I made a post recently, wondering what we could do to get a larger userbase on lemmy. Many people kept saying “why larger? This size is good”, even though I stated my reason for wanting a larger userbase in the OP.
This post, right here, also shows a benefit of having a larger userbase and something I miss from reddit: actual research scientists coming to the comments explaining the paper and whatnot. I think decreasing the distance from research scientists to the general public is a good idea. And I want them on lemmy. I would love for lemmy to be a little bit less memes and a little bit more… Serious.
But a larger community also means people like that conspiracy poster coming here and degrading the quality of the conversation. It’s a double edged sword. I think we should encourage quality user growth over just quantity. Of course, that’s easier said than done. But my point is that growth in and of itself is a poor measure of success: we want growth of competent users.
Of course, I don’t disagree. I just want to encourage us to seek good comments. You could fill the comment section with 100 low quality posts and it wouldn’t meaningfully improve things.
Sure, as long as we allow good comments with opposing views. We don’t want just an echo chamber filled with good comments. It might sound good but it isn’t healthy long-term.
I made a post recently, wondering what we could do to get a larger userbase on lemmy. Many people kept saying “why larger? This size is good”, even though I stated my reason for wanting a larger userbase in the OP.
This post, right here, also shows a benefit of having a larger userbase and something I miss from reddit: actual research scientists coming to the comments explaining the paper and whatnot. I think decreasing the distance from research scientists to the general public is a good idea. And I want them on lemmy. I would love for lemmy to be a little bit less memes and a little bit more… Serious.
But a larger community also means people like that conspiracy poster coming here and degrading the quality of the conversation. It’s a double edged sword. I think we should encourage quality user growth over just quantity. Of course, that’s easier said than done. But my point is that growth in and of itself is a poor measure of success: we want growth of competent users.
Ok, but having more than 3 responders per post in less common communities would be great. Like, not even the writing or art comms get more than that.
Of course, I don’t disagree. I just want to encourage us to seek good comments. You could fill the comment section with 100 low quality posts and it wouldn’t meaningfully improve things.
Sure, as long as we allow good comments with opposing views. We don’t want just an echo chamber filled with good comments. It might sound good but it isn’t healthy long-term.