Reddit

The problem with federated services and I include Lemmy in this, is that first impression REALLY sucks. When you go to join it says "join a server" but it doesn't explain in straightforward terms what that even means. Maybe some people know what federated means but most don't care. Why are there multiple servers? What does it mean if I pick this server over that one? Why are they ordered like this? It's the same issue with Mastodon. "Join your server" but wtf does it mean???

People are used to single services, not federated ones and it is confusing. Attempting to explain it (or not) will confuse people even more. It's so confusing that some people turn tail and run, hurting uptake.

Change the initial sign up flow on join-lemmy.org. Don't say "join a server", say "join Lemmy". Don't show a randomized, indecipherable list of servers, just pick one for them from the a curated core set. If someone wants to learn about federation or wants to choose a server, then provide an option to do it, but don't just throw that in their faces. In other words, make it as simple as possible to sign up.

After people get over this hump and sign in, things become a bit less confusing but there are issues there. The ordering and even naming convention of communities is chaotic. It would be useful to think how to clean that up too.

I gotta admit, it's very confusing trying to figure out where and how to sign up. You got a bunch of separate servers, I mean instances, and each has different things going for it but they're also all connected, it's kinda hard to wrap your head around at first. If you want to sign up for reddit, you sign up and you're there. That's what we're used to, that's the norm. Also, the overload of lemmy.world is a bit sour but that's inherently because the fediverse isn't too well explained.

But this is actually really nice. Knowing where the server is, and who runs it, it's much more personal. The (what do you cal subs here?) communities and also the infrastructure are run by passionate people, and huge props for that. That's just so cool.

as someone who just abandoned their decade old reddit account, I feel like the primary difference is exactly what it seems like it would be: the giant userbase. Don't let's bullshit, social media is a skinner box. It's a place where you can press a button and get a quick hit of some sort of shallow social interaction. Whether it's approval via an updoot, a comment, or even just someone trolling, every time i hit the button I get a little reward center stimulation. It's not there with lemmy, yet. Federation is dope inasmuch as I can simply choose not to interact with huge swaths of the population that, in a centralized service, are just always there like seagulls on the shore, hollering and shitting all over everything. I love that part. But that also means that when I have a few seconds to kill and am looking for a quick pop of social media dopamine, I load up lemmy and the same posts are on the front page that have been there for two days now. This will improve a bit as there are more users and more communities within a few given instances, but for the most part right now Lemmy feels like a "once every couple of days" thing whereas reddit was generating (admittedly shit) content as fast as I could consume it.

Regarding user interface, I dont know how polished people really need, and polished how? Simple is good. Lemmy browser app is already way better than reddit ads and popups crap.

I feel like Lemmy needs to make the signup process easier. I shouldn't need to hunt down an open community to register under. At least give people an option to default to a community like @lemm.ee (which sounds like it never closes registration) otherwise the site could lose people due to mere confusion. Example: I tried registering under the Linux portion of lemmy.ml, but was told I couldn't because registration was closed. Had I not gone to Lemm.ee and tried, I would've simply moved on with the thought of "too confusing".

I'm open to the idea that I'm way off base with how Lemmy works, though I think that kind of frames the issue I'm getting at - familiarity & ease of understanding.

All websites suck, but some are more sucky than others.

Reddit refugee* (2 e's lol) here- I definitely gave up the first time I tried to sign up for Lemmy. Only the absentminded attempts to open my old Reddit app convinced me to keep trying here lol.

I was pushed this way from the Sync developer, as apparently a few other folks were. Still working out how everything works on Jerboa in the meantime.

This article reads like a true reddit dick rider. If you were on reddit pre 2015 you would know lemmy feels like old reddit. I actually kind of love it