this post was submitted on 16 Jun 2023
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Magazine dedicated to discussions about the kbin itself. Provide feedback, ask questions, suggest improvements, and engage in conversations related to the platform organization, policies, features, and community dynamics. ---- * Roadmap 2023 * m/kbinDevlog * m/kbinDesign

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Some individuals are creating magazines using the names of well-known subreddits but without any content or even basic sidebar information such as descriptions and rules. Presumably, they are name squatting with the intention of gaining influence over future content moderation on kbin anticipating the growth of their magazines as more of Reddit jumps ship and searches for familiar pastures.

A community's identity lies in its content and culture of engagement, not just its name. Sure, utilizing a popular subreddit name for a magazine will initially attract users. However it's the community engagement, not the name, that motivates posters to share content. Inactive magazines void of content and engagement will discourage potential contributors. The proliferation of such dead magazines will turn people away from the site altogether, and in the process crowd out genuine initiatives by mods who actually are putting in the effort of building their community here.

If you have taken up moderation of a community, invest effort in creating a welcoming environment. This includes adding a proper description, magazine icon, and rules, as well as populating the feed with a welcome thread and some initial content. Instead of waiting for others to come and post content, take the initiative and get the ball rolling.

I understand that some individuals are name squatting preempting the name from falling into the hands of trolls or power-hungry mods and are willing to switch out when a suitable moderator shows up. The above still applies, and I request you to work a bit on your magazines as well. If it seems like too much work, consider initiating a thread on @kbinMeta offering up the post and switching out with a user who is genuinely interested in moderating and contributing to the magazine instead of leaving it dormant.

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[–] BaldProphet@kbin.social 30 points 2 years ago

Moderating != creating content. If you don't like the lack of content in a magazine, stop lurking and post something.

[–] SweetAIBelle@kbin.social 11 points 2 years ago

It seems a little early to declare them inactive, really. This magazine is 2 weeks old, and given when the blackout started, a lot of the ones in question are 4 days old or less. Not having any activity yet is understandable. And I could easily see deciding to do some of the prep work later after getting a few 503 errors.

I'd say if there's a community you particularly want to do well, post some content there yourself. Volunteer to help out. See if the person who created it is willing to add you as a moderator.

Some of them probably are dead, since the creator could easily have been trying things out here and decided it wasn't for them. But I'd say to give people a chance to return...

[–] retronautickz@fedi196.gay 4 points 2 years ago

I don't know, I'd wait a bit more before declaring any of these new magazine/communities inactive or see any ill-intent in the users opening them.

[–] cjerrington@kbin.social 4 points 2 years ago

This is a good point too. I saw some many that I'd like to follow that didn't even have a Welcome thread so, to the idea that some are just name grabbing as well and hoping it'll be useful one day.

Part of the federation is multiple kbin or lemmy instances can all have /popularnamehere and than can federate to to the other. Plus /technology on kbin could be wildly popular while another may not be. Or both are going strong, but folks like more responsive in one instance than another.

[–] fbievan@kbin.fbievan.live 3 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Almost like domain squatting

[–] 10A@kbin.social 4 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Not really, as there's no economic incentive.

[–] AshDene@kbin.social 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

You don't think there exist reputation management firms with an economic incentive to be able to influence what is said over the internet?

[–] 10A@kbin.social 2 points 2 years ago

You're right to a degree. For magazines with corporate brand names, you're right. That's not the majority of what's being created, but it is some of it.

[–] VulcanSphere@kbin.social 1 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Vulcan will repost an older comment about this thing, basically recreation of subreddits is bound to happen in the threadiverse:

It's inevitable that some people (Vulcan included) will try to recreate sub-subreddits into sub-magazines, given prevalence of sub-subreddits on the Snoo Platform.

Umbrella magazines are great but some people prefer more specialised discussion place, so both umbrella and sub-magazines are fine for their purposes.

[–] npastaSyn@kbin.social 1 points 2 years ago

Is this the official place for requesting moderation? I would assume it's only for ??????@kbin.social magazines.

...which also means mods will be needed to replace mods.

[–] fbievan@kbin.fbievan.live 0 points 2 years ago (1 children)
[–] assbutt@kbin.social 1 points 2 years ago

Sometimes she goes, sometimes she doesn't, cause that's the fuckin' way she goes

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