True, but this kind of trend is why Fediverse platforms often stay programmer-heavy. Regular users join, see mostly dev talk even in general spaces, and bounce. I’m not really against posts like this, but I do wish Lemmy could grow its user base by keeping general spaces genuinely random.
Also, just being honest, it kind of sucks that my earlier comment got downvoted. I wasn’t trying to gatekeep, just sharing a harmless opinion about keeping the vibe more random and less tech-centered. Felt like I got shut down for it.
Reddit was like that too. Certain communities gradually became echo chambers just because one group dominated the tone. I’d hate to see Lemmy fall into the same pattern.
And just to follow the same logic—if dev memes count as “random” in lemmyshitpost, I guess I could post “what programming language should I use to build X?” in asklemmy, right? Feels inconsistent to label one as valid and the other as off-topic, depending on who posts it.
So basically, it’s not about the topic, but about how it’s framed? That kinda proves my point—tech stuff is allowed as long as it’s phrased vaguely or conversationally enough. Which is fine, but still makes the space biased toward people who are familiar with those contexts. I’m not saying don’t allow them, I’m just pointing out that this flexibility doesn’t feel equally intuitive to non-tech people, which can unintentionally gatekeep.
If niche stuff is going to live in general communities anyway, then what’s the point of having dedicated communities at all? Should we just post everything in the same place and hope the phrasing makes it acceptable?