There might be a significant number of users here waiting for everyone else to switch over to lemmy. If you start a niche community, it's a little easier for someone else to be like "It's kind of empty, but it exists on lemmy too." What you need is a critical mass of people. It usually takes time and effort to reach that, and someone must be first.

[–] laverabe@lemmy.world 7 points 8 months ago

!cranetrainexcavators@lemmy.world baby. Does reddit have that? No. Didn't think so! ;)

[–] Delphia@lemmy.world 7 points 8 months ago (2 children)

I think the problem is that theres a lot of niche communities created for an exodus from Reddit that didnt really happen.

If you search for a certain community and find that yeah it exists but nobody has posted there in 6 months...

[–] pmk@lemmy.sdf.org 3 points 8 months ago (1 children)

It didn't happen in one big exodus, no. But maybe in the future someone will find those old posts and decide to make a new post instead of just concluding there's nothing and not doing anything.

[–] Delphia@lemmy.world 4 points 8 months ago

I do wonder if its a help or a hinderance though.

If someone wanted to start a community they might actually do something to generate interest, nobody wants to put the effort in to build up a community that the mod can just ban them from or they look and go "Its not that theres nothing, theres just no interest."

[–] threelonmusketeers@sh.itjust.works 1 points 8 months ago

If you search for a certain community and find that yeah it exists but nobody has posted there in 6 months...

I've come across this multiple times, and have had (or seen) some success with the following:

Start posting to the dormant community. There are usually still some people subscribed, so you'll get a few upvotes.
Reach out to the moderators. If they don't respond, reach out to the instance administrators to request the community.
After a few weeks of posting regularly, promote the community in !newcommunities@lemmy.world, and any related communities with more subscribers.

I think the "if you build it they will come" adage applies quite well here.