DiscussionWhy are there over 2,000 subscribers but posts get very little engagement?

submitted by 7874 from self.LGBDropTheT

It seems like on the really old posts, the ones from many months ago, the vast majority of the comments are from users who have been inactive for several months. Posts get about an average of 20 upvotes, and the comments usually get fewer than that.

So where's everyone going?

all 24 comments
sorted by:
top
newinsightfulfun

[–][deleted] 20 insightful - 1 fun20 insightful - 0 fun21 insightful - 1 fun -  (7 children)

The amount of activity we get with 2K subscribers is pretty darn good, and it's nearly always regular and committed users/subs who engage. We get multiple posts a day, and every single post has a couple responses, if not many more. This website as a whole is small, and we're one of the most active communities, despite not being on s/all.

As for inactive users, there are a couple things we've observed (speaking as a mod here):

1) Many users joined SaidIt for subs that were banned from Reddit in June/July 2020. After a few weeks or months, they found the rest of the site lacking for their interests, and didn't stick around even for our sub.

2) There is a troll/astroturf problem on SaidIt as a whole - unrelated to us - and we have a resident troll/astroturf problem in our sub specifically. User inactivity could be due to banning.

3) The mobile app was removed from the Google Play store (presumably due to lack of updates), and can only be found by searching SaidIt directly. Which most people using phones won't do. Download page: https://f-droid.org/en/packages/org.saiditnet.redreader

[–]7874[S] 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (6 children)

Have that many people been banned? If even half the inactive users have been banned that'd be a thousand people.

[–][deleted] 8 insightful - 1 fun8 insightful - 0 fun9 insightful - 1 fun -  (5 children)

In our sub, nowhere near half - guesstimate is about 100 users, so perhaps 5%. Most of them are the same person making alt accounts though, because again, we have a troll problem.

[–]7874[S] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (4 children)

So I guess they don't make up that many of the inactive users then. Idk how much activity is normal for this many subscribers, but only .75% of subscribed users are contributing, so why??

[–][deleted] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

I figure a lot of subscribers just lurk and read. I do that with several sites and/or subs, so why wouldn't they. Subscribing is like a bookmark, they save us for future reference, and come back when they are able.

The same thing happened with us on Reddit. We had (and still have) a core active group of users who frequently post and/or comment, with random one-off users here-and-there ... but many of our 20K-plus subscribers did not engage beyond upvotes/downvotes.

There are a lot of potential reasons why. There's no blanket answer or one true reason. People are people, and have their own individual needs and wants regarding interacting on social media.

Why does it matter to you? Maybe that can help make a difference for others.

[–]7874[S] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

I'd just like to see a little more content and engagement. I don't think this POV is very unpopular, despite how TRAs try to make it seem. Maybe we should advertise?

[–][deleted] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

You're welcome to recruit new members from other platforms and tell like-minded people you run across how to find us.

The current mod team doesn't have the bandwidth for dedicated advertising of the sub on social media or whatnot. We've had mod applications available since 2019, and our Rules/Announcement stickies always shares a link on how to join. The most recent one even said we're lacking in the social media department and could use some help. No takers.

[–]7874[S] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I don't really use social media very much, but I can recruit individuals from reddit.

[–]SilverWolf 19 insightful - 1 fun19 insightful - 0 fun20 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

There usually aren't many people online at a time, I haven't seen even 20 in months, so I'd guess a lot of the people subscribes just don't come on here anymore. This also wasn't the most popular site in the first place, people were a lot more active when we were still on reddit. There not being a saidit app also makes it a lot less convenient to use while you're out and about

[–]WanderingWonderWizard Extraordinaire 15 insightful - 1 fun15 insightful - 0 fun16 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

Maybe just lurking. I mostly lurk and never respond or upvote anything. Just observing. Doubt I’m the only one.

[–]Nani 10 insightful - 1 fun10 insightful - 0 fun11 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I'm mostly just a lurker too. Rarely comment but read most posts.

[–]yousaythosethingsFind and Replace "gatekeeping" with "having boundaries" 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Checking in to say that while I used to be more active on here, I’m still around. Just lurking these days. And this is the only sub I come to saidit for. I left Reddit because it became a cesspool of censorship and inanity but haven’t replaced it with anything.

[–]censorshipment 13 insightful - 1 fun13 insightful - 0 fun14 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

I almost didn't come back when the site was down for days. I assume that's why many people haven't returned... the site went down twice in 30 days or so, right?

[–]ChunkeeguyTeam T*RF Fuck Yeah 12 insightful - 1 fun12 insightful - 0 fun13 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

It's been down multiple times. Not for awhile though.

[–]Node 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

3 months in a row, for days each time.

[–]wafflegaffWoman. SuperBi. 12 insightful - 1 fun12 insightful - 0 fun13 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

For our obscurity we're doing okay, and we have had a steady increase in new members that seems to have accelerated in the last month or two. You can verify that with archived pages here: https://archive.is/https://saidit.net/s/LGBDropTheT/*

Also welcome!

[–]7874[S] 7 insightful - 1 fun7 insightful - 0 fun8 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Thanks :)

[–]MarkJeffersonTight defenses and we draw the line 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Wanna see a real ghost town when it comes to subs vs engagement? r/ainbow. I dare say it has but half of the activity here with a whole 155k readers. It was probably the original LGB sub before it got subjagated by the gender crowd and now is but a shell of it's former self.

[–]wafflegaffWoman. SuperBi. 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I am reminded of the perjorative term given to attendees of the infamous Rainbow Gatherings: "Drainbows." I think we know who I mean.

[–]dilsencySame-sex community 8 insightful - 1 fun8 insightful - 0 fun9 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

saidit has no app, and have you tried viewing it in a mobile browser? It does not look good. Not being able to use it easily on mobile devices limits it I think.

[–]censorshipment 5 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 0 fun6 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

There's an app... but it was removed from Google Play. The developer personally told me where to get the app: f-droid.

[–]MarkJeffersonTight defenses and we draw the line 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Yeah; I mean, it has an un-updated app which I've been using for a while due to some unique features like page caching, but it has some odd limitations(like access to saved posts but not saved comments?) and mobile site is not at all optimized for viewing. Admins could work on both but I'll be satisfied if they just did something about one of these.

[–]Beryl 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

That's normal, basically, people go to saidit for a few subs, but stay on reddit for main. So, any attention saidit gets is secondary at best. Not to mention all the times the site has been down recently has probably scared a lot of people away.

[–]BootsAndBeards 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I suspect a lot of people make accounts to sub, then never come back. This sub is pretty much the only one that brings me to saidit, so I maybe check it every few days, if that.