Moving to the fediverse

Hi guys, are you familiar with the fediverse? It’s an open-source reddit-alternative that is owned and run by no one. So it doesn’t suffer from the threat of a single hostile entity making drastic, unwanted changes, as we recently saw with reddit, resulting in the side-wide protests.

It would be great to have your subreddit join the fediverse! If you do, I would suggest not using lemmy.world, as it’s already the largest instance and it’s better to spread things out so no one has too much control.

Info:

You can even create your own instance like /r/futurology and /r/piracy did https://futurology.today, https://lemmy.dbzer0.com. If you do, you may want to seed your community with content https://futurology.today/post/166237.

Once you make a community on Lemmy you could sticky a post in your sub to let your community know, and/or create an automod sticky in each thread.

  • the_artic_one@programming.devEnglish
    861·
    10 months ago

    I get that you’ve got good intentions, but this reads like an email I would find my spam folder and I can’t imagine it would inspire any reddit mods to move over to Lemmy. The mods who were so dissatisfied with Reddit that they would be willing to migrate with the information in this script have already done so.

    There are likely be some who might be willing to migrate if they get personal support from an instance admin or some other tangible offer of assistance, but nobody is going to jump ship just because “Reddit Bad” anymore.

    • Anon518@sh.itjust.worksOPEnglish
      104·
      10 months ago

      Any suggestions for improvement? Or you think messaging mods is just completely useless?

      • Jumuta@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        48·
        10 months ago

        you need to personalise it for each person and appeal to their unique interests. They are people, not bots.

      • NuXCOM_90Percent@lemmy.zipEnglish
        91·
        10 months ago

        I think messaging mods is worse than useless. It is harassment that will make them actively not want to bother with lemmy.

          • NuXCOM_90Percent@lemmy.zipEnglish
            3·
            10 months ago

            Make Lemmy a place worth hanging out and having a discussion rather than desperately trying to recreate the shit hole that is reddit?

            People weren’t “organizing” to convince users of digg to migrate to reddit For The Greater Good. It was instead obvious digg was a mess and people went to the better site.

            And everyone acknowledges that mastodon is much healthier than lemmy (… damn that is a low bar). And that is because there aren’t swarms of people constantly trying to convince kylie jenner that she should post on mastodon instead. Instead, there is very much “This shit isn’t twitter. Twitter sucked long before dipshit bought it” and it is building its own identity.

            Whereas… a lot of y’all feel like the ex that sends texts a year later about how you bought a new shirt or you lost weight. And I am sure a few of you are looking to pick up some strange to show those jerks at reddit that your new boyfriend has an even bigger dick and knows how to use it before tearfully calling in the morning about how you are still in love with him and want him to take you back.

            • Anon518@sh.itjust.worksOPEnglish
              11·
              10 months ago

              rather than desperately trying to recreate the shit hole that is reddit

              I don’t want that either. See my other comments.

      • spaduf@slrpnk.netEnglish
        5·
        10 months ago

        There are a couple of principles to ensure an activity drive like this is successful:

        • You need a significant number of contributors acting under agreed upon guidelines. The contributors will give you reach and the guidelines prevent singular actors from ruining momentum by taking counter productive actions with good intentions.
        • You need lead-up time to gather contributors and establish guidelines. In this case you would probably want some Reddit mods sympathetic to your cause so that it doesn’t sound like the initiative is from a purely external group.
        • You need to leverage bandwagon effects. In this case those Reddit mods are critical to giving the impression that there is already momentum in this direction.
        • You need a well formatted landing page to establish initial impressions. A lot of folks will click on exactly one link before giving up on an effort. You need to make that link count.

        I’m working on compiling guides and establishing a community to organize initiatives like this over at !digitalcommunitybuilding@slrpnk.net. The project is in very early stages but the hope is to ensure your digital activism is actually effective.

        All that said I would strongly recommend against this approach unless you can make a BIG push and that takes time to organize and a lot of one-on-one conversation.

  • edric@lemm.eeEnglish
    34·
    10 months ago

    Mass unsolicited messages are like JW knocking on your door to preach. No one will appreciate that. This is like the alien.top creator’s methodology. While backed by good intentions, you’re not really convincing anyone to switch. Organic movement of users is really the only full proof way to get more people on lemmy AND actually retaining them. A large number of reddit users who joined the mass exodus 6 months ago are probably back on reddit now and only a few actually stayed.

      • edric@lemm.eeEnglish
        2·
        10 months ago

        Hey. Not singling you out at all. The fediverser project was just the first thing that came to mind when I posted my comment, and I remembered the part where you messaged people directly. I think I have the same opinion with regard to people having accounts made on their behalf and their comments reposted without their consent. I’m curious, do you have any data on the % of people who chose to take ownership of the accounts that were created for them? I’m sorry about the negative (and some very harsh) feedback you received on lemmy with the fediverser project.

        How would that be the fault of the people who are trying to promote the Fediverse?

        Wasn’t saying it’s the fault of people promoting lemmy. I was just using that as an example of how even users who willingly tried lemmy during the exodus are hard to retain. My point was was that the only way to get more users on lemmy is to make the platform and its content better and let it grow naturally.

  • Otter@lemmy.caEnglish
    24·
    10 months ago

    I’m working with a few subreddits and their Lemmy equivalents, and I’d strongly recommend against this approach. As people have said, it sounds spammy and it would make the mods more suspicious of the Fediverse when someone comes along to actually try and work on stuff with them

    It’s better to have this happen organically, but if you want to plan it out, what I’d recommend is work with one or two subreddit(s) you’re familiar with. Also know that you might have to take on the majority of the setup and moderation initially. When reaching out, be specific about the needs of the subreddit and why the Lemmy community might help the community, and be cool with them saying no.

    Different ways it might look:

    • copy in the subreddit rules (when it makes sense) and add mods from the sub, then let them run with it
    • copy in the rules and have it be an official relationship between the communities where each just recommends the other

    There’s no script because each time I reached out the situation was different. I can write up more on what’s worked well for me but that’s the gist of it

    • Lifecoach5000@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3·
      10 months ago

      This is the way if you want any movement. Start the communities yourself and curate/nurture them. Hand them off to a mod or trusted member that wants to break away from Le Reddit.

    • Blaze@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
      2·
      10 months ago

      Sounds approach. I tend to do it as well. The more organic and tailored you are, the higher the success chance is.

    • Anon518@sh.itjust.worksOPEnglish
      23·
      10 months ago

      It’s better to have this happen organically

      Of course, but organic moves seem to be done at this point.

      • Otter@lemmy.caEnglish
        7·
        10 months ago

        Agreed, so you’re welcome to take initiative! More just don’t send a boilerplate message around everywhere :)

        I appreciate that you’re working on building things up. That’s how we make the fediverse better for everyone

    • JackLSauce@lemmy.worldEnglish
      7·
      10 months ago

      I was just thinking this sounds like Lemmy becoming e-Mormons

      The fact is most people are perfectly happy being herded like cattle if it means avoiding a slight learning curve and new ecosystem

      I could be wrong but is the previous statement referring to Lemmy, Mastodon, Linux or my entire career of shielding management/entrepreneur types from minor technical details?

    • Anon518@sh.itjust.worksOPEnglish
      34·
      10 months ago

      Feel free to offer other suggestions. As is, “do nothing” is not going to grow the fediverse.

  • uuhhhhmmmm@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    161·
    10 months ago

    Most of subreddit admins and mods are not interested in migrating to somewhere else. A few months after API changes Reddit is still usable and active. Even third party apps are functioning if you apply a patch with your developer token. Also mods don’t want to lose their power.

    If you really want to bring more official communities here, you should ask admins who are already interested in open-source or Fediverse. For example, I found that people behind Fossify (a Simple Mobile Tools fork) had created a subreddit. Ask them about Lemmy. It’s FOSS-friendly, there are a lot of fans here, so the chances that they’ll make and promote a Lemmy community are much higher.

  • ghen@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    14·
    10 months ago

    I would move an entire group of fighting games reddits over here but there’s no automoderator or mod toolbox equivalent. Until lemmy gets that basic functionality it’s moot to try and moderate anything at a high level

  • helenslunch@feddit.nlEnglish
    151·
    10 months ago

    Why don’t you just create your own Lemmy community?

    Reddit has already proven that they won’t let you just close down a sub. You can’t “move over” your sub.

    I wish people would stop going there but they don’t have the spine.

    • Anon518@sh.itjust.worksOPEnglish
      1·
      10 months ago

      It doesn’t appear that reddit is preventing subreddits from creating ans advertising lemmy alternatives. They don’t have to close down.

  • topinambour_rex@lemmy.worldEnglish
    13·
    10 months ago

    The fediverse isnt a reddit alternative. Lemmy is. The fediverse is a network of different type of service, like lemmy, mastodon, or peertube.

  • Resol van Lemmy@lemmy.worldEnglish
    7·
    10 months ago

    During my days of Reddit, I’ve been active on r/Morocco a lot.

    Here in Lemmy, I have only encountered one other Moroccan. That’s it. I don’t even know anyone in my country who’s ever heard of Mastodon even, despite it gaining traction everywhere else.

    And I think I prefer it this way, it kinda makes me stand out from the crowd in a way.

  • cheese_greater@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2·
    10 months ago

    I think imma start prefixing my AskLemmy questions with the “subreddit”/community of interest. Many of them are awesome but not super active here while there’s lots of people to discuss and answer so why not skip the middleman?

    • Otter@lemmy.caEnglish
      10·
      10 months ago

      People are people

      I don’t think the problems on Reddit are because of the people on it, but the structure of the platform itself

    • Anon518@sh.itjust.worksOPEnglish
      5·
      10 months ago

      In large part, I agree. But there are subs/content on reddit that isn’t available anywhere else. I’d like to stop having to go to reddit for anything. The more communities that set up shop on lemmy, the more search engines will provide people with alternative results to reddit, and the less we’ll have to go to reddit for niche content.