New Communities @lemmy.world Crul @lemmy.world 1 yr. ago

Trying to build critical mass for small communities

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/2693464

Hi, I'm focusing on generating content for a few communities that I feel can be successful and have less content than I expected:

!cassettefuturism@lemm.ee: a genre of retrofuturism based on the 70's and 80's (more info)

!awwnverts@lemmy.world: cute invertebrates

!weirdwheels@lemmy.world: weird vehicles (with wheels)

!comicstrips@lemmy.world: self-explanatory

EDIT: I did not create any of those communities

I would encourage anyone to participate if you like those topics.

Do you know any other niche-but-not-too-niche communities in which we could focus efforts?
Please, don't post very long lists, I'm already subscribed to almost 300 communities and the idea is to focus on a few ones.

Thanks!

EDIT: Added descriptions for each community.

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31 comments

I wish you well. Personally, I'm a bit gloomy about the prospect of growing communities.

To share some data from shittymoviedetails@lemmy.world:

2023-07-19 521 subs 05 posts
2023-07-20 533 subs 13 posts
2023-07-21 633 subs 18 posts
2023-07-22 677 subs 19 posts
2023-07-23 710 subs 20 posts
2023-07-24 740 subs 21 posts
2023-07-25 753 subs 22 posts
2023-07-26 760 subs 23 posts
2023-07-27 781 subs 24 posts
2023-07-28 785 subs 24 posts
2023-07-29 794 subs 24 posts
2023-07-30 794 subs 24 posts
2023-07-31 798 subs 24 posts
2023-08-01 802 subs 24 posts
2023-08-02 807 subs 24 posts
2023-08-03 807 subs 24 posts
2023-08-04 826 subs 24 posts
2023-08-05 846 subs 24 posts

I was involved in an attempt to grow this community. Two or three of us posted on the 20th July and 21st July, and you can see the subs jump from 533 to 677.
I kept posting 1 post a day until the 27th, but found that, the more I posted what I thought was amusing the more you actually had to be me to agree. If anyone ever commented on a post they didn't get or thought unfunny, there's maybe something I could do about it.
From then, subs have grown (I assume the recent jumps are due to Sync users), but posts and comments have not.

So it's not just about getting more subscribers - it has to be the right kind of subscribers.
Lemmy Kings sitting on porcelein thrones, dis-interestedly calling out for "More content! No! Not that kind! Get me some more Content Creators from the village!" are of no value.
If you're increasing subscribers, but it's still just you posting into the void, it's hard not to get disillusioned.
- I resurrected: Degoogle!degoogle@lemmy.ml and have been trying to grow it a bit.
  
  It was on 3.56k subscribers and 152 active monthly users on 21/7/23. 117 posts.
  
  Now 4.54k, 333 active monthly users, 135 posts.
  
  Best techniques I found was reach out to larger subs in a similar area with similar interests, link to their communities in your description and ask if they could do the same to help users find what they like. Also crossposting is great from larger areas. You can see crossposts from the main post and it's easy to click and deep dive into there. Crossposting about 3 posts which resonated with the users did most of the heavy lifting.
- You are probably right on your pessimism. Growing communities is hard. That's why I'm trying to focus the efforts in a few, but more than 1 community. Which community will succeed in the long term is impossible to predict, so I think it's better to just keep trying with different ones.
  
  I find !shittymoviedetails@lemmy.world a very good attempt. If I get it correctly, is like fakehistoryporn but for movies, right? I think that's the kind of niche-but-not-too-niche topic that could work. I'm not very familiar with the format but I will keep it in mind in case I find something worth posting.
  
  Thanks for the efforts and the feedback!
  
  If I get it correctly, is like fakehistoryporn but for movies, right?
  
  I think so, yeah. My own posts there vary widely in popularity (to phrase it euphemistically), so I'm maybe not the right person to ask though.
  
  In case it helps: IMHO the hard part of !shittymoviedetails@lemmy.world is that is an all-or-nothing regarding if you get the joke.
  
  Note that the communities I listed on OP have content that can be enjoyed without any previous reference. Of course, the more you know about any topic, the more you will get from the posts, but I think that for the short term, it's good to focus on things that people can vote because "they look pretty" even if they don't understand the context.
- I’m really late to this because I’m going through the community posts in order, but I wouldn’t be pessimistic just yet. I’ve created a number of communities I missed from Reddit and they grew really well - they’re photo/screenshot communities though.
  
  Confidently_incorrect is 3 weeks old, has 27 posts and 2.3k subs.
  
  Terrible estate agent photos is 3 weeks old. 46 posts, 3.5k subs.
  
  Don't you know who I am? is 2 months old, 35 posts and 2.5k subs.
  
  Clever comebacks is only a week old; 7 posts and 108 subs. I haven’t even listed that on this community yet and that where a lot of my subscribers came from for the others.
  
  !badrealestate is the only community that anyone other than me has made a post in. I was just really diligent with posting - maybe twice a day for the first few days, then once everyday, slowing down to every other day. The only communities I’ve created that haven’t grown are the ones I haven’t posted in daily. You should keep at it - the people will come eventually!

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