[Meta] Is this community still active, or should it be closed? If it's not active anymore, any suggestions for alternatives?
Asking as the last post here was 21 days ago.
Asking as the last post here was 21 days ago.
It's as active as people make it.
The Mod has been MIA for 5 months but that doesn't stop other people from posting, it just means there isn't anyone on duty to jolly things along a bit.
As there is no active mod, could you please update the link in the sidebar to !casualconversation@lemm.ee ? It still shows the previous version of the community on LW
I can't edit a community's information without being a Mod of that community. I was able to do this on the Photon frontend but that doesn't seem to be possible now. I'll have a ponder and see if there's a trick to it that I'm missing.
that was possible in the first place?
Are you an admin or something? I'd like to know what the behavior should be.
that was possible in the first place?
Are you an admin or something?
Yep, I'm a feddit.uk Admin and I was able to add an avatar and banner to !blackmagicfuckery@feddit.uk using the Photon frontend. Or I thought I did (I made a note of this at the time) but now my confidence in the sequence of events has been knocked. But if that wasn't his I did it, then I have no clue his I managed it.
I’d like to know what the behavior should be.
Well, I personally feel Admins should be able to edit the settings for communities they aren't Mods of (and I can't be made a Mod of a community because I have seniority). However, Lemmy's default is to not allow this (presumably as a holdover of the philosophy of Reddit where a sub was a Mods little fiefdom, at least until recently), so I presume that should be the behaviour of the frontends too.
For discussion-focused alternatives, I like !patientgamers@sh.itjust.works
!games@sh.itjust.works is nice but sometimes a bit too news-focused for me
I don't think either of those communities can replace this one at all, frankly. I agree it's sad that this one isn't more active, but that will always be the nature of more high-effort attempts that aim for more original content, analysis and discussion as opposed to simple links. TrueGaming is another similar sub that was attempted to be mirrored in the Fediverse, but was hosted on kbin.social and I assume it died with it.
Patient Gamers promotes discussion, but it's aimed at a specific niche and not general as this community attempted to be. !games@sh.itjust.works is a regular gaming community and will always be centered around links to news.
Patient Gamers promotes discussion, but it’s aimed at a specific niche and not general as this community attempted to be.
Indeed, but at the same time, I feel like most gamers here are "patient gamers" as the demographic seem a bit older, so less time to dedicate to intensive gaming, and some bias for older titles.
I guess on my side I'll try to focus on !patientgamers@sh.itjust.works and maybe talk about more recent titles there, I don't think they would be against it as long as it's an interesting discussion
I don't think the demographic should have much of a bearing on the intent and focus of the community, and I would personally prefer both communities to exist and satisfy their respective niche rather than attempt to shoehorn general discussion into Patient Gamers. The latter is very specifically about waiting 12+ months to play a game (for whatever reason), and while I don't know their particular moderation policy I - as a user browsing - would not go there to look for broad general discussion topics like "what are some games that discourage savescumming well?" or "how do we make an evil playthrough interesting?".
Interesting
I posted "Do you still play couch coop nowadays? Which games do you recommend?" 20 days ago, got 133 upvotes and 47 comments
I would personally prefer both communities to exist and satisfy their respective niche
I would like it too, but I'm afraid there is only so many posters / posts to spread over communities with our current userbase.
I myself would not go create a community dedicated to game discussion at this point. I don't feel that the traffic at !games@sh.itjust.works is high enough to warrant even breaking communities out of that -- like, there are plenty of people who do talk about games there.
But on the other hand, I'm not sure that it gains much to actively shut down a small community either. Like, I'd guess that most people on this community are probably also able to find !games@sh.itjust.works or similar. I just subscribe to both, and if someone posts something here, I'll see the post.
Right now, if I want to talk about games, I do it at !games@sh.itjust.works. If that ever becomes too high-traffic, then I'll maybe start posting somewhere like this community.
I think that having an MIA moderator could become an issue, but it's not as if this community is flooded by spam or people behaving badly or something, so...shrugs
I think instance admins can transfer moderator powers by request, if absentee moderation should become an issue.
I wouldn't blame anyone for sticking to c/games, maybe it is too early for niche communities to thrive on Lemmy. I still think attempting to promote and maintain this community has value, but there's no denying that attempting to keep it active requires a lot of effort considering the type of posts it's intended for.
I think instance admins can transfer moderator powers by request, if absentee moderation should become an issue.
We can indeed. If a user if the instance, who is in good standing, would like to take up the reins moderating a community they often post to, then they can drop us a note a and we'll look into it. We do keep an eye out for enthusatic posters to communities without an active Mod and might reach out to them but there's no harm in being proactive.
But on the other hand, I’m not sure that it gains much to actively shut down a small community either. Like, I’d guess that most people on this community are probably also able to find !games@sh.itjust.works or similar. I just subscribe to both, and if someone posts something here, I’ll see the post.
To me the main issue is new joiners. Once in a while, you see someone new to Lemmy who doesn't know how to find communities. They register on feddit.uk, look at the local communities, see that it's inactive, and question whether Lemmy is active as a whole.
Temporarily locking it with a pinned post to !games@sh.itjust.works might prevent that
It certainly depends on the clients used, but in my experience searching for communities Lemmy-wide is as, or perhaps even more, discoverable/straightforward than looking through local communities. So most new users will hopefully find their way to other servers' communities (and I expect this UX to be reinforced by most clients where promoting decentralisation is part of their philosophy).
Of course some users will still stumble upon an inactive community first and be confused. However, I don't know if stumbling upon locked communities instead would be a big improvement (and would certainly be a detriment to the existing occasional poster who now has an additional barrier to posting).
A reference to one or more related communities in the description would be a great idea though, regardless of level of activity; it'd be a fallback for inactive communities, but also a curated way to find more places in that field.