I'd love a Nature is Fucking Lit community over here on Lemmy. I just saw the cutest post on Reddit there and I'd love to spread it or see it over here. (I look at reddit without a profile while at my work computer sometimes, don't judge me lol).

Think I should post it to the lemmy.world one to revive that one? Looks like that hasn't been active in a few months.

I also wonder if it's better to use this opportunity when it's possibly dead to revive the community somewhere else? Like maybe mander.xyz since nature is connected to science or something? Or maybe the solar punk instance? Is there a better place someone can think of or should we stick to the Lemmy.world one?

What do people think?

The only successful example I found the other day was https://old.reddit.com/r/FloatingIsFun/, now [email protected]

If a few other communities could move over there, that would help make the platform more active.

There is a banned subreddit that recently moved here (I won't mention it to avoid them getting raided, but if you browse All you probably know which one I'm talking about), that was very interesting, and some proof that the current tools (the websites, the mobile apps, the interfaces) could work for people outside of the usual "tech / Linux / FOSS" bubble.

What do you think?

Right now on Lemmy we have a bunch of dad-based communities with varying levels of discussion. From the ones I can find, we have:

[email protected] - last few posts were about a month ago. Mod was last active 10 months ago.

[email protected] - last couple posts were about 2 months ago. The post before that was about 5 months ago. Not sure about mod activity.

[email protected] - last post was yesterday, with some other posts in past few weeks. Mod was last active 6 months ago.

[email protected] - last post was a few weeks ago, with a couple months in between posts after that. Mod was last active 10 months ago.

[email protected] - last couple posts were a week ago. With about a month or so between posts after that. Both mods were last active a year ago.

[email protected] - last post was 3 months ago. Mod was last active 2 months ago.

[email protected] - last post was about a month ago, and the one before that was about 4 months ago. Mod was last active today.

To help facilitate discussion, what do you all think about consolidating the dad-based discussion to one of those groups (preferably a somewhat moderated one, which just seems to be fatherverse…) for now?

Modlog visible here: https://lemmy.world/modlog/2

Or on [email protected]

I have no stake in this argument (centralization on both lemmy.ml and lemmy.world is detrimental in my opinion), but I found it kind of ironic.

Not sure if this is the best place to post it, but didn't know of any "neutral" fediverse communities, so I guess this one works.

Edit: the thread itself: https://lemmy.world/post/16211417

Some examples of removals/bans: https://reddthat.com/post/20718767/11186767

Same logic as for the !dataisbeautiful is another thread, let's discuss a few options in the comments below

I live in California and am sick of good legislation being sidelined by lobbyists. So, let's identify ideas for how voters (in any state) can improve their situation via direct democracy

I previously posted this topic on the main Star Wars community, but it was removed for being too meta. Which is fair enough but it does leave is in a Catch 22 situation as you can't exactly get a SW instance started if you can't discuss starting one. Fortunately, @[email protected] was kind enough to suggest this instance would be a good venue for such discussions, so here we are.

So here's the original post with additional thoughts arising from the discussion or subsequent pondering:

__

In a Fediverse, far far away...

I have been involved in a few discussions about how to help the Fediverse grow and diversify and one thing I feel is key is to have more specific instances rather than large general purposes ones. It helps people when they are signing up and can help give communities a home. I know because I signed up with feddit.uk, helped grow the place and am now part of the Admin team.

Or, to cut a long story short, should there be a Star Wars Lemmy instance? Today seems the perfect time to open the discussion.

After all, there are other focused instances like:

• startrek.website
• sffa.community
• literature.cafe
• ttrpg.network
• adultswim.fan
• dormi.zone
• futurology.today
• lemmy.radio
• hobbit.world

Could move across existing communities:

[edit: see more comprehensive list below]

And there are a lot of potential others:

• A community per film and show
• SW Books - with potential to spin-off popular and long-running series
• SW Comics
• SW Board Games
• SW Video Games
• SW Cosplay
• SW Helmets
• SW Lightsabers
• SW Galaxy of Heroes
• The Empire Did Nothing Wrong

Possible names? A lot of obvious ones will have been scooped up or you risk copyright infringement, but how about:

• Fediverse's Edge

[edit: I found a discussion on the old place, about starting a Star Wars Mastodon instance and you could share resources and expertise by Hosting them on the same server. Which led me to suggest Fediverse's Edge as the umbrella domain with the Mastodon instance at Tootooine and thr Lemmy one at something like Lemmandalore). If you were doing this then you could also include an instance of BookWyrm, Galactic Library?, that would bring the Star Wars novels and comics front and centre. It could be a good example for others thinking of setting up instances for transmedia franchises like this - a Marvel part of the Fediverse, for example. It would really help people sign up to a chunk of the Fediverse as it is either all in one place or you could direct people elsewhere, to, say, a Pixelfed instance dedicated to toy photography.

Other name suggestions:

• tattooine.social
• dagobah.space
• hoth.books
• coruscant.forum
• bespin.io
• thesenate.domain
• thesenate.im
• unknownregion ]

May the FOSS be with you.

__

Those who contributed to that previous thread are: @[email protected] @[email protected] @[email protected] @[email protected] @[email protected] @[email protected]

And some who have been engaged in Star Wars instance discussion since (why I am bumping this post up my to-do list: @[email protected] @[email protected] ]

I also had a second post removed that listed all the Star Wars communities and it was relevant for this discussion to show the breadth of existing Star Wars discussion on here:

__

As a lot haven't federated over to my instance I went digging, so you may as well have the list:

Star Wars:

• [email protected] - you are here
• [email protected] [edit: this has since been locked]
• [email protected]
• [email protected]
• [email protected]
• [email protected]
• [email protected]

Misc:

• [email protected]
• [email protected]
• [email protected]
• [email protected]
• [email protected]
• [email protected]
• [email protected]
• [email protected]
• [email protected]
• [email protected]
• [email protected]
• [email protected]
• [email protected]
• [email protected]

TV and film:

• [email protected]
• [email protected]
• [email protected]
• [email protected]

Games:

• [email protected]
• [email protected]
• [email protected]
• [email protected]
• [email protected]
• [email protected]
• [email protected]
• [email protected]

[edit: I've since started [email protected] ]

NSFW:

• [email protected] - in case you are unsure, it's definitely NSFW

__

Those who contributed to this thread: @[email protected]

Edit: Update: community is created, [email protected] !

Edit: Update: posted to [email protected] for their feedback: https://reddthat.com/post/20241853

Hello everyone,

The most current active community is [email protected].

Due to all the discussions that are now happening on [email protected] about moving away from lemmy.ml due to their abuse moderation practices (https://feddit.nl/post/16246531), should we consider creating an alternative.

[email protected] exists but seems unmanaged and I would rather avoid another LW community.

Maybe we could contact mander.xyz at [email protected] to see what they think?

[email protected] has been locked down in favor of [email protected]

[email protected] was locked down today in favor of [email protected]

Are there other communities we should try to consolidate?

We had a few AMA in the past, the most recent one being by a director/actor on [email protected] : https://lemm.ee/post/31335226?scrollToComments=true

Those seems like a good opportunity to promote the platform.

Who do you think would be a good candidate that we could reach out to?

Link to the graphs: https://lemmy.fediverse.observer/dailystats

One of the advantages of a decentralized platform like Lemmy is the ability to create parallel communities on the same topic. "You don't like how a community is being moderated? Go to another instance and start a new community!" (with or without blackjack and hookers)

However, I think this is also a double-edged sword. The creation of multiple communities on the same (or similar) topics can also fragment the userbase, leading to very sparsely populated communities.

Example: I am open to being wrong, but I don't currently see a need for five distinct Harry Potter sublemmies with (nearly) identical names:

• [email protected]
• [email protected]
• [email protected]
• [email protected]
• [email protected]

There are also some other miscellaneous HP related communities:

• [email protected]
• [email protected]
• [email protected]
• [email protected]
• [email protected] (ew, but you do you, I suppose)
• [email protected]
• [email protected]
• [email protected]
• [email protected]
• [email protected]
• [email protected]

I suspect that many of these were created during the 2023 Rexxit, when instances were less stable, and there was a temporary period of massive growth.

Now that Lemmy is more stable, would the moderators of the above communities consider some form of cooperative consolidation? If not, what distinct purpose do the separate communities serve?

A couple arguments in favour of consolidation: (credits to @[email protected] and @[email protected])

https://sh.itjust.works/comment/11171955

I think until there’s some tool or system that helps collate all the information out here, fragmentation is detrimental to growth.

I’m not going to copy and paste the same comment with every mirrored post.

So sometimes commenting feels like a waste of time.

Centralizing helps ensure that there’s vibrant, consistent discussion which is what Lemmy should be about.

https://sh.itjust.works/post/18388026

I like this because people showing up to those communities might think that topic doesn’t have activity on Lemmy, when it actually does.

I sometimes think that unmoderated communities should be closed, and just be left and locked with a pointer to the active one. In case an issue arises with the active one, they can still be unlocked and used as back up.

The next question is, of course "Which instance should we consolidate to?"

• [email protected] is currently the largest sub, but also the largest instance, and moving off of the largest instance would be good for the Fediverse as a whole.
• [email protected] seems appropriate, given that Harry Potter is, well, a book. Large sub on a small instance.
• [email protected] is a small sub on a large instance.
• [email protected] is very small, but European. (Might feddit.uk be an option?)
• [email protected] is also an option, but risky given the fragility of the instance. Could blue_berry provide some assurances that the instance will be stable for the foreseeable future, and perhaps improve the bus factor of the instance?

My hunch is that a stable, medium-sized instance would be best. What are your thoughts? Is consolidation worth a try?

If nothing else, the experiment could serve as a test for whether or not consolidation is effective in boosting engagement and discussion.

A few ideas from the top of my head

• Flairs that can be allowed to filter content in a community
• Major online communites (can be subreddits, or other communities) moving to Lemmy
• Reddit removing old.reddit
• Reddit banning people using VPNs (already happening, see [email protected] )
• Lemmy becoming the reference source of knowledge for a certain domain

Second point is probably crucial, but I don't see any major subreddit wanting to move here. StarTrek is the exception more that the rule.

Perhaps after some amount of time having announced themselves over in [email protected] and [email protected], or...I don't know if there are communities for instances (the fediverse communities, presumably?), but likewise for them?

The combination of a promotional space and discussion for helping grow communities/instances could help ensure there's always some activity keeping this community visible to those seeking help.

I’ve searched for older Lemmy posts on Google just to see if they are getting indexed and I don’t think most are? Can anyone else confirm. I think if Lemmy showed up in more google searches like Reddit it would bring new users

I noticed the new betas have the ability to upload video clips. I think this has been a huge missing feature that Reddit and other social media platforms have