Why most posts (so far as I can tell) have very short lifespan tendency?

brandneworld@feddit.de to No Stupid Questions@lemmy.world – 85 points –

So basically 24 hours after posting, there is almost no contributions coming in, and after another 24h, it’s nearly impossible to see anybody chipping in to the subject in question. Everything goes silent, almost as if it didn’t matter anymore.

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Probably because most of us are sorting by top 6/12 hours since there isn't enough content to keep us entertained every couple of hours if we sort by top day, which will obviously improve as we grow.

Active sort has been what I've been doing, similar but not limited to content from just today.

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The majority of posts on Reddit are also like that. Perhaps a curse of a feed-oriented forum (or whatever this type of social media is called)

For what it's worth, a full 24 hours or more is more time than most reddit threads last

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Because people tend to browse and comment whatever appears on New. If you are lucky, and your post makes it to Hot, you may see replies for slightly longer, but there's only so much that can be said.

When joining a post, if there are already hundreds of comments, I'm unlikely to read all, and it's very likely someone else already voiced my opinion so there isn't much else to add there.

Within Lemmy, I think active is most used as it's the current default for most instances. I'm not sure how it's implemented, but based off my observations, I suspect it has some massive drop off after 2 days, because I regularly see posts up to 2 days old and never any older.

Though OP mentions just one day and I don't have a good explanation for that. Personally, I don't like to comment on anything older than a day and often self censor accordingly. I consider "within the last day" to be the sweet spot for engagement. Beyond that, it often doesn't feel worth my time to comment because fewer people will see it and be able to respond.

I'm impatiently awaiting a "best" algorithm and will switch to it as soon as it's available. I dislike literally all the sorting algorithm choices. I just dislike active the least because comments are what I'm here for. Sure would be nice to see smaller subs too, though.

Not to mention that sometimes for some reason Active and Hot really like to recommend 4 year old posts that got 1 new content which sucks

I am always worried about replying to "older" threads after being brow-beaten on R×ddit with messages like "Dude, it's been 48 hours. Why are you replying to this?".

Plus the old "don't necro old threads/posts" I'm used to from other sites and forums, as well.

Force of habit after those experiences, honestly.

I'd like to say that Lemmy I'd friendlier than that, but I'd probably be lying.

That's a good point.

Perhaps I could try and see what happens if I include in my posts a notice saying I welcome replies far ahead in the future (I guess thoughtful exchange posts, not simple question ones likely answered to perfection already).

Same for me. Sometimes I run into new communities and I'm itching to respond to a thread, but it's maybe a week old and I don't want to be told off for it.

I'd just reply to it - I've got a good conversation going that way. Same night happen with you.

I think at worst you'd get silence, if you did get someone 'telling you off' the arsehole wouldn't be you

I still get people replying to a 5 year old reddit comment of mine lol. I don't have a problem with it

In lots of the old forums I used to use, commenting on a thread would subscribe you to it. I have no idea if the software supports it, but I'd like the ability to sort by New Posts to Subscribed Threads, or something similar. I think being able to keep tabs on activity in threads you have posted in might help prolong the lifetime.

The comment about thread necromancy also brings back memories. I'm not really sure why that was ever such a taboo, especially since reposting old topics was also frowned upon...

I think the necro ban comes from the forum days, when unsuspecting users commenting on something old would push down new threads out of view. On platforms like these or Reddit, I find the rule a bit unnecessary though.

Maybe just list of upvoted posts, I miss to review postes I liked for new comments.

Because I'm only sorting for New or 6 to 12 hours. Anything older I care about I already commented in, and will show up in my inbox when anyone replies.

I think at least on kbin that the sorting / surfacing algorithm could could use some improvements. I'm pretty keen on seeing dozens of comments on articles and surfacing good content would help that (though both search and sorting are notoriously difficult, it'll take time before things are refined)

I think it’s still better than Lemmy where many of the top posts are from several days ago, when it’s clear from Kbin there are enough content it doesn’t have to be like that.

The default sorting on lemmy is "Active" which can keep the same posts at the top, I've changed my home page to "Top Day" as default and it's become much more varied.

Yeah, only reason I saw this is because I’ve read all newer posts and am slowly going into history. But you got your interaction way later! :)