Nothing is as disappointing than going to a sub on a topic I'm interested in only to discover that has been abandoned or is simply inactive. The thing is, I don't believe it's because we lack users for a lot of these subs, but that these subs lack content. So people don't pay attention to them or subscribe. If you take a look at where most users congregate it's in general subs like /v/whatever, /v/worldnews, /v/music and /v/gaming. This is because posters want to get the largest audience for their content. So it's a recursive problem: people don't post to niche subs because there's nobody there; people don't subscribe to niche subs because there's no content.
What's my solution? Grow the general subs first, cross-post often and wait for critical mass.
For this to work there needs to be a coordinated effort to help people find content easily. Here's my proposal: if you have something that you would like to post, go to the obvious niche subverse first, if it is active, post! If not, find the general subverse for that topic (can usually be found in /v/vocatalog if necessary) and post there, even if that one also seems dead. If everyone does this for all of the niche subs which would fall under that general, it will have a much easier time "coming to life". For extra points, also post in the niche sub, but the important part is to start aggregating the content until critical mass is achieved. If a niche topic begins dominating the front page of the general sub, that will be the time that cross-posting to the niche sub becomes critical for transitioning purposes.
Whatever you do, just don't give up on posting! Also, thanks for taking the time to read this :)
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[–] smokratez 0 points 1 point 1 point (+1|-0) ago
Something else that's related. V/whatever sort of fills the role of niche subs. Dump whatever you want in there, and there's a good chance it will still be viewed.