Its rhe only thing I wish could change about my experience using Lemmy, for more active users in the communities like NFL or NHL and the affiliated team pages of those sports. I haven’t had any social media in decades, my main source for sporting news breaks up until 1-2 years ago was Reddit.
I love the small community that makes up Lemmy. As someone just posted, it feels like a small town community. I like the absence of corporate shills and ads and bots.
Back when I switched from Reddit to Lemmmy, I made an effort to upvote and comment on the NFL and Buffalo Bills communities. I eventually gave up because it was like months of posting, voting and commenting but when I would go back to check the communities, everything would still be sitting at like 2 up votes and 0 comment replies or if it was my own post, 1 upvote and 0 comments. For a majority of cases. Every once in a blue moon I would come accross a post where another user voted or commented but it was never more than me and one other user.
I know there is a certain demographic that uses Lemmy that is mostly driven by the required IT prowess needed to set up, use and even understand the federated concept. I also recognize that this demographic is traditionally disinterested in sports. Im not complaining about this or the users who are on Lemmy. Im also not wishing for any changes be made to aggressively expand Lemmy’s user base. Its just an impractical wish I have so I could get my sports news from the same source I get all my other news.
I will prolly spend more time this coming year settling on a 2ndary source for sports news from sources similar to sleeper app but it would be so nice if the Lemmy sporting communities blew up so I could keep everything aggregated to one source.
Of the top 10 greatest times I’ve ever had, prolly 7 are from attending Bills games, or thr PGA Championship, or Sabres games
Just pick a team, start wearing their gear and the friends will come. Lol its a great way of meeting people. You dont need to learn too much to understand the game enough to become a fan. A quick youtube video to explain the game then look up any of the number of documentaries that exist for every amd any team to learn their story/history and you are good to go.
Once you start meeting people and tell them you just started getting into it, other fans are going to be delighted to share their knowledge or answer questions. You’ll be apart of a community that will always have your back.
My local team is thr Buffalo Bills, our star quarterback’s name is Josh Allen. When Josh’s grandma died, Bills fans everywhere started donating $17 (Josh’s jersey number) to his charity for children’s hospital. We raised over a million dollars and today there is a whole wing added to children’s hospital dedicated to Josh’s grandmother that was built with the funds of his charity.
Im not guna pitch any team for you to follow but I will say that if I were you, id want to join the greatest fan community of any sport of all time, the Buffalo Bills’ Billsmafia lol.
The sports meme market is booming. NBA is prolly the king of sports memes. There are prolly reation memes you have seen a thousand times but didn’t know were from sports.
The last bit of advice id give is to get into the fantasy sports of whatever team you choose. Its the best way of learning which players are good on other teams, what plays to cheer for or be pissed about, but mostly it’ll teach you how the game’s statistics work. Plus they’re really fun and great way meet new friends. If you are interested in learning more there was a comedy series on FX that was really good that was all about a group of friends and their fantasy football league called, “The League.”