cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/60936421
Just got the email there (to see how bad it will be.) The full text is:
Hey.
You're getting this email because you were first in line.
Before the homepage. Before the platform. Before most people knew something was even happening.
So... welcome. You're officially invited to become a part of Groundbreakers, a small group of early supporters helping shape what Digg becomes next.
If you're just tuning in, here's the short version: Digg is coming back. Not as a throwback. Not as a museum. But as a reboot of the original social news site—rebuilt for how the internet actually works now.
And we want to build it the right way: with real people involved from the start.
We're gathering on Circle, a private online space where we'll share early ideas, rough screenshots, updates from the team, and weird internet energy in all forms.
What to expect:
– Early access to updates, mockups, and experiments – A front-row seat to how Digg is being rebuilt – A chance to give feedback, share ideas, or just watch it unfold – A community of smart internet people who showed up early—just like you
Also: you probably noticed there's a $5 charge to join. That's not about access. It's a simple way to keep things human—a small hurdle that helps make sure the people coming in are, well, actual people. No subscriptions. No gimmicks. Just a quick check at the door.
And since we're asking for it, we figured we'd put it to good use. > Proceeds will go to a nonprofit we'll choose together inside the community.
Thanks for being early. And for helping us build something new on top of something iconic.
See you inside, —The Digg Team
Some notes:
- There is a high amount of em dashes, and it reads as ai.
- The link isn't personalised, so giving them your email is pretty useless.
Well, looks like its going to still be shit.
Sorry if this is the wrong place to post this; I thought it could be relevant.
reddit users will use anything but lemmy lmao
These large social media sites are like injecting dopamine straight into your veins. Telling someone to quit eating McDonalds and start growing vegetables is a tough pitch.
It's so weird tho that that is likely somewhat true. They think "there's nothing here, this sucks" and not "there's nothing here, so if I post it would actually be seen."
Even when I post in my completely unadvertised personal community, I get engagement. Just posting to a small/dead community could very easily stimulate life in it.
Yeah they come expecting it to be like dead communities in reddit when its closer to small good communities since your post actually gets seen and gets replies, on reddit those active large communities have the same 3 mods posting nonstop banning everyone else or a sea of posts/comments where yours get buried and gets no engagement
It's not like those kinds of niche subs are going to see tons of activity on Digg either.
It's going to be a catch-22 until we sustain stable slow growth for long enough to reach critical mass. That is, unless Reddit fucks up royally enough to trigger another exodus. Such as when they'll eventually turn off old.reddit.
We get complaints of barriers to entry but then I see digg doing this...
Someone should set up a open-entry Lemmy server, without an email requirement, but you have to pay $5 for each account you sign up with.
https://communick.news/signup
Looks like $30 a year
https://communick.com/
Isn't that the cost to host an entire instance?
Yeah, he's the weirdo who keeps trying to turn Lemmy into a profit center and whining in the Fediverse subs about it.
That said, you absolutely should give your instance admins money 🤷♂️
insane when you can install yunohost on a vps and have that all going for 5-10$ a month
Wait that’s double the cost at best. $5/mo is $60/yr, and that link above is $30/yr. It sounds like a good deal to me right? It definitely seems good if you don’t want to deal with the sysadmin portion of self hosting these services, kind of like the game server hosting companies back in the day.
Hey redditors, if you send me five bucks I'll set up your Lemmy account for you. /jk ...unless?
Until the UX of Lemmy is improved, that will stay true.
I really hope this isn't the end of the nice bit of growth we've seen recently.