Even if I shout into the void, or get a few upvotes and little other engagement.

For people in similar situations, !fedigrow@lemm.ee

Thanks for your service. I’m more of a lurker, though I tend to comment more here than on Reddit, and I have so many other things filling my life that I have to tend to. This is just a distraction before bed or filling a dull moment.

That’s what I’m doing. I got 2 subs that I frequented on Reddit I’m running, one is a sports one with discussions for the events, and it’s literally just me putting commentary into it. But that’s what I loved about the Reddit sports subs, so I’ll at least have it for when people come here.

I was never much of an /r/all user, it’s always been niche communities for me. I feel like almost all of my niches have content here now (if not quite as much engagement as I’d like). !retrogaming@lemmy.world in particular has exploded with activity lately and arguably can now serve as a full replacement for its subreddit counterpart.

Thing is, when I try to bring people on Lemmy, it’s always “why?” and if I make it that far, “how?” With the how, I’ve been using the analogy of signing up for email, though it’s still not as smooth as it could be. Eyes glaze over when anyone starts asking me about how the Fediverse in general works.

The why is harder. I don’t know how much user bleed-over niche Reddit got from /r/all users but I’m guessing it wasn’t a trivial amount. I’m sure a lot of Reddit’s growth was owed to AMAs, so it’s possible Lemmy might need something flashy to draw in users who will then filter into communities waiting for them. Some sort of content unique to the platform. I do think before we get there we need a friendlier way to help new people find communities they may have interest in.