literally this. i see a lot of mods of niche communities working their ass off trying to generate content with 0 help, including me. and all people do is complain that they aren’t doing enough, it’s not active enough, while doing nothing to help it grow.
be the change you want to see. contribute to your communities, especially niche ones.
I would like to do this but I’m basically a waste of space, and not really capable of either thought provoking questions or funny/engaging content for the things I want to be part of. I can engage with others, but I’m not unique or creative enough for starting the conversation (same in person actually).
I know this because I tried several times many years ago to run my own Facebook pages for… well I tried various things and got very little engagement on any of it when Facebook pages were peak social media.
I know random facts about random science things that most people don’t understand (I probably don’t either, but I think I do!), but nothing that would actually grow any of the communities I’d like to see grow.
So while it is exactly that easy, it’s not necessarily that easy.
Honestly, even just making lame comments and upvoting is helpful. It shows the people creating things that what they are doing is working which will encourage them and others to post more.
And this is what I do (though I try to add to the conversation mostly), I’ve even started upvoting actual posts if I read them and learned or whatever, which is something I only did on reddit when sorting by new. The new habits are super difficult.
I’ve been way way more active here in way more diverse places than I maybe should be (I usually browse -all- right now to sub/block communities, and chime in on a ton of posts I don’t sub) so I hope it helps the posters, and I know it helps the statistics, but it isn’t the same as raw new content.
Fwiw, I’m not even deleting my comments every other day like I did on reddit. I know the content on fedi comes up randomly because sort bugs now and then so I’m being more careful about what I comment and leaving almost all of it completely intact. It’s very very difficult to do that 😅 I interact while intoxicated and am a ball of anxiety, and those don’t mix well. Purging my interactions was catharsis.
literally this. i see a lot of mods of niche communities working their ass off trying to generate content with 0 help, including me. and all people do is complain that they aren’t doing enough, it’s not active enough, while doing nothing to help it grow.
be the change you want to see. contribute to your communities, especially niche ones.
I would like to do this but I’m basically a waste of space, and not really capable of either thought provoking questions or funny/engaging content for the things I want to be part of. I can engage with others, but I’m not unique or creative enough for starting the conversation (same in person actually).
I know this because I tried several times many years ago to run my own Facebook pages for… well I tried various things and got very little engagement on any of it when Facebook pages were peak social media.
I know random facts about random science things that most people don’t understand (I probably don’t either, but I think I do!), but nothing that would actually grow any of the communities I’d like to see grow.
So while it is exactly that easy, it’s not necessarily that easy.
Honestly, even just making lame comments and upvoting is helpful. It shows the people creating things that what they are doing is working which will encourage them and others to post more.
And this is what I do (though I try to add to the conversation mostly), I’ve even started upvoting actual posts if I read them and learned or whatever, which is something I only did on reddit when sorting by new. The new habits are super difficult.
I’ve been way way more active here in way more diverse places than I maybe should be (I usually browse -all- right now to sub/block communities, and chime in on a ton of posts I don’t sub) so I hope it helps the posters, and I know it helps the statistics, but it isn’t the same as raw new content.
Fwiw, I’m not even deleting my comments every other day like I did on reddit. I know the content on fedi comes up randomly because sort bugs now and then so I’m being more careful about what I comment and leaving almost all of it completely intact. It’s very very difficult to do that 😅 I interact while intoxicated and am a ball of anxiety, and those don’t mix well. Purging my interactions was catharsis.
Post links and the discussion will come if the community has even just a few subscribers.