a.k.a. the 90–9–1 principle. Does the Fediverse follow this rule, or are there more creators here as early adopters? Are you a creator, a participator or a lurker?
Yep. Lurker here. In the sense that I upvote but don’t post or create content. I am just not witty enough to make a joke or creative enough to write a long winded content. But I do what I do and I think it’s alright.
The nice thing about this right now is that you don't need to feel witty or creative to post stuff as long as it fits the community you're in. There aren't enough people to compete with for posts to get attention, that's the main attraction to smaller social media environments: you feel like you matter more.
I'd wager most posters also just repost content rather than make original content. I post often to c/undertale_deltarune but it's just fanart made by others (with credit of course). And I think it goes without saying that most memes are just reposts.
On reddit I mostly just upvoted stuff and commented on posts every now and then, but here I'm trying to talk more. Even created a niche community. Coming up with the words to speak about something is difficult, specially as a I'm not an English native speaker, but it's worth it to help lemmy grow
I was like that on Reddit, but that was partly because it’s SO heavily trafficked and there are so many comments within any given post that you either have to be in at the start or make a popular post to have any effect upon discussion. And by “discussion” I mean more using a loudspeaker: there’s little meaningful back and forth, just presentations.
Smaller communities allow for more forum-like interaction.
There were even those graphs showing the common times posts that stay at the top were written for different subreddits, but it was usually the time people were waking up in the US.
I've commented more here than I did the past 9 years on Reddit. I also created Watch Party, where people can watch a movie together and discuss it in a live thread, similar to sporting events. Starship Troopers was the proof of concept, and it was a fun time. I'm hoping it'll gain some more traction in the coming months and encourage anyone to check out the pinned "Getting Started" post if you're interested in hosting a watch party as well.
Same here. Been trying to find interesting content I can contribute to help the community. On Reddit it was all about finding someone who already said what I was going to say and upvoting or commenting.
I'm primarily a lurker. I've been trying to be better about participating lately because I'd like to help the fediverse grow and be a meaningful online meeting place.
This is me too! I can be the quiet type even online. I enjoy sitting back and reading the discussion more than participating. Let's see if I can break the habit though.
I lead a mostly boring life. And the interesting parts would invade more privacy more than I care to expose. I'd love to post content. But I know better than to let too much of myself out. I already expose too much as is, but it can be worse. And nothing good comes from that.
Lol same, I don't have any AITA/relationship advice/TIFU stories ready to go. I don't make enough waves to post to most things. I was actually trying to think of questions for asklemmy because it's all a bit dead but I don't want to know anything! XD
It’s ok to have a boring life, I think it’s worth examining why that is felt to be as issue. we’ve been so conditioned by social media to project otherwise
To be fair, I don't necessarily feel poorly about it being a boring life. I just don't feel that it would be enough interest to others to share. And then the private side of me refuses to as well. Lol
Lurkers by definition have no impact, besides their potential to eventually become a creator/participant. Having a high ratio of voters/commenters to creators is more important to surface quality content.
I'm a lurker doing a little posting/commenting to "be the change I want to see" so to speak. If lemmy gets bigger, I will likely return to my lurker ways.
Oh my gosh, reddit was bad about that, r/crappydesign is an archive of mild mistakes rather than really funny errors like you see in reddit's 'top' sorting or the YT videos condencing (or not) the content to the best of the best. Id rather crappy design be 30 amazing posts than 3000 eh ones (also: see dead internet theory)
The question seems to imply that this ratio is problematic, but it is in fact fine.
There this sense now that “being a creator” has intrinsic value, but this value is an artifact of platforms that exploit its users creations. So much so that we now have an immense amount of low quality fast food grade, in fact toxic, content. Content pollution.
So, whatever the ratio is. If you want to post post, if you want to comment comment, if you want to lurk lurk.
As long as we are all enjoying the experience, who cares?
I'm trying my hardest. I've never created a sub but now I'm creating communities, making add-ons and trying to post. Freedom here of corporate interests is awfully nice. The fediverse is expanding but we're already seeing contracting due to the influx in early June... we definitely had community sprawl. However that was expected. Many communities are doing great! It's great to see!!!
I'm almost always a lurker, but I feel like there's a difference when it comes to how participation occurs in fediverse communities versus the majority of mainstream social media platforms. It seems that many people here are genuinely interested in creating a space for quality discussion and healthy communities which motivates me to interact, whereas it's hard to feel like anything you come across is organically presented to you on platforms that are profit driven that aim to be as addicting as possible. All forms of social media have issues imo but this is it in one of the most accessible and least gameified, corpritizied forms
Maybe part of what makes TikTok so powerful, how it categorizes videos in an addicting way, is that it turns the lurkers into contributors/voters by using watch time as a proxy for voting.
i'm usually a lurker because i usually don't have anything important to add to the discussion; i don't really want to leave a lot of empty/useless comments around
I was def a lurker on reddit. Here I have been trying to post and comment where I can. I don't create art or anything like that, so my submission are mostly memes, discussions in niche instances, and a news article here and there.
I'm mostly a lurker, pretty rarely commenting and posting even less, but I'm trying to be more active on lemmy. I just don't feel like I ever have anything interesting to contribute to any discussion.
Variants include the 1–9–90 rule (sometimes 90–9–1 principle or the 89:10:1 ratio),[1] which states that in a collaborative website such as a wiki, 90% of the participants of a community only consume content, 9% of the participants change or update content, and 1% of the participants add content.
I've heard mods say it's like that on Reddit: 1% create posts, 9% comment on posts, and the rest lurk. Many people have suggested that the people most likely to leave Reddit because of the recent issues are in that 10% of posters and commentators.
Not only that, but the website or app might be fine if all you do is scroll through posts occasionally. If you're on the site a lot and really active in creating content, it's a lot less adequate.
Hmm on Reddit I mostly lurked, but on Lemmy, I actually made a community, so I quickly went from a lurker to a mod. And since the community had to have some kind of content, I had to post and be more active in replying.
I've historically been a lurker because I'm too lazy to comment most of the time. However, I've been trying to participate on Lemmy more than I did on Reddit in an effort to boost the fediverse and really turn this into the Reddit replacement that I want it to be.
I posted links on Reddit like 5-10 years ago... Then the power mods showed up, nuked my links for some obscure rule violation, then allowed someone else reposted them minutes later.
Mostly a lurker. Can't think of things that I want to post, yet I love every piece of information that Lemmy (or better said, lemmings) offers. Will try to change that, at least through comments
I wonder how this rule compares to real life interactions between people. Imagine having a conversation with someone and noticing 200 people watching from behind a nearby hedge.
All I can say is I am grateful there are fewer users on Lemmy. It's nothing like Reddit. There's less garbage to sort through. So, one percent of a smaller user population definitely makes a difference in my Lemmy life. I lurk less here than I did on Reddit, mostly because I don't have to scroll through crap as much. There's still crap, just less crap.
I'm a creator on certain instances and participator/lurker in some others. I'm mostly posting events happening in my city. Discussion is sparse right now but I figure it's better to have sparse conversation than NO conversation.
Well, according to data from https://the-federation.info, 26.8% of Fediverse user accounts have commented or posted something in the last month. I'm not sure if I completely trust this wide-reaching dataset but it's something. Lemmy overall at its peak had 18.5% until a flood of bot accounts with no activity appeared on some open-signup servers, now it's at 3%.
Lemmy.world is sitting at 27% active user ratio, beehaw.org at 34.7%, lemmy.ca at 32.3%, lemmy.ml at 12%, sh.itjust.works at 19.2%
Similar thing with me. I wasn’t strictly a lurker, but I also never created a sub, for example — everything already kinda existed.
Here, I’ve started several communities and am trying to grow those. Plus it sometimes feels like it’s up to me to post/comment stuff that would’ve been already on Reddit by the time I got there.
And for now at least, I like kbin’s vibe better than whichever one Reddit had for the past few years. So we’ll see how it goes :)
I'd wager early adopters tend to be more active. Probably it has something to do with the size of the community too, you don't feel like you're being drown in the noice and most people don't have that "I need my voice to be heard" impulse (I have to be fair) which drives people to actively participate in something like Reddit-size when they don't have anything particularly insightful to say.
Yeah, I rarely say anything when plenty of others are already talking. Makes rl pretty sucky when you become unwelcomed because you aren't engaging like everyone else. dies in introvert
I only make a post or make content when I feel like something I want to make is worth it or has a point to make. Most the stuff I want to post or make has also already been done so I don't want to clog stuff up with what is a worse version of the original.
I think there is a bit of a trend with social websites where initially a large amount of the original active user-base is involved in content creation, but whether through gradual growth or an "eternal September" event (I have seen both first-hand), a large influx of users generally attracts more consumers than producers. Right now I think the Fediverse is still fairly niche despite how long it has been around for, so we have a larger share of creators compared to consumers. I try and participate in making stuff where I can :)
I create stuff but I’m too afraid to share it with people online because no one wants have someone’s YouTube video shoved at them. Except I also tend to write long, pointless comments like this one, so I guess I am a creator.
I have been way more active on Lemmy than I ever was on "the other place". And I wasn't entirely inactive there either, it was just mostly constrained to niche subs. Here I'm just commenting everywhere and relatively often.
I’m a light participator. I’m looking for a community to call home, but I’m not highly social, so I don’t comment a ton. Maybe once I find the right communities to subscribe to, but for now I mostly browse all looking for new appealing communities, and comment where it might add value.
I always lurked on Reddit because literally anything even remotely funny or relevant that could possibly be said is already instantly posted by 1000 people within seconds by the reddit hive mind. But yeah I post on kbin a lot more than reddit. Getting more into lemmy today bc kbin doesn't have any apps 💁
I think right now, there are relatively more creators and contributors. The platform is still pretty new and I think most of us here want to see the platform succeed.
I basically never posted anything back on reddit and I would comment sparingly. I have definitely tried to increase my contribution to help prevent things from being empty.
I have even taken to posting articles in [email protected], which is now starting to see more contribution from other users, especially after 1 July.
I am a lurker but I'm getting tired of fediverse meta posts and want to see stuff like I saw in my r3Ddit feed so... Be the change I want to see in the world, I guess?
I’ve been a long time lurker on other social media platforms, but I’ve started to try and contribute more since I’d like to see communities I like succeed. Maybe then I can go back to lurking
It depends on the platform. For YouTube that's definitely true, but not for Instagram, Twitter, Reddit, Mastodon, Lemmy or Threads. If It's easier to create content for those platforms, users will create content for those platforms.
I am mostly lurking because I need to take the time to better understand the visibility of voting and commenting. Not that I want to be a jerk and get away with it, I've just seen bits and pieces about how user actions are not as obfuscated as they were on reddit, and I want to understand what that means in practice
I'm primarily a lurker. Back on Reddit I'd create posts here and there, but I'd mostly contribute to discussion fairly often. I only had around like 28k karma from comments over the course of 11 years, so I wasn't super prolific by any means.
I miss how big the community was on Reddit at times. I'm still trying to figure Lemmy out. Trying to figure out how to make the instances work on the app can be frustrating, but I really hope to see Lemmy grow into a proper competitor and become more polished and robust. I like it so far, it shows promise.
I just comment. I'm not a creator. I also don't appreciate people reposting stale content. It was so obnoxious on Reddit. So I don't want to be one of those posters either.
I participate where I feel I'll be of value in some way, lurk when something is interesting but I have nothing to add to the conversation and very rarely create
Yeah I got nothing interesting to contribute and very early do. I don't shut up with comments though and uplemmy frequently, so I can at least encourage others!
I think the 1% rule is true of large communities, but less so with small ones. It takes effort to find and join Lemmy, Mastodon and others, and use them, so only the most enthusiastic join at first. As it grows, the 1% rule will be even more apparent.
I've been very post-y and very commentish since I got here. I did most of the posting in the sub I modded on reddit, and it's the same over here. I guess it would be fair to say I've been equally engaged on both platforms. (I'm only posting here now, tho.)
Honestly, I wish the lemmy apps were more geared to allow people to lurk rather than having everyone sign up to view content. I'm a lurker who shares posts with people outside of lemmy.
Which apps are you using? I use Liftoff and have four instances added that I regularly browse, but I'm only logged in to two (because I only have accounts on those two). I haven't had problems browsing or sharing content on the instances I'm not logged into on this app and the links open in browsers just fine without a login wall for people I share with.
I alternate. Sometimes a lurker, sometimes a creator and most of the time a participator. But I do find myself creating more posts while on the fediverse.
I tend to mostly just participate by adding comments. But occasionally a create a new post/thread. So I'd say that I'm personally 85% lurk, 14% comment, 1% create/post. I tend to post in more specialized/niche forums versus the big communities. Those have lots of content already.
Not yet and as the early adopters we should contribute as much as we can while at the same time being careful not to post low quality or repetitive things.
The platform will naturally mature if it is fit to do so.
Since leaving Reddit definitely more participation. Even started some communities; a thing I never really cared for doing, but seems more appropriate and rewarding here!
Yeah I suck. And the content that I used to provide on Reddit that I thought was valuable to share was just nitpicked into oblivion. It really was a toxic place.
I've never created a subreddit but created a magazine here! Scoping for content to help build our new home. I just figure that if you ditched reddit you're kinda obligated to pitch in on the new space, idk.
Even if you don't create a magazine, just share something interesting once in a while?
Mostly lurk unless the discussion is something I feel I can add real value to with my own experiences\expertise. Likely 1 comment per year, like this one. Plus I don't vote on posts or comments.
Mostly a creator, back when I used Twitter and Facebook I used it as a write only medium. On the fediverse I try to read some stuff also and participate by commenting and voting.
I have created the Kia Community. As a owner of the car, it's been awesome to find other owners who can share their knowledge & advice on maintenance & driving the car. Invited others in!
first day here, and it's too early to predict in which direction this will take off. i am hoping to create and post content around day-to-day happenings.
I think OP is counting commenting as being a "participator". I pretty much followed the 90-9-1 rule with my 11 year reddit account (90% lurk, 9% comment, 1% post) and likely will do the same here. I was always very diligent up/downvoting things based on value and reporting violations at reddit though, which I think gets calculated into their engagement metrics, unlike at Lemmy if I am not mistaken.
Well, I've never posted (yet), but commented a few times. More than on reddit, certainly! But overall, I do think that rule is going to hold. It creeps up all over the place. At this stage, I think it is just human nature at work and, as such, almost inevitable.
Part of the reason is internet commentators are so mean to each other, and many of us users don’t want to be judged by someone? (Although extreme echo chamber is also a bad thing)
I would be really curious if this was the case prior to the advent of smartphones. Was the ratio the same on early USENET or BBS? It’s so much easier to lurk than participate from a smartphone keyboard.
I hardly ever posted on Reddit but I would comment about as much as here. I'm trying to be the change I want to see in the world, so I'm posting a bit more.on the kbin.social NYC magazine (aka community). If you like or are interested in NYC, please visit and poat/comment!
OK, I won't lie, I hear this all the time but I'm not convinced it's true.
Are there any real statistics on it which account for bit accounts? Like, if reddit claimed that 99% of its users don't make content, my immediate thought would be "how many users are real people and how many are bots?"
Definitely participator, but I have some ideas for contributing some day. I just don't want to share other stuff that's online, I'd rather share my research into a given topic and what conclusions I drew that might help people. I want to publish works here, not really other stuff on the internet.
Not sure if Lemmy is the place for that though, given how it's a link aggregator. People posted their works on Reddit so I'd say it's good enough to post stuff like that here
On Reddit I just made a few comments and posts, mostly a lurker.
Here it's completely different, I have my own magazine, where I put the effort of making a post daily, and it actually feels better than lurking.
I‘m a participator I guess, I tend to comment random thoughts. I don‘t think I do it much more on here than on Reddit, the excitement of a new thing has worn off and now it feels about the same level of engagement.
I think because it's a rather new platform for many people, they behave differently. Some are getting used to Lemmy and are not posting as much, while some are more enthusiastic.
Overall I'd say it will be pretty much the same in the long run
The last days i was more of a lurker because i have a lot of stuff to do. But when i have more time i plan to visit a lost place that i could not find with searches. I only found that because two of my friends ignored each other. I think at some time they did it for fun but it really annoyed me.
Except that i cant find anything about it it is not very interesting. More like 3 old floors and a room where they meet. The floors are not even in different directions.
I used to almost never post on reddit, but on here I have been posting OC content, commenting and I have even created a community (https://lemmy.world/c/cancer)
Is there a way we can measure this? I’m genuinely curious what the numbers are.
I would have thought there’s a disproportionately larger number of creators here than other sites as I feel like it’s the creators that were more impacted by Reddit’s api changes than the lurkers… but seeing all the “I’m a lurker” comments in this thread makes me question that hypothesis.
Someone make a Unreal Engine lemstance and I'll shit post everyday about blueprints being the future of programming and how nanite still doesn't work with translucent materials