Lemmy isn't just full of political content, but it's also full of assholes too that take advantage of the small sized community of Lemmy and other instances. So this gives the impression that it's simply a clique that runs around 'running things' and by that, just kissing ass to mods and making you out to be the problem when it was started by them.

With politically charged content and just random pricks mixed in, it's going to be a hard sell for anybody to stick around here on Lemmy. Moreso, the lack of niche communities, will not give anyone a sense of belonging.

That's what Reddit will always have in spades against Lemmy. Lemmy just seems to be populated with political people, nerds into programming, jackasses and aimless wanderers.

We have to be the thing we want to see out in the world. If we want open source communities and an internet free of corporate influence then we have to do the work required to build them. It's not going to happen by magic.

Here's something I learned, don't be afraid to block. Political sub you don't want? blocked. Person shouting about China in a cat sub? blocked.

Also add blacklisted keywords, it cuts down on politics a ton

Well you should come hang out with us at Out of Context Comics! Not a lot of politics but a lot of gay innuendo. A lot.

https://lemmy.world/c/outofcontextcomics

Lurk on Reddit. Post on Lemmy.

Well Lemmy is a possible replacement for Reddit but, putting aside my strong biais for Lemmy, it doesn't have to be a Reddit replacement for everyone and it is still building itself up. Here is a few tips to improve your time in hope you'll find on the fediverse the space you look for :

• Try write post on dead looking community. Follower counts have a hard time synchronizing btw instances. A lot of people may be waiting for some activity to happened.
• Try opening niche community in their original instance. The posts wrote on a distance community before the first lemming of your instance opens it are invisible and must be added one by one (by entering it URL in your instance search function). You might found interesting content you missed.
• Try reposting content you see on Reddit on Lemmy. Copy-Paste it and add something like "R*eddit content - OP : @XXX@reddit.com" somewhere in the post. You might not have as much response as OP but it can stir up interesting conversation.
• Try to make an account on the twittoverse (Mastodon, *key...). The community on the microblogging side of the fediverse is much bigger and diverse. You will be able to boost your lemmy content and link it to hashtag so more people may see it. Answer to the original post will even show up on Lemmy. But second level comments will not fediverse well.
• Try to post articles, general question or to do anything to bring some animation to your niche community. Regularity in low engagement content will still bring people that will sooner or later start to engage.
• Don't hesitate to crosspost any related post to your favorite community. Community are silos, instances are silos and the lemming populating is very fragmented. By linking communities together, you'll bring people with the same hobbies than you to the community they did not find out yet. -Don't hesitate to answer at old post. Us lemmings don't have enough activity to complain about people writing back months later, especially in niche community.

Cheers!

I like lemmy because I can't doomscroll

You're right in one sense; the community is small and can have an echo chamber effect like any "small village." But you can also try other instances, or other Fediverse things or start your own. It goes like this; Reddit had success because they served you interesting things on a silver platter, using extensive venture capital to make it as slick and addictive and popular as possible. Lemmy is not built on capital, at least not on the same scale as Reddit; it is built on labor. You gotta decide what your ideal is.

From small seeds... I had noticed a huge improvement regarding lemmy posts and threads, before the US election, and then it all kind of went backwards.

But if you have any questions about anything - niche or otherwise, you should post them on lemmy, helping it to grow faster. Even if the answers can already be found in other community forums.
You should get specific replies to your question anyway, but also anyone coming behind you won't have to go to reddit or any other place for the answer. It requires everyone to help, but questions are the fastest way to grow in most cases. Not including the likes of subs that can post original content, A TON of reposts on them too, but some OC. But mainly asking for help with anything should get people with knowledge on the subject replying. With the idea that eventually many answers can be found here without having to go elsewhere. Start 'spamming' your genuine questions now..

Cath 22 ? If you cant be ass'd moving why would others, you're just enabling the enshitifcation to continue

Community is what you make it.

i would also like to like lemmy.

Unfortunately it's userbase seems to have a fairly significant infection of stupidity. (also the lemmy platform is just, underbaked, in general)

But i'm starting to think my standards of not being completely uneducated and spouting literal bullshit on things, is too high for most of the population...

I think i just have a problem with all of humanity, to be honest.

The timing of it all just didn't add up. Reddit started small, too. By the time Reddit failed, Fediverse was still in its infancy, and the communities either stayed in corporate hell or found somewhere else.

It's all I have for proper threading. I won't forgive Reddit for how they treated me and my communities. But, if you are willing to use Reddit, I'm sure it's going the have user advantage (and because of that niche interest advantage) for quite a while. I hope it serves your needs and brings you joy.

You might try building a community here, but that is the "slow boring of hard wood" and it can be difficult to find joy in, especially at first.

Yes Lemmy is smaller and doesn't have instantly fully formed communities. Reddit has been around for almost 2 decades. Lemmy is newer, smaller, and actively fights the sorts of shenanigans that Reddit initially used to get big.

If you want more niche activity, make posts and interact with posts. Lemmy is user driven- that means you. It isn't a giant megasite where you can just expect to be a passive receiver of endless content.

you gotta realize reddit didn't just "appear" one day with those obscure niche topics built out. There is a network effect large communities have. We need hundreds of thousands more members before that is possible.

I think you probably weren't there for early reddit, but most of the active posters here on Lemmy were. It was tiny. Like Lemmy.

You can't force those niche communities to exist here. It doesn't work. But what you can do is post and create valuable content. and eventually we may get there.

Feel free to block communities with political content.

You can also use an app or alternative frontend to filter keywords. !newtolemmy@lemmy.ca has a post about that.

For communities, !newcommunities@lemmy.world can help

For home kit, the Apple communities are probably more active, and you should be able to post about it there too

A lot of focus is put onto posting, but I like to encourage commenters. I'll post and respond all day, but if nobody is interacting, it's going to stay quiet. Put the quiet to your advantage by doing things like:

If you like an image, say what you like about it. Lately, I've been having people talk about how they really have been enjoying dawn/dusk pictures, so I've been collecting more of that so I can post what people are in the mood for. It gives me good feedback, it gives people a chance to agree or disagree with you, and you got to participate.

Do you ask anyone any question? Take advantage of the relative quiet. With not having a million comments on every post, I have plenty of time to give you really detailed answers. I got asked how to differentiate between 2 animals yesterday, and I had time to make a nice visual guide, highlighting key differences and giving multiple visual examples of potential variations while still simplifying the process of identification. If there's a million people talking like on Reddit, it's hard to give people that much attention, but here it's easy. I pretty much take time to respond to every comment.

Don't be afraid to go off topic. Rules seem to be looser in many communities because of the low post count. This week, I posted something from a country with a different language, and I ended up having 3 days of conversation with a native speaker who filled me in on tons of subtleties of the language pertaining to our niche topic. I got to learn so much, and they got to learn a few things about English.

I feel you have to do something to have a good time here, but it needn't be to post multiple things every day, but it's more than just up or downvoting something like you can get away with on Reddit. We're too small for you to have a free ride. But make someone laugh. Let them know that you liked their post with a short comment. If you don't like it, say hey, do you have any content on such and such instead. Make a post saying, hey, what's your thoughts on this? It doesn't need to be something groundbreaking or insightful, you just need to give a sign of life so we know you're here, and one of us will probably talk back to you.

Interact enough like that, and you may find what you enjoy doing, if that turns out to be posting, or you become the resident expert on a topic even if you're not an expert, being a serial commenter, or whatever it may be. It's a great opportunity if you make it one because it is so easy to get attention here if you try.

I'm not typically a social person, but being here has let me talk about what I want, when I want, and somebody will listen to it, and I can ask about things I want to know and get answers. There's much less shouting into the void like at Reddit. Play Lemmy to its strengths and you will find enjoyment. And if you don't like it, go to where you're happy. Nobody's going to hate you if you split time between here and Reddit.

Seeing all the cats made me realize that we need to all participate to make the community what we want it to be. It’s clear to me there are a lot of lurkers based on the influx of cat pictures. The more we start posting in ANY instance the more visibility there will be for active users.

One suggestion I saw a while ago was to use more general communities for things you're interested in and as it grows then the more niche communities can be made. Ex: post about a specific game you like in gaming up until enough people like it to make a sub for that game. Or post about a song you don't know in asklemmy until enough people do that to make whatsthissong

I totally get wanting the niche communities and, personally, I just lurk reddit completely not voting, posting, or commenting unless as a last resort if I really need to find info that Lemmy isn't able to provide.

It's a slow process and I don't think there'll be another boost of users in Lemmy until reddit does another thing that enshittifies it to annoy people to leave.

All I’m getting lately in my feed are cats!

reddit was once smaller than it is now too

I like it as a platform but the userbase just isn't there.

Yeah I want to get off Reddit but this place is small and is very political. It's a tiny echo chamber. A very very small one.

The Fediverse is virgin territory. The trails aren't blazed for you here; it's your job as an early adopter to make it the way you want it to be. You want a community? Start it and participate in it.