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Meta: How can we grow this community? (programming.dev)

submitted 8 months ago by secana@programming.dev to c/rust@programming.dev

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The title says it all: How can we grow the Rust community here on Lemmy? Many users fled Reddit or are here for different reasons. But compared to it's commercial big brother, the Rust community here, feels more or less dead. I would like to discuss ideas, on how we can changes that and make Lemmy the default for Rust related discussions, instead of Reddit.

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[-] h3ndrik@feddit.de 6 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

I don't think this works. The communities which are successful here on Lemmy are the ones where a large group of people left Reddit at once. For example the piracy people or the german meme community and a few other examples.

I've seen several communities in which one or individuals post daily, but it somehow doesn't really lead to more engagement. It stays more or less the newsfeed of that person. It is better than a dead community and a few people read it and maybe upvote, but I've never seen this approach generate traction and change things around in a substancial way.

At least that's my observation. Feel free to send me counterexamples if I'm wrong... I'm also interested in how to foster healthy and nice communities... But at this point I have no solution to offer.

[-] robinm@fosstodon.org 3 points 8 months ago

@h3ndrik @Blamemeta I wonder if having fakebut interesting comments would help (ie. written by alt-account of the author) . I noticed that I have significantly higher chances to participate in the conversation if there are already 5-6 comments than 0-2, especially if they open the dialog.

[-] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 6 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

I think we just need more open ended posts. A lot are just "check out this blog post," which is super long and technical so little just nope out.

If most of your posts are like that, you'll get minimal engagement, and people with more "basic" questions may be intimidated to post.

So post some stuff like, "I went to do X in Rust, but the borrow checker isn't happy. Can someone explain what I'm doing wrong?" I think that'll drive some engagement and encourage others to post similar questions. I don't want this community to only be code reviews and whatnot, but a mix can help the community feel a bit less weighty.

[-] secana@programming.dev 5 points 8 months ago

That's true. If you are a rust beginner, you find so many good posts on Reddit for simple questions just by googling. Lemmy never pops up with a good answer.

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