The Fediverse must be very careful to avoid getting branded as the “alternative to X”. In my experience, platforms that have historically branded themselves as “alternative to” or “anti-” have generally not done well. Learned this from the last Reddit exodus: let’s make this one different!
How can this time be different?
Join real communities, contribute real content.
Sorry, but low-effort image macros and meta-posting about how much everyone hates Reddit (yes, yes, u/spez sucks, carry on) is not a recipe for a successful platform. It doesn’t hurt, but it doesn’t really help either.
This time, the exodus appears to have been large enough to start disrupting Google search, at least anecdotally. This is an opportunity for the Fediverse: now is the time to create searchable content, to ask the questions that people are asking search engines, and to engage in real communities.
Here’s my call to action:
- Find 1 new community on any Lemmy/Kbin/etc. and make a post/article. Not a low-effort post, but something that a search engine would pick up on.
- Comment when you’ve done so, with a link to the post.
- Then, go and comment on someone else’s post that they’ve commented.
Let’s make the Fediverse succeed!
Here are some options for Kbin communities, but feel free to pick others on other instances as well!
- https://kbin.social/m/SoloBoardGames
- https://kbin.social/m/woodworking
- https://kbin.social/m/soccer
- https://kbin.social/m/Fitness
- https://kbin.social/m/streetphotography (the microblog is quite active)
- https://kbin.social/m/functionalprint (3D printing)
The more you call it a Reddit alternative, the more people will stop migrating over as the Reddit outrage cools down (and as much as spez can go fuck himself, he’s right, it will pass). I think Mastodon had the same issue at the time of the Twitter migration, but lately it’s been focussing more on the fact that good instances provide a nicer small community feel that’s more reflective of the state of Twitter in 2008-2012 or so.
Advertise the community, not the drop-in replacement for another platform that will always be larger and more mainstream.