Why consolidate communities?
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, 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.
A few perspectives in favour of consolidation: (credits to @[email protected], @[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://lemmy.ca/comment/8823953
I like this because people showing up to those communities might think that topic doesn’t have activity on Lemmy, when it actually does.
https://lemmy.blahaj.zone/comment/8370860
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.
Consolidating electric vehicle communities
Applying these principles to the EV communities on Lemmy, let's take an overview of what currently exists:
General-purpose:
- [email protected] (active)
- [email protected] (active)
- [email protected] (active)
- [email protected] (inactive)
- [email protected] (inactive)
- [email protected] (active)
- [email protected] (inactive)
- [email protected] (inactive)
- [email protected] (inactive)
Location-specific:
- [email protected] (active) (UK-specific, European welcome)
- [email protected] (inactive) (Ireland-specific)
- [email protected] (inactive) (US-specific)
Other:
- [email protected] (active)
Do all of these communities serve a distinct purpose? If not, could we consolidate some of them?
While Lemmy does not currently have a built-in way of moving or merging communities, @[email protected] has had some success with pinning an explanation post directing users to the new community and locking the old one. Is this something which could be applied to the EV communities on Lemmy?
The next question is, of course "Which communities should we consolidate to?"
Given the general sentiment to move off of ML (for ideological reasons) and off of World (to avoid centralization of instances), my proposal would be [email protected]. I think the SolarPunk instance is a nice match for an EV community, but I am interested to hear what others think.
Paging moderators, admins, and prolific EV contributors for their input:
[email protected]
Moderator @[email protected] is inactive. Former contributer @[email protected] is active. Paging admin @[email protected].
Could this be merged with another instance, perhaps [email protected]?
!electric_[email protected]
Moderator @[email protected] made a single post and disappeared. Contributor @[email protected] is active. Paging admin @[email protected].
[email protected]
Moderator @[email protected] moved to kbin (@[email protected]), which has shut down. Maybe @[email protected] is the same person?
Could these be merged with another instance, perhaps [email protected]?
[email protected]
Moderator and contributor @[email protected] is inactive. Paging admin @[email protected].
Could this be merged with [email protected]? Seems like this might be more appropriate instance.
[email protected]
Looks like an @[email protected] project. You do you. Any thoughts you'd like to add?
It's well known that I'd rather have communities separated from users, so I'm biased to have all car-related communities on an instance like gearhead.town.
[email protected]
Moderator and contributor @[email protected] is inactive. Paging admin @[email protected].
Could this be merged with a more active one (perhaps [email protected]), or is keeping the US focus important?
It could be on another instance. I see no problem with that.
Thanks for your quick response! I think the next steps would be as follows:
Is this something you would be comfortable doing? Let me know if I can assist in any way.
[email protected]
Moderator and contributor @[email protected] is active.
Could this be merged with another instance, perhaps [email protected]?
@[email protected], you seem to be one of the most prolific contributors who is not also a mod. What are your thoughts?
I like supporting [email protected]. If others want to start posting there that would be great. We seem to finally have about three consistent posters now there.
Are there any specific reasons you prefer the world community over the slrpnk one? The general sentiment seems to be that moving communities off of the largest instances will strengthen the threadiverse overall.
The main reason is it has the most subscribers. I am worried about losing many of them if we move.
If you lock the community with a pinned post pointing to the new community, most of them will follow.
Of course you can also preemptively create a discussion thread about this potential move to see what the community thinks
I will post to the ev group people decide on. Check with the mods to see if they will combine.
I saw you indeed locked the LW community in the meantime, thank you for this!
I just hope the subscribers move over.
I hope so too, though it's important to keep in mind that Many of the subscribers on the larger instances are remnants of the 2023 APIcalypse, and not active accounts. We probably won't see the total number of subscribers surpass the larger instances until the Lemmy userbase grows a bit more.
Active users/week and users/month is probably the best metric to track, and we're already seeing encouraging results there.
That was done by @[email protected], but yes, we are making progress.
[email protected]
Moderator and contributor @[email protected] is active.
How would you feel about a potential influx of posters and commenters from other instances?
More is always better. I would love to see it officially become the go-to community for EV talk in the Fediverse
How would you feel about adding additional moderators, perhaps those who were active contributors or moderators in EV communities on other instances?
I feel like additional mods could be good for redundancy, but the decision would ultimately be up to you and the slrpnk admins.
As long as they're active, they're welcome to join the moderation team. You've seen the community grow to become what it is. When I created the community it was with the goal to decentralise, so additional moderators were always going to be needed eventually.
I'm an idiot. I thought you were a moderator there already. I just added you. Anyone else you think should be a moderator?
Oh, thanks. I'd recommend adding @[email protected]. She's the current active moderator of [email protected], and is on board with moving to [email protected].
Already done
[email protected]
Moderator and contributor @[email protected] is active.
Would you welcome the types of posts which were on [email protected]?
Yes, happy to expand it to Ireland. I'm not excluding general European content anyway, so it will fit nicely here.
[email protected]
Moderator and contributor @[email protected] is inactive. Paging admin @[email protected].
Could this be merged with another instance, perhaps [email protected]?
I locked the community and pinned an explanatory post. Best of luck to the slrpnk community!
As an aside, these situations always make me a little nervous that I'm going to step on a user's toes. The mod account having no visible post/comment/vote activity does not confirm that they are truly gone from Lemmy. They may have become a lurker.
Thanks for your assistance!
Yeah, that is a risk. I think we've done what we can though. We each tagged them in our respective posts/comments, and haven't heard from them.
It's possible, but my hunch is that this is not the case. They were active only between 2023-06-14 and 2023-07-25, and there is a user with the same name in The Other Place who is active in EV subs. I suspect they may be one of the people who tried out Lemmy briefly after the APIcalypse, and found that it didn't suit them.
If they ever become active on Lemmy again, they should be welcome to reopen the community, or join the moderation team of [email protected].
Would you consider editing the display name of the community to include '[Dormant community]'? It would make the status clearer in apps and other tools like lemmyverse.net.
Done.
Thanks!
[email protected]
Moderator @[email protected] is inactive. Maybe @[email protected] is the same person? Former contributer @MrPhibb@reddthat is active. Paging admin @[email protected].
Could this be merged with another instance, perhaps [email protected]?
Having a list of all alternatives in the sidebar of alternative places to find people is my recommendation. Thus if people wish to keep a backup community on Reddthat I'm sure to let them.
Not everyone reads the sidebar before posting.
How would you feel about locking (not deleting) the community until it is needed? The community would still exist as a backup, and could be reopened if the need arose.
This could be done in conjunction with a link in the sidebar or a pinned post.
[email protected]
Moderator @[email protected] is inactive. Paging admin @[email protected].
[email protected]
Moderator @[email protected] is inactive. Paging admin @[email protected].
Could this be merged with another instance, perhaps [email protected]?