We aren't really a big instance. We don't even make the top-20. Where we really hit above our weight though is our comment count.

We are medium in size, but we are super engaged.

  • 𝚝𝚛𝚔@aussie.zone
    ·
    10 months ago

    I'm honestly surprised Lemmy hasn't taken off more than it has. Reddit's actions make it such an unattractive option, but people are still returning there in the hopes of getting an upvote and a crappy useless award.

    Anyway, I'll keep posting stuff and participating here.

    Just need a few more people to generate the topics and engagement will follow exponentially. I just don't lead an interesting enough life to come up with much.

    • Nath@aussie.zone
      hexagon
      ·
      10 months ago

      It's tricky - I want it to grow, but I don't want to lose the culture we have here. Having run forums 20+ years ago, I know that keeping that balance of culture and growth is super difficult.

      Every time, you hit a critical point and suddenly it's a site of random strangers with no community feeling. Reddit hit that point over a decade ago. I don't want to repeat that here if we can avoid it.

      • 𝚝𝚛𝚔@aussie.zone
        ·
        10 months ago

        On the one hand, yes.

        On the other hand, you need enough content being created to provoke discussion.

        I don't feel we have enough content at the minute. I reckon the active population needs to double. Maybe we need to give away stubbie coolers.

        • Nath@aussie.zone
          hexagon
          ·
          10 months ago

          This is where the avatars come in. I don't pay much attention to the usernames, either. But those little avatars stick in your mind and you start to remember people.

          Yes, everyone is still a stranger, but that doesn't mean there isn't community.

          • 𝚝𝚛𝚔@aussie.zone
            ·
            10 months ago

            Voyager (and Connect by the sounds) don't display avatars or custom usernames so you lose that bit of customisation in at least some of the apps.

            I think I prefer it. Avatars are usually bad anime anyway. I think mines a ghost face lady.

            • Nath@aussie.zone
              hexagon
              ·
              10 months ago

              Huh. You and @Aussiemandeus have probably just answered why I keep defaulting back to Jerboa. I have most of the Lemmy clients installed, and cycle through them. I usually use Jerboa for aussie.zone - I thought that was because it was the first one I had. Now I think it's for the avatar support.

              • Lodion 🇦🇺@aussie.zoneM
                ·
                10 months ago

                Sync also has an option to enable avatars. I can't use any client that doesn't have avatars available. I'm too used to identifying people by their avatars... and now emojis and OP/admin tags.

                • Nath@aussie.zone
                  hexagon
                  ·
                  10 months ago

                  Aaaaand Sync has become my default app.
                  I'll probably give that one money, because I trust they'll actually incorporate mod tools at some point.