BeeHaw did that. That's one option. Another might be to try tweaking the sorting algorithm. A third might be to institute more stringent mod rules in countering abuse directed at contributors, especially OC contributors who expose themselves - both their bodies and their emotions - to public scrutiny. Can you imagine what it must feel like to post imagery of your nude body, only to get critical comments about your appearance, or lude PMs demanding sexual favors, and see no enforcement of community guidelines?

Perhaps some mix of all three. Or something I haven't thought of.

Reddit has hundreds of millions of users and the platform is highly active, making it suitable for pros to submit work for profit. Or as a means for amateurs to break in and see if they can build an audience.

Reddit is a business plan for many creators. The large audience there gives submitters incentive to put up with the horrible abuse they face from poor moderation and terrible users. And still, as you note, OC creators flee. Comparing our relative numbers of fleeing contributors per capita as being similar to Reddit isn't the win you seem to be arguing for.

Look, when some of the largest communities don't see posts for weeks, that's a sign something is wrong. We have disincentivized contribution to the point where stagnation has set in. That's a clear sign some change is in order. What that change should be, I don't know. But simply refusing to accept these clear signs as doom and gloom leads to refusing to recognize a problem. And if you don't see a problem, you can't act to fix it.

I don't know motives. I can't read minds. But that it drives away contributors is something I'm pretty sure of.

I think first, there's a decline in the general Lemmy userbase. Partly, this is because of unaddressed Federation bugs that have persisted now for weeks without being publicly addressed. That's driven a lot of contributors away, which has feed on effects across communities. That's structural and beyond LemmyNSFW, but affects us.

Second, here at LemmyNSFW, poor community moderation. There are dead communities admins will not address because of top mod ownership rules. But that so many subscribe to dead communities shows the decline. Reddit prunes unmoderated communities for a reason.

Mods also let creeps post horrible comments and don't filter them out or ban abusive users, and this has driven away contributors. Especially amateurs and OF creators. I'm of the opinion they are bread and butter here and driving them away reduces overall value of the site. So while I'm into the kink side, I want c/gonewild to thrive.

Third, there are the serial downvoters. Admins thought requiring people to join communities in order to vote would solve this problem. No, because their goal is to suppress contributions overall, so they just join to downvote. This is why you see a top community like c/anal or c/blowjobs wither with no submissions. They're killed early on. And that drives away contributors. Whether that's contention over the top page or just a desire to see LemmyNSFW fail, I don't know. But IMO downvotes only express aggression and don't help curate content. They serve to drive away contributors.

We need more contributors, not less. And the decline in contributions says something is seriously wrong. It's like a reverse Tragedy of the Commons, where instead of overgrazing by all, we have a few trampling the commons out of spite.

Finally, there is the lack of rich media. Only pics and RedGifs, both limited. And gifs get converted to webm, which don't autoplay or loop in LemmyUI. Another Lemmy issue, beyond the site here, but is one cause of declining interest IMO.

This is JMO and is said with all due respect and deference to the community and site admins.

No.

The best content creators here have OF accounts. They need to eat too. Close them off and this place will slow to a crawl.

This is a self-defeating move.

I'd call you two a super cute couple, but you're in a dinosaur suit so I have no idea about you. 🤣😂🤣

Your partner gets my 👍

And I love that leash story.

It was harrowing and embarrassing for me. Which was the point. To get me to confront those feelings, control them in public, and walk tall.

I should add, many community kinksters these days would consider a public display like that to have violated everyone else on the street because they didn't consent to see it. But back then (late 90s), the kink community didn't hold such views.

I think that's a North American thing, because just before Covid I saw a leached woman being walked along the Champs Elysees in Paris. Nobody batted an eye. Lol

My first kinky GF was a highly experienced community kinkster while I was this vanilla nerd. She connected me with her ex Mistress who provided kink mentoring so I could be the Dom my GF wanted and needed. But it was hard for me. About seven months into our relationship the Mistress tasked me with walking my GF leashed through Kenmore Square on a Saturday night when nightlife was popping. She was dressed in fetidh gear and collared while I wore a suit.

And oh yeah, eyes turned toward us from all over the street.

Thanks for all your hard work!

Hey, I've noticed two things since the downtime and migration.

1. NSFW is no longer automatically checked on submissions. I can deal with that, but it used to be automatic here.

2. When I submit a new entry, the submission hangs with a spinning wheel. But I notice that the actual submission goes through. Don't know why the web server just hangs like that. But it is annoying.

Thanks for all your hard work!

Hey, you're an instance admin and this kind of collegial statement is entirely appropriate given your role here.

Me? I'm a newbie here. I don't have much to lose. My assessment of that exchange is: she bonkers. But that's just me.

That exchange is absolutely bonkers. I'm sorry but I have far less respect for Ada after reading that text exchange. Glad I don't use that instance.