One of the advantages of a decentralized platform like Lemmy is the ability to create parallel communities on the same topic. "You don't like how a community is being moderated? Go to another instance and start a new community!" (with or without blackjack and hookers)

However, this is also a double-edged sword. The creation of multiple communities on the same (or similar) topics can also fragment the userbase, leading to very sparsely populated communities.

A few perspectives in favour of consolidation: (credits to @Ashyr@sh.itjust.works, @otter@lemmy.ca, and @Blaze@lemmy.blahaj.zone)

https://sh.itjust.works/comment/11171955

I think until there’s some tool or system that helps collate all the information out here, fragmentation is detrimental to growth.

I’m not going to copy and paste the same comment with every mirrored post.

So sometimes commenting feels like a waste of time.

Centralizing helps ensure that there’s vibrant, consistent discussion which is what Lemmy should be about.

https://lemmy.ca/comment/8823953

I like this because people showing up to those communities might think that topic doesn’t have activity on Lemmy, when it actually does.

https://lemmy.blahaj.zone/comment/8370860

I sometimes think that unmoderated communities should be closed, and just be left and locked with a pointer to the active one. In case an issue arises with the active one, they can still be unlocked and used as back up.

Consolidating electric vehicle communities

Applying these principles to the EV communities on Lemmy, let's take an overview of what currently exists:

General-purpose:

!electric_vehicles@lemmy.ml (active)
!electricvehicles@lemmy.ml (active)
!evs@lemmy.world (active)
!electricvehicles@lemmy.world (inactive)
!electriccars@lemmy.ca (inactive)
!electricvehicles@slrpnk.net (active)
!electricvehicles@lemm.ee (inactive)
!electricvehicles@reddthat.com (inactive)
!evs@notdigg.com (inactive)

Location-specific:

!evs@feddit.uk (active) (UK-specific, European welcome)
!evs_ireland@lemmy.ml (inactive) (Ireland-specific)
!electricvehicles@midwest.social (inactive) (US-specific)

Other:

!electricvehicles@gearhead.town (active)

Do all of these communities serve a distinct purpose? If not, could we consolidate some of them?

While Lemmy does not currently have a built-in way of moving or merging communities, @Blaze@lemmy.cafe has had some success with pinning an explanation post directing users to the new community and locking the old one. Is this something which could be applied to the EV communities on Lemmy?

The next question is, of course "Which communities should we consolidate to?"

Given the general sentiment to move off of ML (for ideological reasons) and off of World (to avoid centralization of instances), my proposal would be !electricvehicles@slrpnk.net. I think the SolarPunk instance is a nice match for an EV community, but I am interested to hear what others think.

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[–] threelonmusketeers@sh.itjust.works 0 points 7 months ago (5 children)

Paging moderators, admins, and prolific EV contributors for their input:

[–] threelonmusketeers@sh.itjust.works 1 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

!electricvehicles@gearhead.town

Looks like an @rglullis@communick.news project. You do you. Any thoughts you'd like to add?

[–] rglullis@communick.news 1 points 7 months ago

It's well known that I'd rather have communities separated from users, so I'm biased to have all car-related communities on an instance like gearhead.town.

[–] threelonmusketeers@sh.itjust.works 1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

!electricvehicles@midwest.social

Moderator and contributor @KingStrafeIV@midwest.social is inactive. Paging admin @seahorse@midwest.social.

Could this be merged with a more active one (perhaps !electricvehicles@slrpnk.net), or is keeping the US focus important?

[–] seahorse@midwest.social 1 points 7 months ago

It could be on another instance. I see no problem with that.

[–] threelonmusketeers@sh.itjust.works 0 points 7 months ago (1 children)

!evs@lemmy.world

Moderator and contributor @Sunshine@lemmy.ca is active.

Could this be merged with another instance, perhaps !electricvehicles@slrpnk.net?

@MyOpinion@lemm.ee, you seem to be one of the most prolific contributors who is not also a mod. What are your thoughts?

[–] MyOpinion@lemm.ee 0 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I like supporting !evs@lemmy.world. If others want to start posting there that would be great. We seem to finally have about three consistent posters now there.

[–] threelonmusketeers@sh.itjust.works 0 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Are there any specific reasons you prefer the world community over the slrpnk one? The general sentiment seems to be that moving communities off of the largest instances will strengthen the threadiverse overall.

[–] MyOpinion@lemm.ee 0 points 7 months ago (1 children)

The main reason is it has the most subscribers. I am worried about losing many of them if we move.

[–] Blaze@feddit.org 1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

If you lock the community with a pinned post pointing to the new community, most of them will follow.

Of course you can also preemptively create a discussion thread about this potential move to see what the community thinks

[–] MyOpinion@lemm.ee 0 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I will post to the ev group people decide on. Check with the mods to see if they will combine.

[–] Blaze@feddit.org 0 points 7 months ago (2 children)

I saw you indeed locked the LW community in the meantime, thank you for this!

[–] threelonmusketeers@sh.itjust.works 1 points 7 months ago

That was done by @Sunshine@lemmy.ca, but yes, we are making progress.

[–] MyOpinion@lemm.ee 0 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I just hope the subscribers move over.

[–] threelonmusketeers@sh.itjust.works 1 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

I hope so too, though it's important to keep in mind that Many of the subscribers on the larger instances are remnants of the 2023 APIcalypse, and not active accounts. We probably won't see the total number of subscribers surpass the larger instances until the Lemmy userbase grows a bit more.

Active users/week and users/month is probably the best metric to track, and we're already seeing encouraging results there.

[–] threelonmusketeers@sh.itjust.works 0 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

!electricvehicles@reddthat.com

Moderator @TheArstaInventor@reddthat.com is inactive. Maybe @TheArstaInventor@lemmy.world is the same person? Former contributer @MrPhibb@reddthat is active. Paging admin @ticoombs@reddthat.com.

Could this be merged with another instance, perhaps !electricvehicles@slrpnk.net?

[–] ticoombs@reddthat.com 0 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Having a list of all alternatives in the sidebar of alternative places to find people is my recommendation. Thus if people wish to keep a backup community on Reddthat I'm sure to let them.

[–] threelonmusketeers@sh.itjust.works 1 points 7 months ago

Not everyone reads the sidebar before posting.

How would you feel about locking (not deleting) the community until it is needed? The community would still exist as a backup, and could be reopened if the need arose.

This could be done in conjunction with a link in the sidebar or a pinned post.

[–] threelonmusketeers@sh.itjust.works 0 points 7 months ago (1 children)

!electricvehicles@lemmy.world

Moderator and contributor @ang3c0@lemmy.world is inactive. Paging admin @kersploosh@lemmy.world.

Could this be merged with another instance, perhaps !electricvehicles@slrpnk.net?

[–] kersploosh@lemmy.world 1 points 7 months ago

I locked the community and pinned an explanatory post. Best of luck to the slrpnk community!

As an aside, these situations always make me a little nervous that I'm going to step on a user's toes. The mod account having no visible post/comment/vote activity does not confirm that they are truly gone from Lemmy. They may have become a lurker.

[–] Rivalarrival@lemmy.today -1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Just join them all.

Do all of these communities serve a distinct purpose?

They serve the purpose of redundancy. Power-tripping moderators and administrators are less able to silence reasonable dissent when dissenters can just run to other instances. When various instances fail, the others pick up automatically.

[–] Blaze@feddit.org 1 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

Having too many communities prevent potential posters from knowing where to post. They usually are not going to crosspost their content to a dozen different communities, and will just not post at all.

Power tripping mods can be reported on !yepowertrippinbastards@lemmy.dbzer0.com

[–] Rivalarrival@lemmy.today -1 points 7 months ago

Having too many communities prevent potential posters from knowing where to post.

Post in any of them, or any combination of them.

When I find a good community, I tend to join the communities they recommend. I would suggest Sidebar links to related communities for others to join.

Power tripping mods can be reported

What is the purpose of such a report? Seems like pointless drama in a decentralized environment.

The internet interprets censorship as damage, and routes around it.