Some individuals are creating magazines using the names of well-known subreddits but without any content or even basic sidebar information such as descriptions and rules. Presumably, they are name squatting with the intention of gaining influence over future content moderation on kbin anticipating the growth of their magazines as more of Reddit jumps ship and searches for familiar pastures.
A community’s identity lies in its content and culture of engagement, not just its name. Sure, utilizing a popular subreddit name for a magazine will initially attract users. However it’s the community engagement, not the name, that motivates posters to share content. Inactive magazines void of content and engagement will discourage potential contributors. The proliferation of such dead magazines will turn people away from the site altogether, and in the process crowd out genuine initiatives by mods who actually are putting in the effort of building their community here.
If you have taken up moderation of a community, invest effort in creating a welcoming environment. This includes adding a proper description, magazine icon, and rules, as well as populating the feed with a welcome thread and some initial content. Instead of waiting for others to come and post content, take the initiative and get the ball rolling.
I understand that some individuals are name squatting preempting the name from falling into the hands of trolls or power-hungry mods and are willing to switch out when a suitable moderator shows up. The above still applies, and I request you to work a bit on your magazines as well. If it seems like too much work, consider initiating a thread on @kbinMeta offering up the post and switching out with a user who is genuinely interested in moderating and contributing to the magazine instead of leaving it dormant.
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Aslo we shouldn’t forget that it has been a particularly hectic week for anything reddit related.
Between connection issues related to the large influx of new users, lots of learning curve, ambiguity of whether reddit was going to back down or not, and just the general trying to rebuild our online worlds to account for what reddit was beforehand. It’s not at all surprising that people haven’t necessarily found time to build out the content of their new magazines.
Relax, I didn’t conclude anything anywhere. I’m just presuming the motivation for why a handful of users have created most of the well-known subs without adding much in the way of a description, rules or content. I’m not making any assumptions about “a hell of a lot of people”, only about those who are mods of well-known ones. That’s a handful of people, because they all own like 10-15 mags each. If that’s not powermod hopeful, welp. Though not enough time is a fair point. The situation should be clear in a few weeks time I suppose.
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I am not in line for moderator anywhere. I’m requesting mods who mean to actually be mods of their community to take the time to add the initial content. Which you would know if you bothered to read past the first paragraph.
I can speak only for myself, and nobody has approached me about taking an active role in my mags.
Again, if you read past the first paragraph, you will learn that this post is me reaching out to you (and other mods) to take an active role in your mags.
If time cannot be devoted towards moderation, don’t take it up. Should be that simple.
So are you seeding the young communities with content, since their owners won’t?
And again. If you read past the first paragraph, you will learn that posters are or at least I am motivated by engagement. If I won’t get that, what’s the point of posting?
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Your original comment only expressed disagreement with me assuming the motivations of people creating subs en masse without enough time having passed. I accepted that as a fair argument.
But apart from that, you’re dismissing my arguments, not disagreeing with them.If you think you can do a better job, prove it. If you won’t do anything to help the situation yourself, you don’t get to complain about it.
Why? If I take up the task of fostering engagement in a bunch of mags that interest me, does that then justify my complaints in your eyes?
‘Shut up’ is not an argument.
I’m telling you that I disagree with them, and why I disagree with them. This is your opportunity to clarify and defend your arguments
My only argument in the post is that if a welcoming environment is not present in a sub and the sub seems inactive, people will turn away. If a majority of popular subs seem inactive, people will leave the site itself, and inactives will crowd out genuine initiatives. Therefore, people who took the time to create the mags should take a few more minutes to slap an icon, a description and a welcome thread. Basically not appear dead. If you think that’s a stretch, then we can just agree to disagree.
I think we agree more than you realize.
If I take up the task of fostering engagement in a bunch of mags that interest me, does that then justify my complaints in your eyes?
That is what I’m saying, yes. If you were doing the work while the owners and/or mods did nothing, you would absolutely be justified in your grievance. You would be more deserving of a lead position for that mag than they are, and I would stand behind you if you wanted to take it over.
‘Shut up’ is not an argument.
Debatable, but my argument was ‘Shut up if you’re not willing to contribute.’ I really don’t think that’s a wild take. If I’m not willing to put forth the absolute minimum effort of posting an image or a question or something, I have no business bitching about a lack of content and engagement.
people who took the time to create the mags should take a few more minutes to slap an icon, a description and a welcome thread. Basically not appear dead. If you think that’s a stretch, then we can just agree to disagree.
I don’t disagree. I actually agree with just about all of your gripes, people who create a community should take ownership of it or hand it over to someone who will. What I have a problem with is doomposting about a situation that the poster has done nothing to remedy. We’re all equally capable of contributing. I have even less excuse than you do, I have a couple mags that I need to work on. They have icons, at least a basic description, and general rules, but that’s it. I’ll find some time this weekend to flesh them out, been a busy week for me.
Look, despite my name I’m really not trying to be an ass. I admit I may be a bit charged about this. This week is very likely the first week I’ve completely abstained from reddit in the last 12ish years. It’s not that I miss it, it’s actually the opposite; I really really don’t, and I really don’t want to see those parts of reddit manifesting here. This is a brand new place, and it’s not reddit. I feel that we should go into this with few expectations, just see what it becomes. Content federation is a whole new thing (I mean it’s not, but for the purpose of this conversation…you get my point), so let’s not expect anything from it or try to force it in a direction just yet.
No hard feelings dude, and sincerely this time, peace homie 🤙
soooo what you’re saying is that you want other people to do unpaid homework for your pleasure and you’re not willing to lift a finger to help but would rather just whinge and moan? okay, got it. thanks.
I agree with you that if they’re willing to grab the name for purposes of creating a place for that content to move from Reddit, they can at a minimum add some text and a single post declaring that reason.
Right. I saw some content I wanted to post but the magazines didn’t exist here yet, so I created them. I copied the existing rules and put a comment that any existing mods were welcome to take over. My motivation was that I wanted new people to find their familiar subs when they come here, but I have no aspirations of actually modding it myself if the original mods come along.
E: I do kinda think it wasn’t the right move now and that while we are small we should consolidate into less niche magazines, but what’s done is done, however it’s not a power play with everyone anyway.
If you copied the existing rules, then the OP appears not to be about your magazines.
This has been my approach - to observe that a topic is missing and put up a “lightning rod” - if no lightning strikes, the magazine can wither, but if others are looking, they have a place to accumulate.
Moderating != creating content. If you don’t like the lack of content in a magazine, stop lurking and post something.
It seems a little early to declare them inactive, really. This magazine is 2 weeks old, and given when the blackout started, a lot of the ones in question are 4 days old or less. Not having any activity yet is understandable. And I could easily see deciding to do some of the prep work later after getting a few 503 errors.
I’d say if there’s a community you particularly want to do well, post some content there yourself. Volunteer to help out. See if the person who created it is willing to add you as a moderator.
Some of them probably are dead, since the creator could easily have been trying things out here and decided it wasn’t for them. But I’d say to give people a chance to return…
I don’t know, I’d wait a bit more before declaring any of these new magazine/communities inactive or see any ill-intent in the users opening them.
This is a good point too. I saw some many that I’d like to follow that didn’t even have a Welcome thread so, to the idea that some are just name grabbing as well and hoping it’ll be useful one day.
Part of the federation is multiple kbin or lemmy instances can all have /popularnamehere and than can federate to to the other. Plus /technology on kbin could be wildly popular while another may not be. Or both are going strong, but folks like more responsive in one instance than another.
Almost like domain squatting
Not really, as there’s no economic incentive.
You don’t think there exist reputation management firms with an economic incentive to be able to influence what is said over the internet?
You’re right to a degree. For magazines with corporate brand names, you’re right. That’s not the majority of what’s being created, but it is some of it.
Vulcan will repost an older comment about this thing, basically recreation of subreddits is bound to happen in the threadiverse:
It’s inevitable that some people (Vulcan included) will try to recreate sub-subreddits into sub-magazines, given prevalence of sub-subreddits on the Snoo Platform.
Umbrella magazines are great but some people prefer more specialised discussion place, so both umbrella and sub-magazines are fine for their purposes.
Is this the official place for requesting moderation? I would assume it’s only for ???@kbin.social magazines.
…which also means mods will be needed to replace mods.
Well, that is life
Sometimes she goes, sometimes she doesn’t, cause that’s the fuckin’ way she goes
