Right now the user count Lemmys is comparatively tiny when held up against reddit - but the user count isn’t the thing that makes a social media site, it’s the engagement
So even if you’re used to lurking, try to get a little more active! Post memes, vote on posts, talk in the comments, whatever!
If people come here and see activity, content, and discussions, they’re more likely to stay and contribute their own - if they come and see a ghost town, they’ll just go back to reddit
I think people are used to a web that’s solely focused on viral content as opposed to deeply engaging content. For that reason people don’t think their contributions are valuable and decide to not post.
The truth of the matter is actually that real communities are dependent on the non viral content. So it’s important to reframe how we act in a more tight knit web community and treat it more like a party than a competition to have the most viral piece of media.
The sooner we can get back to casual conversation as a means for real community building, the sooner we can get away from the perpetual viral doom scroll environments.
As someone who definitely was guilty of starting/wanting to answer to posts then not doing it, I had never thought of it before in terms of viral and non-viral content.