Hi all, I’ve been thinking of doing this post for a while. This community can seem like a bit of a blog at times with most posts coming from me, is there anything thats missing that you think could improve this space as a community?
I’m happy for it to continue as it is if the community is performing a use people like, but how its mostly turned out wasn’t the original intention.
The original intention for this community was to be an online space for West Australian fediversers, and anybody with an interest in Perth/WA, to communicate/share WA news and lifestyle posts.
I didn’t think being a carbon copy of the Perth Reddit would be very interesting, (which is why my personal posting has always favoured very local articles and news-media outlets to give a different flavour), but I always had the full understanding that I would be just one person of a community deciding what use this space should have, and that its nature should evolve over time.
I was once told that this community is ‘my thing’ which disheartened me, because since its beginning three years ago I’ve wanted and tried to support others’ involvement and their visions of what this space could be.
I’ve never done a post like this, but recently I’ve been getting a sense that maybe there is something about this space that is unwelcoming, but I can’t see what it is, so please tell me if theres something off-putting and we can change course.
At the end of the day I want this space to be a community for WA fediversers, and people who have any interest in the state, but I can’t do that on my own.
Excited to read people’s thoughts. 🙂 Thanks for your time.
Just wait. Reddit is quickly becoming more and more unbearable. I deleted my 9 year account because of this. I only found Lemmy and subsequently this page from looking for alternatives.
It seems to be getting traction. And unlike Bluesky. Is a lot more like the Reddit of old.
So just keep doing what you are doing. And they will come…
Thanks 🙂.
I’m slowly working on a more direct action approach as well. Building and waiting till they come is enough for some people to find these places. And if it was just c/perth/westernaustralia on my mind, I’d be happy to sit in this happy little corner with whoever comes along.
But I see the fediverse/social web as an incredibly valuable tool for average people to carve out their own spaces without the overwhelming dominance of a few ‘cultural elites’. (I hate that I used that term, but I can’t think of anything else). See one of my other comments in this thread for more of an explanation.
Out of interest, how have you found your way here?
I searched for it specifically.
I am from Perth. And the r/Perth subreddit was one of my most active.
Oh wow. You’re new, new only a couple day old account, sorry didn’t look before.
Welcome to the fediverse!
It can be a shit fight in some sections of this place, but when the ‘all’ feed gets too much I retreat back to my subscribed or my local instance.
You’re with lemmy.world so your local feed will likely be pretty US centric. If you want australian stuff just subscribe to a bunch of aussie.zone and quokk.au communities, or shift your account to a smaller (niche) server.
Your local is whatever that ‘instance’ is interested in. For example, aussie zone is interested in aussie stuff, whereas mander.xyz is an instance interested in the sciences so the local feeds are completely different. Lemmy.world’s niche is to be the broad based instance, leading to it being provably the most reddit-like experience.
I’m on both. The Aussie and World ones. It happened simply because Aussie on required someone to approve my application. Whereas the Lemmyworld one was insta approval.
Oh yeah, well that probably works out well for some things, I hear its useful to some to have an alt account.
Is it an alt account though? I’m using the same logins for both? Or is that purely on me?
Coming from Reddit to here is a bit of a change.
Unless I have completely misunderstood you or the meaning of alt account, then it absolutely is.
I think lets assume I’ve misunderstood what alt account means, because thats likely. I’ve never seen a use for them for myself, so never really had more than a casual understanding. If the primary use is to have an account that has no outward association with the other account, then I think I was using the term ‘alt account’ wrong.
In which case you simply have two accounts associated by name and network (network is, activitypub -> lemmy), but differing by instance (website). The separation by instance is the key difference. This means they are separate organisations participating in the same market. Whats acceptable on one site, might not be acceptable on the other. The difference between instances on lemmy is a bit like the differences between grocery stores. The instances all play in the same market (just like coles, woolies, aldi, iga, spudshed are all in the grocery market) and are similar. But you dont get all the same stuff from an IGA that you do from an Aldi. The quality can be vastly different, just like the difference between spudshed and woolworths. Of course we’re comparing organisations run for a profit to organisations run for socialisation and information dissemination purposes so the similarities stop somewhere 😆😆
As an in practice example, the site rules are similar but different. For instance the legal systems they refer to and rely on are different. Lemmy.world is likely governed and hosted in the US, whereas aussie.zone is hosted in Australia, and is explicitly governed by Australian law, in the first case. In front page sidebar ‘nothing illegal in Australia’ can be read as a declaration of the site owners preferred location of legal proceedings as well as indicating the legal structures to be applied while interacting with the site.
Don’t beat yourself up. Lemmy and the wider fediverse isn’t doing great. We’ve been flatlining in MAU for a while now and that’s only because of the increase in porn. If you take nsfw out, we’re actually shrinking.
I think what needs happen is not on here, we need physical community outreach. QR codes on traffic lights, flyers in second hand shops and libraries, education on why using X and Reddit are part of the problem and that there is an alternative.
And congrats on running this comm for 3 years!
Also as I am new here. With fresh eyes. It seems to me it’s got a few issues with the mobile presentation. I have found opening posts with media a hit and miss affair. So still a bit clunky. But other than that. It’s a lot like the reddit of 2000’s. IMO anyway.
Ooh, lots to respond to here!
First, cheers mate. I won’t lie, i feel a bit lonely posting in this community sometimes. Hut theres usually a few other posts, commenta and upvotes to let me know I’m not posting to no one, which i genuinely value 🙂
But yeah, its an odd little milestone, thats definitely had an effect on the way I live and view things.
I’ve not been tracking MAU that closely, interesting about the porn thing, not surprising though. Its a shame that we’re shrinking here on Lemmy. I’ve recently joined Mastodon as well, and the place is very active, the ‘firehose’ is quite cool. Lemmy is more sleepy, but that could be fine if its users like that style, not all sociall media needs to be up to the minute, changes every second.
I think what needs happen is not on here, we need physical community outreach. QR codes on traffic lights, flyers in second hand shops and libraries, education on why using X and Reddit are part of the problem and that there is an alternative.
Okay so this is my thinking exactly. Only, I thought Lemmy was relatively stable not shrinking so I didn’t really have a sense of urgency.
On the issue of the wider society having no idea another option even exists, I’ve been acting.
I have set up a working group, on Matrix Chat, with the aim to launch a Social Web Foundation to support the development, expansion, and public relations of the Social Web (fediverse, et al) in Aus, NZ, and the Pacific Islands.
Currently its mostly me just working on the project with some support from a few other users here I invited due to me understanding that their values aligned with the project.
Because its going to be a foundation, I eventually need at least six other (but the more the better) people to join me to file the applications. So I concluded I’d need a ‘brochure’ style website to link to, that is available to explain in detail the work and ideas behind the foundation proposal.
So I’m finding my way about Wordpress in order to build a website. Quickly after starting that process I realised a good logo would be effective from the beginning. I’ve spent a bit of time working that out and now have it with a logo designer who I’ll be working with over the next four weeks or so to deliver a logo I think is becoming something quite unique.
So my timeline currently looks like this,
- Matrix Chat Working Spaces (complete)
- Logo (in process)
- Website (beginning)
- Member Drive
- File Foundation Application
- Start Supporting Social Web in the Australia/Pacific region
I don’t know if you’re from this part of the world, i recognise your username though, but if you want to join me in this project I’d be super excited to have you, let me know and I’ll private message you an invite. 🙂
I’m also quietly emailing organisations about the social web, as I see opportunities. Its mostly independent news-media to try to get their attention on the Social Web as a functioning and valuable entity for them to use and refer to. I see a lot of complimentarity in these two entities. This hasn’t delivered much interest from those orgs yet though.
Anyway, this is all apart from the subject at hand, its a whole other thing. They are related in the way that if we have an interesting and active community in places like this, when people come to try it, theres something here to engage with. 🙂
Sounds pretty good. You’re doing good work. I’m everywhere and nowhere, so wouldn’t be of much use, but thanks for the invitation and kind words.
Just replying to let you know that you aren’t posting into the void & keep up the good work.
Cheers for that 🙂 If you ever have any suggestions on how to get people more involved in the community I’m always interested to talk.
As a Melbournian, I think you’re just running into the network effect, in conjunction with Perth’s lower population.
There’s a decent number of people from Melbourne posting because the population is higher, and there are already a decent number of people.
You, my friend, are a trend setter. Posting before the community is actively posting on Lemmy.
And I 100% salute you. Love ya work mate.
Sincerely, from the east.
ha ha, thanks MisterFrog. But now I can never meet you, because my horrible eye for fashion will give the lie to the trend setter business.
Nah I love it. I travel Australia and am regularly there, so use it to keep in touch with the real people. Chin up 😁
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I feel your pain (not really, but you know what I mean. Life Support is mostly just me posting).
Keep going. It’s important that WA have its own community here, no matter how small.
As someone who has never been to WA, but is a member of this community, I’d like to know more about issues that are really salient for the West.
Nothing unwelcoming about it! You’re doing a great job posting, but I don’t blame you for feeling a little discouraged at how quiet it is here. That’s probably the only thing discouraging more people from taking part; ironically the solution to attracting more activity is having more activity (yeah, I don’t understand how that works at a practical level either). But don’t feel burdened either way!
Thanks, I wasn’t sure, and I can be very forward in my opinions, here and IRL, and sometimes it comes across more like brow-beating without me realising it. Yeah, I think there is an ‘attraction to activity’ aspect people like to be amongst something. And it can be a bot “tumbleweedy” here.
Keep the WA portion for both recent news and cultural posting, maybe even communications. The Perth part should be a community for “lispers”. /s
