Its rhe only thing I wish could change about my experience using Lemmy, for more active users in the communities like NFL or NHL and the affiliated team pages of those sports. I haven’t had any social media in decades, my main source for sporting news breaks up until 1-2 years ago was Reddit.

I love the small community that makes up Lemmy. As someone just posted, it feels like a small town community. I like the absence of corporate shills and ads and bots.

Back when I switched from Reddit to Lemmmy, I made an effort to upvote and comment on the NFL and Buffalo Bills communities. I eventually gave up because it was like months of posting, voting and commenting but when I would go back to check the communities, everything would still be sitting at like 2 up votes and 0 comment replies or if it was my own post, 1 upvote and 0 comments. For a majority of cases. Every once in a blue moon I would come accross a post where another user voted or commented but it was never more than me and one other user.

I know there is a certain demographic that uses Lemmy that is mostly driven by the required IT prowess needed to set up, use and even understand the federated concept. I also recognize that this demographic is traditionally disinterested in sports. Im not complaining about this or the users who are on Lemmy. Im also not wishing for any changes be made to aggressively expand Lemmy’s user base. Its just an impractical wish I have so I could get my sports news from the same source I get all my other news.

I will prolly spend more time this coming year settling on a 2ndary source for sports news from sources similar to sleeper app but it would be so nice if the Lemmy sporting communities blew up so I could keep everything aggregated to one source.

  • @[email protected]
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    42 months ago

    The shit in these comments is why Lemmy is doomed to be a minor platform that will inevitably fizzle out.

    Seriously people, there are other interests besides Linux and politics. If we bully out other interests from starting communities on Lemmy it’ll never grow out of obscurity… some may like that but I’d personally like to see it grow into something that can actually compete with Reddit.

    I say this as someone who doesn’t like sports at all, but we have these magical things called filters for people like me!

    • @[email protected]
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      2 months ago

      The shit in these comments is why Lemmy is doomed to be a minor platform that will inevitably fizzle out.

      Why will it fizzle out? It doesn’t have to be for everything. People have places to discuss sports already, and I guess they’re happy with them.

      Also, I know I’m not alone in saying that I prefer it stay a “minor platform.”

  • mintiefresh
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    2 months ago

    Wow. I didn’t realize so many people here were anti sports. Interesting.

    I do miss the sports from Reddit so I still go back for that. But I’ve also decided to try to be the change … So I’ve started to post more in the sports communities around here.

    It’s probably the last thing I still go back to Reddit for. Otherwise Lemmy is my go to.

    • @[email protected]
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      2 months ago

      Yeah, the whole “anti-sports” thing always seemed like overcompensation for something? Like if you don’t like sports (I don’t, for the most part), then just don’t watch them.

      It’s strange when people get like actively hostile about the existence of sports.

  • /home/pineapplelover
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    22 months ago

    I would be interested in NHL stuff but I don’t even consume that much NHL content. If somebody actively posts in NHL and other hockey related sub lemmy communities then I’ll join and try to engage as much as I can.

    • @[email protected]OP
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      42 months ago

      I get so pissed when I hear stories of the shit the nhl tries out in hopes of growing their fan base when all they need to do is strike a deal with a streaming platform that will allow local markets watch their local team. Ever since I got rid of cable, fuck maybe a decade now, I have all but gave up watching hockey. Yeah ill watch playoffs and yeah I know I can pirate a live stream for each game but for 82 games a year its asking a lot to search for a good streaming source.

      • /home/pineapplelover
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        12 months ago

        Yeah sometimes I might turn on one of those gray streaming sites and watch live hockey games. I might watch some highlight clips on YouTube

  • @[email protected]
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    142 months ago

    Yeah, I try to engage on the sports posts because there isn’t much going on in these comms. But I’m hopeful we can get some growth eventually

    • atro_city
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      32 months ago

      Maybe making a sports related instance could help with making it more attractive to the fans. Or ask your favorite sports team to create an instance forum.sparta.cz or something and it’s a lemmy instance.

      • @[email protected]
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        52 months ago

        There’s fanaticus.social already; it’s just not heavily used because nerds generally aren’t huge sports fans.

    • @[email protected]
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      412 months ago

      We are in at the ground level of Lemmy. A lot of people like OP are passive consumers, but now is the time to step up, get out of your comfort zone and start building the communities you want to see. You might have to hustle a little bit

      If you do start up a community you can link it like this:

      [email protected]

      Here’s a totally random community about strength and hypertrophy training for example

      • Zagorath
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        12 months ago

        A lot of people like OP are passive consumers

        Passive consumers make up the largest number; the base of the pyramid. But you seem to be implying that there’s nothing between that and the tip of the pyramid, who create their own communities and post their own content into them.

        OP seems to be a user in the middle. Happy to contribute to ongoing conversations by commenting, replying, and voting, but not as comfortable starting conversations. Which, to be honest, is also where I’m at with sport threads. I used to love popping in to a live game discussion megathread to comment on a particularly outrageous call, or to see the community’s response to something controversial. But it’s not a subject area I’m invested in enough to start the community myself, or to make enough comments to help start a lively-looking megathread.

      • @[email protected]OP
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        32 months ago

        We are in at the ground level of Lemmy. A lot of people like OP are passive consumers

        For real? Im replying to almost every comment I get a notification, I made this post, I’ve commented on NFL posts among other comments in non-sports comms. How you guna just blindly call me a passive consumer lol? Not hating just couldn’t believe you coulld draw that conclusion while I felt I was borderline spamming the thread with replies hahah 🍻cheers tho, to your commitment to motivating any and all users to be more active.🍻

        • @[email protected]
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          32 months ago

          Gotta give props to active participation, upvotes, comments are helping too, you’re right. I was just focussed on community building, it might not be as fun but it’s important also

      • @[email protected]
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        22 months ago

        Thanks for that link! I was almost gonna start one myself. Gonna try that one instead, at least for a while.

      • Karyoplasma
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        222 months ago

        Nah, I’m just gonna do what I’m doing. Commenting on stuff I like or am interested in and that’s it. I’m way too anti-social to do something like building a community.

        • r.EndTimes
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          42 months ago

          you dont have to be social or even reply to commenters lol

    • @[email protected]
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      352 months ago

      This is so dismissive.

      I spent a full year posting to [email protected] and interaction there is still minimal to dead.

      It’s not really the starting of communities that needs help. We need more people to be the second and third person to join and help communities that someone else is trying to start.

      • Psychadelligoat
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        92 months ago

        This is so dismissive

        It’s all the complaint deserves

        We need more people to be the second and third person to join and help communities that someone else is trying to start

        Sounds like you need to let your sports-liking associates elsewhere know about the platform to help with your problem, rather than whinge that the already existing userbase doesn’t like what you do

        • @[email protected]
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          22 months ago

          Eh, the community is huge on Reddit so clearly the fans exist (and I’m one but just took a big social media break for awhile so that didn’t help). Lemmy just needs more people with more diverse interests.

    • @[email protected]
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      172 months ago

      This 100%, it’s even harder when someone puts a posting bot in a sub and expects people to show up. The best communities started by someone creating a sub and posting things they found interesting. Treating it like a personal link archive. Then people would add to the discussion after finding you. If you are posting for a few weeks and then just gives up. It just makes the problem worse. Since now people have to sift through a bunch of dead communities on multiple instances all named the same.

      It has to be built organically it’s like people with video channels on YouTube or peer tube. Making your first video and if it doesn’t do well they quit. Most successful creators made tons of videos before they took off. They kept at it because they were making the videos for themselves for just the sake of self expression as their first priority and the views will come.

      • @[email protected]
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        152 months ago

        This is kind of a problem in the NFL Community actually. There’s one user, I don’t know if it’s a bot or not, who just shotguns like 10 to 15 post at a time. It washes out any discussion in the entire community.

        • @[email protected]
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          142 months ago

          Yep people like that that use bots or worse AI to auto post think they are helping but are just bring the dead internet theory to reality.

        • @[email protected]
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          42 months ago

          Well yeah I understand why bots are used for posting to communities, but at the same time it does have this effect of making people tip-toe around and hesitant to post themselves

          • @[email protected]
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            52 months ago

            That pattern is 100% bots getting the posts from an RSS feed and it’s set to only refresh every x hours.

            When it does and it has 15 new stories, it rapidly posts 15 times.

            When those clog up my all feed, instant block. So it’s really having the opposite effect that the bot owner intends.

            The shitty thing is that half the time they’re not even marked as bot accounts.

    • @[email protected]OP
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      52 months ago

      You just planted the seed, will you also be a watering can?

      Im not implying there is a lack of content just a lack of active users to fuel discussions. I leave a comment on every NFL post that I have some input or opinion on. Like I said to another comment in this thread there seems to either be a bot or a dedicated mod who is periodically supplying content in batches of posts. So maybe once a week or so (maybe once a month in the off seadon) the same user name will make a bunch of posts for all the news for that week.

    • @[email protected]
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      22 months ago

      Reddit was relatively niche, Lemmy even more so. Who the fuck do you think is gonna be here!?

  • nocturne
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    2 months ago

    Be the change you want to see. Of your visible posts, 0 of them are in the communities you want to see active. The same goes for your last week or so of comments. Sorry, I looked with an alt account that I did not think had anything blocked, but apparently it does so i did not see your posts in a bills community.

    I am not a sports fan, but I have been loving watching the PWHL. So much so that I took over modding [email protected] I post the score of every game (granted this season there are only 6 teams). I have started to post video highlights, I also am cross posting to [email protected] however the reception there is decidedly frigid. The community has about doubled in size since I started posting regularly.

    • @[email protected]
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      102 months ago

      If you scroll just a little pass the surface level of their account you can see that OP has posted a dozen times in the Bills community.

      • nocturne
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        42 months ago

        I likely have that community blocked. I looked with an alt account that I did not think had anything blocked. Oops.

    • @[email protected]OP
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      22 months ago

      I hope you only spent the time scolling posts cuz that seems like a long way to go to verify what I explained in my post if you scrolled thru all the comments I post looking for the cast time I posted/commented in NFL or Bills communities lol. I know its been a long time cuz if memory serves it would’ve been in last years off season.

  • @[email protected]
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    192 months ago

    Lemmy is also primarily used by super nerds who don’t care about sportsball. Not enough normies here compared to Reddit.

    • @[email protected]OP
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      52 months ago

      Which is what I find odd because every gamer and nerd I know is also interested in sports or at the very least interested in fantasy sports leagues. Might just be my area tho where the whole community and all walks of life get together to watch the Bills and Sabres play.

  • @[email protected]
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    the Liverpool FC community is a good example of this LOL

    one of the biggest teams in the world, winning the EPL and the most popular community has only a few people that post a comment and rarely is there a post more then just the mod doing a gameday thread

    • atro_city
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      42 months ago

      Probably the Liverpool FC community is full of people who don’t even know the word privacy. They probably heard about it in a Malus ad and think it means buying an iPhone and installing Telegram.

    • @[email protected]OP
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      52 months ago

      Exactly what im talking about. I should’ve looked up their username and gave them credit but the lemmy nfl community is the same way It basically has one dude posting all the posts at one time. So there will be community silence for days then all of a sudden 15 posts of articles from the past week or so. Might be a bot doing it tho cuz they’ve never added a comment or replied to any posts I’ve made.

  • Nougat
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    52 months ago

    I’m not sure that your conclusion follows your premise.

  • JohnnyFlapHoleSeed
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    32 months ago

    Does Lemmy have an equivalent of the reddit sportsbook sub? That’s literally the only thing I actually go to Reddit for anymore, and I’d prefer to just use Lemmy if possible

  • @[email protected]
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    112 months ago

    Maybe Lemmy has a decent amount of users who are more inclined to nerd stuff like Linux and frisbee? I don’t care for sports or cars or other “cool” dude stuff. But I love computers and books and frisbee (which I don’t get to throw nearly enough). This just got me thinking. I’m gonna actively try to get some friends together to toss the bee. In my forties. Like we were in our teens. Thanks for inspiring me.

    • @[email protected]
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      42 months ago

      or used to be into sports then gambling became legal and feel its less real and sympathy for friends struggling with gambling now

      • socsa
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        42 months ago

        This is kind of where I am. Gambling has killed any authenticity in the fandom to the point where if I watch a game with friends they are just all on their phones cons

    • @[email protected]
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      32 months ago

      I’m in my 40s too and just finished playing spring league Ultimate Frisbee. It’s was a ton of fun, but I did get a lot of inflammation in my knees.

      I also use Linux a lot, but also wish there’s was more sports talk on Lemmy, especially NHL. I thought more people woukd jump ship off reddit after the 3rd party apps were banished.

  • Rentlar
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    62 months ago

    On lemmy.ca we have semi-active Hockey pages, especially due to the playoffs, check out [email protected], and some of the team pages get occasional posts. The advantage of being a lemmy.ca user is that you will encounter small sports team and small Canadian city page posts more often in local feed.

    I think before a Buffalo Bills page takes off we need a relatively active American football page. But sports commentary is not very intriguing to me and feels very formulaic: “Go [team name] Go”, “Coach [name] sucks”, “Next season we’ve drafted [name] to our team”, etc. etc.

  • @[email protected]
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    232 months ago

    The Lemmy user base tilts alternative (queer, neurodiverse, subculturally niche, politically leftist beyond the mainstream centre-left and such), whereas sports fandom is coded aggressively mainstream, as part of what it means to pass the normality tests, so there’d be fewer sports fans than in a randomly chosen population. Maybe if there’s an influx of normies here, the sports forums will fill out.

    • @[email protected]OP
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      92 months ago

      That’s just ignorant. There are plenty of people in those demographics you listed who are very active fantasy football and fantasy sports in general fans.

      • @[email protected]
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        52 months ago

        You’re the only ignoramus here.

        Watching idiots bash their heads against each other or chase after a ball is what a dog would do.

        • @[email protected]
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          62 months ago

          You realize that athletes are exceptionally intelligent in different ways than people pecking at a keyboard all day, right?

          Athletes are not dumb. Take a look at a football playbook. You going to remember all of that, be able to recall it, and then also know all the audible changes to a play that you have to make? Are you able to make split second decisions for 60 minutes while wearing knives on your feet like a hockey player? Do you have the hand eye coordination to hit a 94 mile per hour fast ball, but know that the pitcher you’re facing also has a 35% chance to throw an 82 mph sinker?

          Acting like you have one kind of intelligence and shitting on people who have different kinds of intelligence just makes you look like you’re jealous.

          • @[email protected]
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            22 months ago

            Take a look at a football playbook. You going to remember all of that, be able to recall it, and then also know all the audible changes to a play that you have to make?

            Bet you every penny you ever made that I could do it in one quarter of the time that most of the pros do it. There’s a reason they have the training season.

        • @[email protected]OP
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          62 months ago

          Jesus christ, im sorry that I brought up fucking sports. I had no idea it would piss so many people off. Its not like I did it in a tech focused community. I have befriended other sports fans from all walks of life, so to say “x,y,z people dont like sports” to me is ignorant as fuck. Sorry I triggered you and I promise I will never make another comment or post regarding anything sports related ever again.