This is a follow-up from my previous thread.

The thread discussed the question of why people tend to choose proprietary microblogging platfroms (i.e. Bluesky or Threads) over the free and open source microblogging platform, Mastodon.

The reasons, summarised by @noodlejetski@lemm.ee are:

  1. marketing
  2. not having to pick the instance when registering
  3. people who have experienced Mastodon’s hermetic culture discouraging others from joining
  4. algorithms helping discover people and content to follow
  5. marketing

and I’m saying that as a firm Mastodon user and believer.

Now that we know why people move to proprietary microblogging platforms, we can also produce methods to counter this.

How do we get “normies” to adopt the Fediverse?

  • YeetPics@mander.xyz
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    4 months ago

    Tell the people calling for nuking half the planet to stop it, enforce it.

    Boom. You just eliminated 80% of the hostility on the platform.

  • DarkCloud@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    4 months ago

    Tell friends and family to get accounts on federated services you use. Word of mouth is how lots of websites get popular.

    Recommend it when reddit comes up or gets mentioned.

    • awwwyissss@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      4 months ago

      I don’t even tell people I use Lemmy, let alone recommend it, because of how much authoritarian propaganda there is on here.

      I love the idea and won’t give up on it easily, and I hope other users can join me in making it a better place by calling out propaganda.

      • Ademir@lemmy.eco.br
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        0
        ·
        4 months ago

        because of how much authoritarian propaganda there is on here.

        lol you never saw authoritarian propaganda in the commercial social media because you already are brainwashed.

  • Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    4 months ago

    I said since I got here that the actual sign up process IS the hardest part. For exactly the reasons you said.

    Each instance has it’s own personality. As much as EVERY user here will hate to hear this, you need to centralize the decentralized. Have a single point of entry. Signup at Lemmy.com

    Now you’re User@Lemmy.com. and you’re told that you have 6 months to pick an instance. And here’s a guide to all known instances, with a wiki style explaination of what each instance’s personality is. With an expandable list of each federated and defederated instance.

    Now once they switch to their new “home” all their comments stay in their comment history. Everything in their profile comes with them. EVERY instance in the fediverse needs to adhere to a set of protocols. So that when they move instances, the only thing that changes is if you look at a post they made last week, it no longer shows user@lemmy.com it now shows user@lemmy.world. and if in 2 years you move again now it says user@lemm.ee even for posts you made 2 years prior. It always lists your current account. Even if you move to Mbin. Now it says user@fedia.io

    It’s a learn, and grow as you go situation.

    Oh, and if an instance ever shuts down, those profiles aren’t lost. They revert back to Lemmy.com, and the 6 month rule is back in effect.

    But you have to anticipate the user. Not control the user. And right now the user understands centralized. So centralize the decentralized, and THEN teach them slowly how it works. I understand today leaps and bounds more than I did 4 months ago. I’m still not sure Lemmy.World is my final home. I’m trying out piefed. I’m probably going to try out Mbin. And I’m sure I’ll discover new things. But on day 1, I was like “…do what now? What’s an instance? What’s decentralized?”

    And NOW I can see that the Nintendo account I follow on Mastodon for the past year isn’t really Nintendo. It’s Nintendo@Lemmy.World and EVERY post gets auto “boosted”. A year ago I thought that was literally Nintendo. I was surprised they were not only OBSESSIVELY active, but that they had a Mastodon account at all.

    You gotta remember, this is how most people will walk into the fediverse on day 1. Not knowing how shit works, and if it doesn’t work for them, they’re out. You can teach them later. But also right now the fediverse as a whole is fragmented as shit. There’s decentralized, and then theres disjointed.

    You’ll notice that I post regularly to THIS community. With constant questions. I’M taking the active approach to learning. The average user won’t know that they’re stupid. They’ll think the fediverse is stupid because it doesn’t work the way they’re used to. Most people don’t have the self reflection I have, nor the constant curiousity. If I don’t know a thing, it bothers me. If most people don’t know how a smoke alarm works, they fon’t give a shit. Whereas I watch a youtube video for almost an hour. Did you know there’s actually several different types of smoke detection? And that one type is very much more prone to false positives, and worse, lack of positive positives due to light? See, most people will find that boring, not give a shit, and move on. So YOU gotta teach them with annoying popups. “Hey, the fediverse is actually self hosted, and right now you’re on the instance of Lemmy.com! Whats that mean? Well…” blah blah blah, you guys already know this part, but that’s the message they should get on day 1. Teach them they need to understand what an instance is, and how to pick an instance that works for them. Then they can migrate there. If that instance is ever no longer good enough, they can migrate elsewhere. Even to Mbin, even to piefed, wherever! One account, all the fediverse.

    And here’s the best part. They can go to fediverse.com and log in regardless of which instance they’re on. Just type user is user@lemmy.world password is ********* and login.

    And now all the decentralized is centralized. Without losing the benefits of being decentralized. Because it IS still decentralized. But most drivers aren’t mechanics. They use the service, but they don’t need to know the ins and outs. They just need to be able to use it, without it being confusing for THEM.

    The hardest thing I’ve noticed is that linux user types don’t grasp is that just because THEY understand something as easy, doesn’t mean EVERYONE finds it easy. And there are a LOT of linux mindset people here. You may “get it”, but that doesn’t make it naturally intuitive. The fediverse is confusing as shit. Each part works differently. Has a different layout. Has a different interface. Operates differently. Which is a stark contrast to facebook users who just say “DO THE THING!” and suddenly 70 boomers are giving them thumbs up and emojis for a quilt they sewed and sharing the patchwork on.

    Everyone here is saying to defederate from Threads, because it’s facebook, and I get why. But are you seriously going to cut off the biggest by far userbase to federate with you, simply because you don’t want corporate integration? Facebook still wouldn’t own the fediverse, but now something like 80 million users will start asking questions about the fediverse. Yes, it’s all old people, and people we would rather not interact with, but guess what. They don’t want to interact with you in retrogames@lemmy.world either. They don’t want to be in linux@lemmy.ml either. They’re going to create their own communities, which have no interest to you, but boost the fediverse’s numbers. By the millions. And now maybe facebook as a whole integrates. Maybe reddit sees the momentum and they integrate. Maybe hoogle sees the momentum.

    And pretty soon the fediverse becomes the default layout of how the internet works. And the decentralized nature means that no corporate entity CAN own it. They can put ads on individual instances that they own…but they can’t control all the instances. And people who don’t care about those ads will stay there. People who don’t will go to other duplicate instances.

    But to defederate from threads before ANY of this takes place is the dumbest idea I’ve ever heard, while daily seeing those same people ask “How do we grow the fediverse?”

    THATS HOW!!! Ok, I’ve ranted enough…

    • Blaze (he/him)@feddit.org
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      4 months ago

      Now once they switch to their new “home” all their comments stay in their comment history. Everything in their profile comes with them.

      Very difficult technically. Mastodon doesn’t allow this either, I don’t know any Fediverse platform which allows this. If someone knows one, please share

      Mastodon currently does not support importing posts or media due to technical limitations

      https://docs.joinmastodon.org/user/moving/#export

      About Threads, have you been to Facebook lately? The level of conspiracy, bigotry etc is over the roof.

      And on top of that, millions of users federate here from Threads

      • they start upvoting, commenting in the established communities, drowning every existing user with their numbers
      • previous Fediverse users start to recreate their own communities without the Threads users, just because of the population differences
      • Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        0
        ·
        4 months ago

        Very difficult technically. Mastodon doesn’t allow this either, I don’t know any Fediverse platform which allows this. If someone knows one, please share

        It may not exist NOW, but my point is the fediverse itself needs to adopt a stance of “Ok, these are the foundation for which EVERY service will connect to the fediverse. Develop these services into your platform now, or risk being auto-defederated from all complying fediverse platforms in future updates.”

        Give it like 3 years to actually let these platforms figure out how to work it in, but eventually ALL platforms will have to have it if the fediverse as a whole wants to succeed. Basically your account wouldn’t be a Mastodon account, or a Lemmy account, or a Pixelfed account, or any other platform specific account. It would be a fediverse account. And you’d log in via one central place, which then exchanges information with the instance, and back to the centralized log-in point. So if you wanted to browse Pixelfed for example, you’d log in user@lemmy.world, with your password on Fediverse.com, and Fediverse.com would exchange info with your instance, verify the login, and then exchange info with pixelfed which would already know you’re a verified logged in user. Then, using Pixelfed’s layout and platform, you’re browsing a pixelfed instance, via Lemmy.World, with all traffic being handled by fediverse.com as a neutral middle party to handle login verifications.

        About Threads, have you been to Facebook lately? The level of conspiracy, bigotry etc is over the roof.

        And on top of that, millions of users federate here from Threads

        they start upvoting, commenting in the established communities, drowning every existing user with their numbersprevious Fediverse users start to >recreate their own communities without the Threads users, just because of the population differences

        That’s all fine. I literally covered that in my innitial post when I said

        They’re going to create their own communities, which have no interest to you, but boost the fediverse’s numbers. By the millions. And now maybe facebook as a whole integrates. Maybe reddit sees the momentum and they integrate. Maybe hoogle sees the momentum.

        And pretty soon the fediverse becomes the default layout of how the internet works. And the decentralized nature means that no corporate entity CAN own it. They can put ads on individual instances that they own…but they can’t control all the instances. And people who don’t care about those ads will stay there. People who don’t will go to other duplicate instances.

        So, even though I didn’t know it was happening, I literally predicted that would happen. Even down to the duplicate communities to get away from those that you don’t want to interact with. Fine, let them have their own racist communties that you never have to interact with. Let THEIR moderators handle that. The bigger thing to take away is that the fediverse, racist communities and all, is growing and becoming actually relevant. You can’t just treat internet places as “safe places” where only your kind exist. You have to either solve racism in real life, or accept that it will also exist online. You can use moderation tools to make sure that attitude isn’t welcome in your instance, but if you say they aren’t welcome on the fediverse, then you cut off about 90% of the older generation, and about half of society as a whole…or 48% if we’re being accurate.

        I was at a family get together, when my mom just casually threw out the N-Word. The table had 7 people sitting at it. 4 of them were my moms age, in her 70s. My sister is 50, and I’m 40. My niece is 12. When she said it, My sister, my niece, and me all looked at each other with eyes that basically said “WHAT THE FUCK???” and the 4 other elderly people just didn’t even phase them. My mom has never once in my presence, nor my sisters presence, EVER used language or an attitude like that. She’s not part of the 48% party. But to see her generation just casually accept that was mind blowing for not only me, but also my sister, and my niece. We immediately huddled off to the side room and everybody immediately asked “WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT???” in whispered tones. Nobody had EVER heard anything like that from her. She doesn’t watch fox news. We have no idea what got into her, other then thinking maybe that’s just what her generation says when nobody younger is around, and this time it slipped out. But my brother in laws parents, and the other elderly neighbor didn’t even react. Whereas it was clear to us three that something weird just happened.

        And as far as the world goes, the boomers, even on deaths door, are STILL the largest demographic of people in society. So if you exclude them, you are saying millions of people aren’t welcome on your platform, and in doing so, will hinder it’s growth. Permanently. Until they die off, their numbers are needed for anything to be considered a sucsess.

        So the best you can do, is welcome them to your platform, stick them off into their own instance, you go onto your own instance, you don’t interact with them, but let them interact with each other. Then other platforms can see the numbers, not understand the situation, and THEY join in. And THAT’s where you get the users of actual value. The people on reddit, and instagram, and youtube. ESPECIALLY youtube.

        Peertube is what’s poised to gain the most here. NOBODY likes youtube. The creators don’t like youtubes god complex, and holding them to strict rules that change on a dime, and retroactively give them strikes that were perfectly inline with their rules at the time of posting. Users don’t like youtube, again because of their god complex. Changing features, removing thumbs down button, doing everything they can to force ads onto your screen.

        BOTH SIDES want a change, but there’s no valid alternative until people start USING an alternative. That’s because if you go outside, and ask 100 people in a common public place “What is the fediverse?” I would be SHOCKED if 1 person knew. Ask those same 100 people what youtube is, and I’d be SHOCKED if only 99 people knew. The awareness just isn’t there yet.

        So yeah, for the time being, you HAVE TO allow the racists onto your platform purely for the growth. They’ll be dead in 10 years anyways. But until people know what the fediverse is, you need EVERY platform willing to federate. Then, once the fediverse is a common term, and everybody underdstands it, THEN you can start saying “Ok, boomer, fuck off with that racist shit.”

        • Blaze (he/him)@feddit.org
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          0
          ·
          4 months ago

          all traffic being handled by fediverse.com as a neutral middle party to handle login verifications.

          Who manages fediverse.com? Who prevents it from being bought out by a billionaire? Who ensures that it stays neutral in case of cat food vegan debates? Who prevents people unsatisfied with the issue of that debate to create their own fediverse.com?

          And as far as the world goes, the boomers, even on deaths door, are STILL the largest demographic of people in society. So if you exclude them, you are saying millions of people aren’t welcome on your platform, and in doing so, will hinder it’s growth. Permanently. Until they die off, their numbers are needed for anything to be considered a sucsess.

          TikTok doesn’t have boomers, is it not considered a success? Trying to bring in the boomer population doesn’t seem to bring a lot of values if they don’t interact and stay in their own bubbles.

          Bringing Reddit users, which are usually closer to the Lemmy demographics, would be more interesting, as those users would interact and mingle better with the rest of the existing userbase.

          As a general comment, I’m always surprised when people want to bring everyone to a platform. Every city or town has several bars and cafes. You don’t expect the old ladies sipping tea to go to the rock cafe, and you don’t expect young parents to spend time in university bars.

          It’s okay to have different places for different people on the Internet.

  • 👍Maximum Derek👍@discuss.tchncs.de
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    4 months ago

    I’ve had more than one person tell me they don’t think microblogging is worth any learning curve whatsoever. They’d rather not use anything than have a single conversation about federation or feed building.

  • polarpear11@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    4 months ago

    I think I’d be considered a “normie” maybe. I’m not super tech savvy (maybe a bit more than the average person though as I’m a bit of a photoshop wizard and am interested in tech subjects).

    What brought me to lemmy was my moral compass. I’ve used reddit since the late 00’s so it was hard to let go but reddit just isn’t what it used to be. I could no longer use Joey, my reddit app of choice so I abandoned it because what they did to Joey and other apps was bullshit.

    I still find myself on reddit every now and then when I need information on something specific though. I haven’t found communities on the fediverse that I connect with that are super active (things like houseplants, knitting, chronic pain, my specific city I live in, etc).

    I use lemmy now for mindlessly scrolling before bed and news as I only use Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok for work so it’s not leisurely for me to get on normie social media. I do find some interesting articles and funny memes and that’s enough for now.

    So maybe the key to get a more robust community is through pulling heart strings? Idk my husband still used reddit daily and I guess doesn’t give a shit about the lax morals of the company 🤷🏼‍♀️

  • BeAware :fediverse:@social.beaware.live
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    edit-2
    4 months ago

    @dch82 first, “normies” have to not get harassed when they come here.

    Unfortunately the biggest Fedi software refuses to add automated reporting of offensive posts so if it’s not reported, the admins won’t even see it.

    People coming from corporate social media are used to ignoring the report button because in their experience, it either doesn’t work, or gets ignored by admins anyway.

    We need automated reporting.

    @fediverse

      • BeAware :fediverse:@social.beaware.live
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        0
        ·
        edit-2
        4 months ago

        @AterNox @dch82 blocking and reporting work fine.

        However, people from corporate social media won’t report posts because in their experience, it either doesn’t get taken seriously or the admins ignore it. Corporate social media sites don’t exactly act on reports in a timely manner.

        I’m on my own instance, I moderate for myself. I don’t want slurs to exist on my instance at all. However, if I don’t see them with my own eyes, I cannot ban the user.

        PS. I’m talking about banning users that are harassing others on the instance level. These are user actions. I am an admin. I run my own instance.

        @fediverse

        • cm0002@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          0
          ·
          4 months ago

          I’m confused, do you mean like automated enforcement rules/algorithms like big SM has? I.e. if user gets reported for breaking Y rule X amount of times ban user for Z amount of time and forward to admin for further action?

          • BeAware :fediverse:@social.beaware.live
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            0
            ·
            edit-2
            4 months ago

            @cm0002 no, I want automated reports.

            A user using the n word, full on with the hard R, isn’t gonna be a good post. It should be automatically reported to me so that I can judge context and take action.

            If a user doesn’t report it, I won’t see it.

            I’m on my own instance, I am the user.

            If I don’t report it, nobody sees it.

            That’s dumb.

            @fediverse

            • cm0002@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              0
              ·
              4 months ago

              Ah, makes sense now, that is dumb. I can totally see why they would have issues with automated enforcement, but what you described I don’t see why anyone would be against it lol

    • zeppo@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      4 months ago

      Definitely. Back when I used FB and Twitter I learned that reporting is entirely useless. You just end up with some automated message about how they reviewed it and it “didn’t violate their community standards” with some lame verbiage like “we realize this isn’t the outcome you were looking for”, regardless of how ridiculously blatant whatever you reported was. On the flip side, I was banned for clearly misinterpreted or brigaded comments, and then an appeal just gives you the inverse where they reviewed it and whatever you posted was definitely terrible and they “realize this isn’t the outcome you were looking for”.

    • Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      4 months ago

      We need automated reporting.

      I’m fine with auto REPORTING, but the actual moderation needs to be a human. Auto moderation is bad. It gets things wrong. It’s how I got banned from both twitter (calm down, this was back in 2018 before it was an elon owned nazi cesspool), and reddit.

      On twitter I saw a funny video that was posted, and I replied “Aw man, that killed me”.

      I was banned for “inciting death threats”

        • P03 Locke@lemmy.dbzer0.com
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          0
          ·
          4 months ago

          That’s the thing about automation and training models.

          First, they implement some sort of auto-reporting bot that requires a human to review them. In the beginning, it only about 50% accurate, but as they give it more and more examples of good and bad results through the human reviews, it moves to 80%, then 90%, then 99%, then 99.99% accuracy.

          After a while, the humans on the other end are so numb to the 9999 entries they have to mark as approved that they can barely tell what’s a rejection themselves, and the moderation team is asking itself just what this human review is actually doing. If it’s 99.99% accurate, why not let the bot decide?

          Then, the model moves on from auto-reporting to auto-moderation.

    • osaerisxero@kbin.melroy.org
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      4 months ago

      I unironically think it would be easier to train users that the report button works now than it would to get automated reporting that was worth a damn implemented.

    • Cy@fedicy.us.to
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      4 months ago

      We have instancewide admin blocks, so the accounts that would be automatically reported can be blocked preemptively, no report needed. That can be both good and bad… but pick a sheltered instance and you shouldn’t get harassed. How would automatic reporting even work? I don’t recall, but doesn’t the admin interface let you specify keywords that alert the admins in a post? Is that what you mean?

      CC: @dch82@lemmy.zip @fediverse@lemmy.world

    • ALostInquirer@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      4 months ago

      By automated reporting do you mean something like filters on the backend to flag offensive posts per some custom settings?

  • lemmeBe@sh.itjust.works
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    4 months ago

    I’m a developer, and it was a pain picking an instance. You start reading about them, and it turns out one’s censored, the other one’s communist, third one doesn’t cooperate with the other ones so you can’t see anything…

    As long as it is like this, I don’t believe mass adoption is feasible. I would’ve given up because it takes a lot of time compared to just registering and off you go, but I was interested to see what’s all the ruckus after reddit started with censorship. Maybe interesting to mention that I was never an active reddit member (not one post there).

    • Blaze (he/him)@feddit.org
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      edit-2
      4 months ago

      Indeed, nowadays I just send people to Lemm.ee

      • neutral name (sorry SJW)
      • second biggest instance
      • almost no defederation
      • no topic or country specific (I mean, technically Estonia, but everything happens in English, compared to feddit.org for instance)
      • SorteKanin@feddit.dk
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        0
        ·
        4 months ago

        almost no defederation

        I don’t think this is really a good thing. Most people don’t want to bother curating their feed and if they get lots of bad stuff from instances that ought to be defederated, then they will leave.

      • Cracks_InTheWalls@sh.itjust.works
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        0
        ·
        4 months ago

        -Neutral name (sorry SJW)

        Boo this person! (I kid, don’t boo them, they’re doing good work and I understand if not everyone wants to be a sh.it.head)

    • sunzu2@thebrainbin.org
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      4 months ago

      Just send them to Lemmy world… Edge and shit lords will get banned and figure how this bitch works lol

      Normies being on Lemmy world is better than. Reddit in my book

      • rglullis@communick.news
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        0
        ·
        4 months ago

        And then we will get more communities being created on Lemmy world, and then the whole Fediverse depends on one single instance. This seems like a good idea at first, but won’t stand the test of time.

        I am trying to convince more instance admins to install Fediverser on their servers, so that we can have a way to point people to one site that can distribute the users and help with onboarding and discovery. But so far none of the admins really seem to be interested in the having to deal with the potential influx of users from Reddit.

        • threelonmusketeers@sh.itjust.works
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          0
          ·
          4 months ago

          I am trying to convince more instance admins to install Fediverser on their servers, so that we can have a way to point people to one site that can distribute the users and help with onboarding and discovery

          What does Fediverser from an admin standpoint? Does it just enable a “Login with Reddit” option for onboarding new users?

          • rglullis@communick.news
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            0
            ·
            4 months ago

            That is the main thing, yes, but it would also allow for better coordination among the instances for migration efforts. “Fediversed” Instances can keep of redditors that migrated, can have more attributes to display for people when selecting a instance, can accept or reject a Redditor based on certain criteria (e.g, account is too new, or was flagged as a spammer, or is posting a language different from the main language in the server, etc)

      • threelonmusketeers@sh.itjust.works
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        0
        ·
        edit-2
        4 months ago

        Just send them to Lemmy world

        I agree that having a “default instance” would greatly help with onboarding new users, but as many others have said before, centralizing on the largest instance is not a good idea.

        There are several other “general purpose” Lemmy instances. Why not send everyone to lemm.ee, until its size is close to lemmy world? At that point, start sending everyone to lemmy.sdf.org or lemmy.zip.

        • sunzu2@thebrainbin.org
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          0
          ·
          4 months ago

          Great point!

          I don’t know what other instances are viable bit we should have a place to get current preferred.

          I just tell my peeps Lemmy.world it is like reddit with out going into details about fediverse since they ignore me once I start talking “federation”

          • JubilantJaguar@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            0
            ·
            4 months ago

            The problem with this approach is that your peeps won’t see any reason to go there if it’s the same as the R-site only exponentially less popular.

            There needs to be an understandable USP.

            Perhaps: “But without ads. Ever. Anywhere.” Works for me and I know what an ad-blocker is, unlike a ton of normies.

            • lemmeBe@sh.itjust.works
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              0
              ·
              4 months ago

              Sincere question: what does “normie” exactly mean in the context of Lemmy? Is it a person that couldn’t get past setting up Lemmy account?

              The term sounds like it has kinda elitist connotations. I mean I’ve set up Lemmy, but I don’t feel like I’m god given - maybe I should. 😆 (kidding, of course)

        • maegul (he/they)@lemmy.ml
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          0
          ·
          4 months ago

          Yea, instead of a default instance, I think there should be a default system that assigns you to one of a set of participating “general” instances without you having to decide or think about it.

            • maegul (he/they)@lemmy.ml
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              0
              ·
              4 months ago

              AFAICT, it helps you pick an instance based on your interests, which only barely helps with the problem. If you’re new to the ecosystem, you typically just want to join in and see what’s going on before making any decisions. And you probably don’t want to bother with selecting criteria for a selection guide at all.

              What I’m suggesting is clicking a button “Sign Up”, enter credentials, verify and done. Then allow the whole finding an instance process pan out naturally.

              Part of the issue IMO is that how an instance advertises itself isn’t necessarily how it will be seen by someone … they need to see it for themselves.

              • Blaze (he/him)@feddit.org
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                0
                ·
                4 months ago

                Part of the issue IMO is that how an instance advertises itself isn’t necessarily how it will be seen by someone … they need to see it for themselves.

                Indeed

    • Alex@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      4 months ago

      Quite. Go to the big services that know how to moderate and maintain (and importantly pay for) a public square. But also encourage the interesting ones enable federation for wider coverage.

  • TheRealCharlesEames@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    edit-2
    4 months ago

    With better design and better branding. These poorly illustrated mouse lookin icons are not helping us in any way.

  • B312@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    4 months ago

    It’s way harder to find posts on mastodon compared to bluesky as you have to follow people to start getting a feed, whilst in bluesky they have a discovery feed. This makes it a way more streamlined experience for users, making bluesky and threads far more attractive to users than mastodon

    • sunzu2@thebrainbin.org
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      4 months ago

      We all love bashing out less techie friends but dunking on them is counter productive!

      Like it or not they make the main/lame stream. We need fedi to go mainstream to deny corpo trash profits.

      Like it or not, normies must be onboarded!

      • lightnsfw@reddthat.com
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        0
        ·
        4 months ago

        We need fedi to go mainstream to deny corpo trash profits.

        Why? Who cares if we don’t have to interact with them? Becoming mainstream was the downfall of Reddit.

        • sunzu2@thebrainbin.org
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          0
          ·
          4 months ago

          If you don’t forge your own destiny, then somebody will do it for you aka reddit.

          Reddit failed due to governance and centralization issue. Not BC it was mainstream IMHO

          • lightnsfw@reddthat.com
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            0
            ·
            4 months ago

            You don’t think the massive amount of repetitive jokes and reposts and overall shitty attention whoring content was a problem on Reddit?

    • kbal@fedia.io
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      4 months ago

      Maybe I don’t want the “normies” around, whoever they are, but personally I would like to see a lot more people joining in such as Go players, Skyrim modders, situationists, auto mechanics, British panel show enthusiasts, death metal guitarists, discordians, card sharks, magicians, acid heads, skydivers, xylophonists, and amateur zookeepers. This part of fedi has more than enough politics and computers and too little everything else.

  • hitagi@ani.social
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    4 months ago

    People have suggested making a portal/quiz for instance signups, but that adds to the barrier. There are also problems like how in-depth and inclusive it should be. It reminds me of Linux distro pickers that often suggest weird niche distros.

    There are already big/default instances in the Fediverse though but there are people who actively discourage this. Maybe Mastodon just had a bad start and Bluesky learned from that. I wonder if Bluesky’s PDS will be like Fediverse instances though. Many Fediverse instances are built around shared interests but the PDS just looks like a glorified handle.

    Personally, I think the Fediverse discourse should shift to designing social media with decentralization in mind rather than mimicking mainstream social media with a “decentralized twist”. I don’t think the Fediverse will ever be as big as Twitter, but it doesn’t have to be. It just needs to be sustainable enough to keep new conversations going.

    Doesn’t answer the question but maybe it’s worth sharing anyway.

  • Etterra@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    4 months ago

    We don’t. Normies made Reddit suck and they’ll make Lemmy suck too. Always have at least a small barrier to tech entry. When anyone can use it then everyone will use it. So do you want Facebook? Because that’s how you end up with fucking Facebook.