I'm a lurker, but I'm going to try to participation more.

I have been posting and commenting a LOT more than I ever did on Reddit. Some small part of that is a desire to grow the platform and my communities.

Full time lurker. Part time commenter. No time creator.

I admit it: I'm a lurker 99% of the time. I do partake in the up- and downvoting though.

I'm primarily a lurker. I've been trying to be better about participating lately because I'd like to help the fediverse grow and be a meaningful online meeting place.

I mean...creating stuff takes work. Even commenting is a lot harder than mindlessly scrolling memes. My head hurts now.

I lead a mostly boring life. And the interesting parts would invade more privacy more than I care to expose. I'd love to post content. But I know better than to let too much of myself out. I already expose too much as is, but it can be worse. And nothing good comes from that.

Definitely a lurker. I rarely have anything I want to show off, and I like reading other people's opinions and content.

I'm a lurker. Because idk what to say most of the time

Consider the opposite. Every single person on the planet making 10 posts per day. It would be like Facebook on super meth.

I'm a lurker until I get called out like this

Now I feel the urge to comment

Better than having me contribute garbage content and drowning out good content with my garbage. I'll post when I have something worth posting

I'm a lurker unless something actually impassions me to discuss

Major lurker. Usually don't even comment. Trying to comment more here, though.

I'm a lurker doing a little posting/commenting to "be the change I want to see" so to speak. If lemmy gets bigger, I will likely return to my lurker ways.

The rule doesn't apply to early adopters, due to the self-selection effect.

I 99% lurk, 9% participate, and 1% post.

I dont mean to be a lurker but i have nothing interesting to post. All the juicy stuff in my life is stuff that id rather not make pubic.

The question seems to imply that this ratio is problematic, but it is in fact fine.

There this sense now that “being a creator” has intrinsic value, but this value is an artifact of platforms that exploit its users creations. So much so that we now have an immense amount of low quality fast food grade, in fact toxic, content. Content pollution.

So, whatever the ratio is. If you want to post post, if you want to comment comment, if you want to lurk lurk.

As long as we are all enjoying the experience, who cares?

Trust me, I have zero worth to post anyways. And even if I did, someone else would have posted it well before I had chance.

Not to mention my views are often not agreed with (GIF is pronounced with a hard G and I will die on this hill!).

How do people like I fit in? People who comment a lot and occasionally post stuff.

I only say something if I have something to say. And the larger platform gets, the harder it gets to be heard.

I'm trying my hardest. I've never created a sub but now I'm creating communities, making add-ons and trying to post. Freedom here of corporate interests is awfully nice. The fediverse is expanding but we're already seeing contracting due to the influx in early June... we definitely had community sprawl. However that was expected. Many communities are doing great! It's great to see!!!

Maybe part of what makes TikTok so powerful, how it categorizes videos in an addicting way, is that it turns the lurkers into contributors/voters by using watch time as a proxy for voting.

Now I am in the 1% ?

I'm almost always a lurker, but I feel like there's a difference when it comes to how participation occurs in fediverse communities versus the majority of mainstream social media platforms. It seems that many people here are genuinely interested in creating a space for quality discussion and healthy communities which motivates me to interact, whereas it's hard to feel like anything you come across is organically presented to you on platforms that are profit driven that aim to be as addicting as possible. All forms of social media have issues imo but this is it in one of the most accessible and least gameified, corpritizied forms

i'm usually a lurker because i usually don't have anything important to add to the discussion; i don't really want to leave a lot of empty/useless comments around

I was def a lurker on reddit. Here I have been trying to post and comment where I can. I don't create art or anything like that, so my submission are mostly memes, discussions in niche instances, and a news article here and there.

I'm mostly a lurker, pretty rarely commenting and posting even less, but I'm trying to be more active on lemmy. I just don't feel like I ever have anything interesting to contribute to any discussion.

Variants include the 1–9–90 rule (sometimes 90–9–1 principle or the 89:10:1 ratio),[1] which states that in a collaborative website such as a wiki, 90% of the participants of a community only consume content, 9% of the participants change or update content, and 1% of the participants add content.

I've heard mods say it's like that on Reddit: 1% create posts, 9% comment on posts, and the rest lurk. Many people have suggested that the people most likely to leave Reddit because of the recent issues are in that 10% of posters and commentators.

I am an NPC and proud of it

I guess I was a lurker until just now when I made my account. This is literally my first post on my lemmy.world account.

Look at you, getting us antisocial lurkers to reply. You clever girl, you. ;)

I've historically been a lurker because I'm too lazy to comment most of the time. However, I've been trying to participate on Lemmy more than I did on Reddit in an effort to boost the fediverse and really turn this into the Reddit replacement that I want it to be.

Folks want to see an active community.

Lurker here. I burrow underground and shoot out spines for AOE damage. Great at choke points and nearly invincible when working under a dark swarm.

So what is considered lurking? Commenting once in a blue moon or just not commenting anything whatsoever?

I'll start actually posting things when my favorite communities jump ship from Reddit. Until then I'll just lurk while occasionally commenting.

The real lurkers don't even register.

I comment a lot more here than Reddit

Mostly a lurker. Can't think of things that I want to post, yet I love every piece of information that Lemmy (or better said, lemmings) offers. Will try to change that, at least through comments

I posted links on Reddit like 5-10 years ago... Then the power mods showed up, nuked my links for some obscure rule violation, then allowed someone else reposted them minutes later.

I gave up.

I wonder how this rule compares to real life interactions between people. Imagine having a conversation with someone and noticing 200 people watching from behind a nearby hedge.

I'm the 99%. Often I write something in the text field but then decide not to post it because I think it's too dumb or not original enough.

There's some irony in all the comments that participate in this thread by posting "lurker"

I'm a creator on certain instances and participator/lurker in some others. I'm mostly posting events happening in my city. Discussion is sparse right now but I figure it's better to have sparse conversation than NO conversation.

Just a lurker for now

FInally, something I'm in the 1% of.

All I can say is I am grateful there are fewer users on Lemmy. It's nothing like Reddit. There's less garbage to sort through. So, one percent of a smaller user population definitely makes a difference in my Lemmy life. I lurk less here than I did on Reddit, mostly because I don't have to scroll through crap as much. There's still crap, just less crap.

This isn't the 1% rule I've heard of 😂

Similar thing with me. I wasn’t strictly a lurker, but I also never created a sub, for example — everything already kinda existed.

Here, I’ve started several communities and am trying to grow those. Plus it sometimes feels like it’s up to me to post/comment stuff that would’ve been already on Reddit by the time I got there.

And for now at least, I like kbin’s vibe better than whichever one Reddit had for the past few years. So we’ll see how it goes :)

It feels a lot more active here than in reddit at least. In reddit it was common to have posts with 5k+ upvotes and less than 100 comments.

Well, according to data from https://the-federation.info, 26.8% of Fediverse user accounts have commented or posted something in the last month. I'm not sure if I completely trust this wide-reaching dataset but it's something. Lemmy overall at its peak had 18.5% until a flood of bot accounts with no activity appeared on some open-signup servers, now it's at 3%.

Lemmy.world is sitting at 27% active user ratio, beehaw.org at 34.7%, lemmy.ca at 32.3%, lemmy.ml at 12%, sh.itjust.works at 19.2%

I lurk 99% of the time and post 1% of the time

Was always a lurker on Reddit, now I’m an instance admin lol so I sort of have to comment and post often.

It feels way more a community on Lemmy though so I’m much more active than I ever was on Reddit I love it!

I'd wager early adopters tend to be more active. Probably it has something to do with the size of the community too, you don't feel like you're being drown in the noice and most people don't have that "I need my voice to be heard" impulse (I have to be fair) which drives people to actively participate in something like Reddit-size when they don't have anything particularly insightful to say.

Im a predator rrrrrrr

I only make a post or make content when I feel like something I want to make is worth it or has a point to make. Most the stuff I want to post or make has also already been done so I don't want to clog stuff up with what is a worse version of the original.

I think there is a bit of a trend with social websites where initially a large amount of the original active user-base is involved in content creation, but whether through gradual growth or an "eternal September" event (I have seen both first-hand), a large influx of users generally attracts more consumers than producers. Right now I think the Fediverse is still fairly niche despite how long it has been around for, so we have a larger share of creators compared to consumers. I try and participate in making stuff where I can :)

I create stuff but I’m too afraid to share it with people online because no one wants have someone’s YouTube video shoved at them. Except I also tend to write long, pointless comments like this one, so I guess I am a creator.

I'm a contributer! I've posted cute puppy pics, a frog I saw, and an example of chatGPT cleaning up OCR text.

Was a lurker before I came to lemmy, trying to change that! I just don't think of things to say.

I'm normally a lurker but I try to contribute stuff for the sake of the fediverse.

Hey, I posted one whole cat picture. I'm a contributor.

I’m a light participator. I’m looking for a community to call home, but I’m not highly social, so I don’t comment a ton. Maybe once I find the right communities to subscribe to, but for now I mostly browse all looking for new appealing communities, and comment where it might add value.

I don't know if everyone here knows this rule but I'm 100% sure Steve Huffman doesn't

I am a lurker but I'm getting tired of fediverse meta posts and want to see stuff like I saw in my r3Ddit feed so... Be the change I want to see in the world, I guess?

Thanks for sharing. I would also be interested if this reflects Lemmy. 1% would be higher than I suggested to be honest.

I participate in discussion, but I rarely start threads.

That's why even the measly drop of 3.5% of Reddit's usage may well be significant. It certainly seems that lots of those 10% were the ones leaving.

I'm shy

I always lurked on Reddit because literally anything even remotely funny or relevant that could possibly be said is already instantly posted by 1000 people within seconds by the reddit hive mind. But yeah I post on kbin a lot more than reddit. Getting more into lemmy today bc kbin doesn't have any apps 💁

I think right now, there are relatively more creators and contributors. The platform is still pretty new and I think most of us here want to see the platform succeed.

I basically never posted anything back on reddit and I would comment sparingly. I have definitely tried to increase my contribution to help prevent things from being empty.

I have even taken to posting articles in ![email protected], which is now starting to see more contribution from other users, especially after 1 July.

I’ve been a long time lurker on other social media platforms, but I’ve started to try and contribute more since I’d like to see communities I like succeed. Maybe then I can go back to lurking

This is the only 1% that I'm happy to be a part of 💪💪💪💪

I have been way more active on Lemmy than I ever was on "the other place". And I wasn't entirely inactive there either, it was just mostly constrained to niche subs. Here I'm just commenting everywhere and relatively often.

It depends on the platform. For YouTube that's definitely true, but not for Instagram, Twitter, Reddit, Mastodon, Lemmy or Threads. If It's easier to create content for those platforms, users will create content for those platforms.

I 100% lurk. In fact this is my first comment even though I've been using it since the time that other site started their BS with the api fees.

It's sad I have to state which site I'm talking about when I say "other site started their BS"

I am mostly lurking because I need to take the time to better understand the visibility of voting and commenting. Not that I want to be a jerk and get away with it, I've just seen bits and pieces about how user actions are not as obfuscated as they were on reddit, and I want to understand what that means in practice

I used to be a 99% lurker back during reddit era but I do comment on lemmy if that counts.

I'm a lurker naturally but I'm invested in growing the community here so I'm trying to post and comment like crazy

Never been called out like this. Oh well. I think I'm still a lurker unless I'm called out.

I never post, but I do comment.

I‘m a particilurker xD

I'm primarily a lurker. Back on Reddit I'd create posts here and there, but I'd mostly contribute to discussion fairly often. I only had around like 28k karma from comments over the course of 11 years, so I wasn't super prolific by any means.

I miss how big the community was on Reddit at times. I'm still trying to figure Lemmy out. Trying to figure out how to make the instances work on the app can be frustrating, but I really hope to see Lemmy grow into a proper competitor and become more polished and robust. I like it so far, it shows promise.

I feel much more motivated to comment compared to post.

I'm still trying to figure out where I can post things

Not yet and as the early adopters we should contribute as much as we can while at the same time being careful not to post low quality or repetitive things.

The platform will naturally mature if it is fit to do so.

Yeah I got nothing interesting to contribute and very early do. I don't shut up with comments though and uplemmy frequently, so I can at least encourage others!

Does commenting count as creating content? I always thought of the posts as the content, but maybe I’m thinking about it wrong

I'm a participator. I leave a comment every now and than. Maybe a post once a month or so.

According to the-federation.info, lemmy.world has 92k users, 25k of which were active in the past month. So, yeah, it doesn't hold true at the moment.

I'm definitely more of a lurker, but I'm trying to be active in commenting at least. As for posting, I just don't have much to post about tbh.

Nine-nine !

I tend to mostly just participate by adding comments. But occasionally a create a new post/thread. So I'd say that I'm personally 85% lurk, 14% comment, 1% create/post. I tend to post in more specialized/niche forums versus the big communities. Those have lots of content already.

I think the 1% rule is true of large communities, but less so with small ones. It takes effort to find and join Lemmy, Mastodon and others, and use them, so only the most enthusiastic join at first. As it grows, the 1% rule will be even more apparent.

Contributor and participator, but struggling to find niche's

I'm trying to comment more but posting... lol I probably don't have that much to contribute.

I alternate. Sometimes a lurker, sometimes a creator and most of the time a participator. But I do find myself creating more posts while on the fediverse.

I've been very post-y and very commentish since I got here. I did most of the posting in the sub I modded on reddit, and it's the same over here. I guess it would be fair to say I've been equally engaged on both platforms. (I'm only posting here now, tho.)

Hi, my name is jim, and I’m a lurker…

I participate where I feel I'll be of value in some way, lurk when something is interesting but I have nothing to add to the conversation and very rarely create

I just comment. I'm not a creator. I also don't appreciate people reposting stale content. It was so obnoxious on Reddit. So I don't want to be one of those posters either.

I am the cat in this image.

Can you find the cat? Maybe circle the cat and re-up to a comment to help your Lemmie friends.

This sub stands out on Reddit for me, but I have no idea where it's content comes from. I actually found it via a Digg RSS link...

So I remain largely a lurker.

Honestly, I wish the lemmy apps were more geared to allow people to lurk rather than having everyone sign up to view content. I'm a lurker who shares posts with people outside of lemmy.

Do comments count? You're welcome.

Lurker. By the time I want to post something it's already been said.

Mostly Lurking as I try and learn the new space, as I get more comfortable I plan on engaging more with the community

I'd say I do a fair amount of lurking. I participated a lot more on Reddit, but I'm just trying to get a feel for the scene.

Definitely more active than before. But still unlikely to create many posts.

I used to be a lurker. People can change.

I'm like 70/30 lurker to contributor I think, same deal as before I jumped ship.

I'm definitely making more of a concerted effort to interact at the minute, though, to help with numbers and so on.

Commenting a lot more here like I used to in forum days. Most of the threads I read I post in.

I tried to make a post yesterday but it stalled out.

The reason I comment more now is because I want to participate and I'm taking 'the internet' less seriously. This isn't real life.

i dont want to lurk but english is not my native langage so my sentences looks weird when i dont use a translator

Since leaving Reddit definitely more participation. Even started some communities; a thing I never really cared for doing, but seems more appropriate and rewarding here!

Lurker.

The rule is always true

I try to contribute by honestly I just have nothing to say most of the time lol

Yeah I suck. And the content that I used to provide on Reddit that I thought was valuable to share was just nitpicked into oblivion. It really was a toxic place.

I posted carrots

I used to lurk. Still do, but used to too.

I used to post a lot of comments on Reddit, but never anywhere else.

I posted more on mastodon than anywhere else

I mean think of Hollywood or sports. Most people don't do those things but they do consume it.

It's Zipf's law, there's no reason to think Lemmy follows a different distribution.

I am a big part a lurker, but I also create content sometimes

OK, I won't lie, I hear this all the time but I'm not convinced it's true.

Are there any real statistics on it which account for bit accounts? Like, if reddit claimed that 99% of its users don't make content, my immediate thought would be "how many users are real people and how many are bots?"

The people that lurk will not participate and skew the result.

Mostly lurk unless the discussion is something I feel I can add real value to with my own experiences\expertise. Likely 1 comment per year, like this one. Plus I don't vote on posts or comments.

Do comments count as content? If not, I think that percentage is a bit flawed, because I've read cool discussions here

I don't think I'll ever create content, but I'm happy to try and comment on the stuff you guys create. Thats probably the most I'm capable of.

I would be really curious if this was the case prior to the advent of smartphones. Was the ratio the same on early USENET or BBS? It’s so much easier to lurk than participate from a smartphone keyboard.

1% rule: most people lurk, do you??

Me: 😶‍🌫️

I hardly ever posted on Reddit but I would comment about as much as here. I'm trying to be the change I want to see in the world, so I'm posting a bit more.on the kbin.social NYC magazine (aka community). If you like or are interested in NYC, please visit and poat/comment!

@nyc (@[email protected])

https://kbin.social/m/nyc

What's the percent that comments?

Mainly a lurker. Hoping the regional sports game-day threads take off here cause that was the majority of my posting.

I'd say partway between participator and lurker. Sometimes I just don't really have a lot to say.

A bit like free-to-plays, where only 1% of players spend money.

Depends on the community. I do comment more than I post.

And only 1% of the 1% contribute meaningful content.

I've never created a subreddit but created a magazine here! Scoping for content to help build our new home. I just figure that if you ditched reddit you're kinda obligated to pitch in on the new space, idk.

Even if you don't create a magazine, just share something interesting once in a while?

I'm finally part of the 1%!

Part of the reason is internet commentators are so mean to each other, and many of us users don’t want to be judged by someone? (Although extreme echo chamber is also a bad thing)

Mostly a creator, back when I used Twitter and Facebook I used it as a write only medium. On the fediverse I try to read some stuff also and participate by commenting and voting.

Finally, I'm a one percenter.

I have created the Kia Community. As a owner of the car, it's been awesome to find other owners who can share their knowledge & advice on maintenance & driving the car. Invited others in!

I tend not to post often but I like to comment.

Why you gotta call me out like that? :D

The only 1% I will ever be a part of 😅

first day here, and it's too early to predict in which direction this will take off. i am hoping to create and post content around day-to-day happenings.

I'm a lurker. Sometimes a participator. Rarely a creator.

For all the lurkers out there, just comment something, nobody's gonna judge you.

Well, I've never posted (yet), but commented a few times. More than on reddit, certainly! But overall, I do think that rule is going to hold. It creeps up all over the place. At this stage, I think it is just human nature at work and, as such, almost inevitable.

My first idea was "uh, interesting - why not do a poll for that?"

And then I noticed that would end up in some kind of lurker-paradox🤔

Mostly lurker, I sometimes comment but social anxiety is a thing even on the internet for me.

Do cat & beer pics = "creator"? That's me.

Definitely participator, but I have some ideas for contributing some day. I just don't want to share other stuff that's online, I'd rather share my research into a given topic and what conclusions I drew that might help people. I want to publish works here, not really other stuff on the internet.

Not sure if Lemmy is the place for that though, given how it's a link aggregator. People posted their works on Reddit so I'd say it's good enough to post stuff like that here

And the .1% who create good content get 99% of the shit/harassment form the lurkers and the .9% who create shitty content.

I‘m a participator I guess, I tend to comment random thoughts. I don‘t think I do it much more on here than on Reddit, the excitement of a new thing has worn off and now it feels about the same level of engagement.

I was a lurker/participator on reddit but am more active on Lemmy -- I created community [email protected]

Looks like I’m in the one percent boys.

I was a lurker on Reddit unless I had a question in a technical forum. Here, I post on lemmy/kbin because the communities are smaller and welcoming.

On Reddit I just made a few comments and posts, mostly a lurker.
Here it's completely different, I have my own magazine, where I put the effort of making a post daily, and it actually feels better than lurking.

I don't think I have anything of value to post but I try to comment at least.

Surely a participator. I try to make usefula nd interesting comments. I will post when I have something worth saying/doing.

But, I'm not making memes or whatever constantly.

I would like to put together a bit for a sub, but I haven't made the time yet.

The only reason I talk here is because I don't want Lemmy to die.

A jack of all trades, but master of none

I've always been a lurker on Reddit. But with Lemmy I'm trying to be as active as I can, with both posts and comments

Reddit has spoiled me😭

I'm very much in the 1% I think

Lurker through and through

*lurk*

by creator do you mean shitposter?

I comment a lot on reddit but i feel too shy here

lurking intensifies

I'm part of the 10%.

Commenting counts as creating content right? If so, I'll be glad to continue as a serial commenter and rare poster :')

I think because it's a rather new platform for many people, they behave differently. Some are getting used to Lemmy and are not posting as much, while some are more enthusiastic.

Overall I'd say it will be pretty much the same in the long run

Mostly lurker and sometimes participator.

En français https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/R%C3%A8gle_du_1_%25

Très intéressant.

I used to almost never post on reddit, but on here I have been posting OC content, commenting and I have even created a community (https://lemmy.world/c/cancer)

I don't post a whole lot but I do comment regularly.

Someone make a Unreal Engine lemstance and I'll shit post everyday about blueprints being the future of programming and how nanite still doesn't work with translucent materials

The TAHP 1% of lemmy users post 99% of the content. This is not right, nor is it fair!

Lurker

Upvoting lurker.

what percentage am I if I sometimes comment?

I tend to lurk mostly, but I've posted here and there when its called for

The last days i was more of a lurker because i have a lot of stuff to do. But when i have more time i plan to visit a lost place that i could not find with searches. I only found that because two of my friends ignored each other. I think at some time they did it for fun but it really annoyed me.
Except that i cant find anything about it it is not very interesting. More like 3 old floors and a room where they meet. The floors are not even in different directions.

Is there a way we can measure this? I’m genuinely curious what the numbers are.

I would have thought there’s a disproportionately larger number of creators here than other sites as I feel like it’s the creators that were more impacted by Reddit’s api changes than the lurkers… but seeing all the “I’m a lurker” comments in this thread makes me question that hypothesis.

I comment am I important now 😭

Rawr o.o

Never been called out like this. Oh well. I think I'm still a lurker unless I'm called out.