Why is it frowned upon here to 'steal' content from reddit?
If anything, shouldn't it be encouraged, and even automated? I'm including even the 'old' stuff from reddit here. Reddit shouldn't be the absolute owner of the content submitted by users. When I migrated here, it wasn't because of me being against reddit users, but being against reddit the company. Copying the content here actually hurts the company in sense that they don't get to then gatekeep the crowdsourced content.
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Reddit will still have higher search hits and Lemmy is outmatched. Dumping content from Reddit just makes this no better than a mirror. It stops real and unique content from hitting the top and this place won't attract new users if they can just use Reddit which at this point has the content directly and is more reliable.
I've seen a number of communities that are otherwise dead without Reddit reposts, and being the most subscribed community for a given topic with the latest post being months ago is definitely not going to attract new users.
It's either don't repost, and new users won't join because of dead community, or repost and have some activity, and maybe new users will join. With dead communities, new users won't magically join, and new content won't magically get created.
One such example was the bcpcsalescanada community, which was revived due to reposts.
This is unfortunately part of migrating. Not all communities can just move over. Larger ones will develop and with that side communities will start with a large enough user base. Reposting in this case still doesn't do anything other than give you the exact same content as Reddit just now it's without an interactive user base.
I'm not sure I agree.. Or more precisely, it depends. !bapcsalescanada@lemmy.ca is an example of a community where there is value in reposting content from Reddit over, where the value is getting the coverage of deals. On Reddit, a small majority of users actively seek and share deals. If those users don't move to Lemmy, that community is dead, period. No amount of enticement will introduce new content.
The secondary value now is that, previously, many users had to go to Reddit for that content, because that content isn't available on Lemmy. Reposting isn't just to kick-start user engagement, but is also a retention tool. Users don't need to go to Reddit to fetch that info anymore. I know that was the case for me.
I understand the consequence of Lemmy being a mirror of Reddit. And yes, over reposting is detrimental. This is where reposts need to be strategically applied where it makes sense.
Ideally you don't want a blood transfusion. But in specific circumstances, a blood transfusion kick-starts the healing/growth process.