Memes
Rules:
- Be civil and nice.
- Try not to excessively repost, as a rule of thumb, wait at least 2 months to do it if you have to.
The documentation explaining how fediverse works is so bad. It's so long and convoluted anyone new just can't get bothered reading it.
Docu-what now?
Seriously, if the average user needs to understand distributed systems to play in the fediverse pool, they are going to land back at Reddit. Just get people in the door (any door) and fight the technical debt that creates later.
Sure, it's a shit plan. But, it's the only way to really capitalise on the current moment. With both Twitter and Reddit blasting away at their own feet, there is a real opportunity for something better to step up. The fediverse can be that thing. But, not if people end up gatekeeping it. Less Stallman style, "RTFM!" And more, "hey, welcome. Let's get you set up."
I tried to make an account on lemmy.ml and it looks like their servers are (understandably) overloaded
I ended up choosing lemmy.world instead
My understanding is I'm not missing out on anything by chosing a less-popular instance. Did I get that right?
yes!
lemmy.world in particular doesn't block any instances
see for comparison:
Oof, I can see why some of those instances are blocked, though. Since I'm on Beehaw, I checked their block list and...wow. Scrolled through each one for a few minutes and now I'm hoping I'm not on some kind FBI list for it. A few highlights from my research expedition:
- A meme featuring various characters (MLP, Vaporeon, Peter Griffin, etc) unironically mourning Ted Kaczynski
- NSFL gore
- People calling for the execution of cops who stopped rioters on Jan 6
- SO. MUCH. LOLICON.
- "Hahaha look at this WOKE LIB 🤣🤣🤣"
- QANON. QANON EVERYWHERE.
I was only on each one for a minute or so. I don't think I'm missing out on anything except maybe being put on some kind of list.
tbf people just wanna sign up and click on funny links, not browse through 100 rando instances to find the one that lines up with their exact interests and wait for approval and worry about uptime and whether their instance will still exist in a year
I chose lemmy.ml based on two things:
- I wanted a server that wasn't likely to close I don't really know for sure, but I imagine it's easy to underestimate how much money or time is required to run a server. And I'd really prefer not having to worry about migrating. The 'run by Lemmy's developers' part makes me think that either the risk will be lower or the people running the server will know how to prevent reaching a point like that.
- I didn't want to join a very specific instance As I see it, there are two possible scenarios:
- The instance I join will affect the content I'm exposed (and not exposed) to, in which case I want to experience 'the whole internet' rather than a section of it.
- The instance I choose is irrelevant to the content I get, in which case, (apart from community rules) it shouldn't really matter which one I choose, so I would just join the biggest instance.
Still something that could help with the choosing-an-instance process is to display in the list of servers the community rules and if they are blocking certain communities.
This is something that lemmy devs need to better address. This is an "Eternal September" kind of situation. People (me included) are not used to the fediverse. They think you can participate only if you're in that instance. And people want content, so they think "why's the instance with most people? Ahh lemmy.ml? Cool, let's join.
They need to do away with the ridiculous manual approval process on most servers and recommend servers that forego it on the main site.
Problem is that a) new users don’t know that they can join communities across servers, and b) it is intuitive use start with the servers that a lot of people like.
Instance browsing and onboarding is probably the biggest challenge to Lemmy’s growth. The current experience either scares new people away, or encourages them to congregate on a limited set of instances.
Idk why anyone would use the main instance and choose to be admined by genocide denying tankies
I definitely didnt pick sh.it just.works for the funny name, naaaaaaaaah
I just hope it lasts, worst thing would be if people just went back to reddit
I created my account at sh.itjust.works but I don't fully understand Lemmy yet. Finding communities seems confusing.
You have basic serach here: https://browse.feddit.de/ they index all communities on known instances.
proudly hailing from NOT lemmy.ml 🤗
I'm very tempted to switch to another instance, but from what I understand, you can't migrate your account like you can with Mastodon? That seems like something that should be expected with fediverse apps...
New feddit.de user reporting in
Ze Germans seem to have their own monopolistic instance
Well I tried beehaw but I after creating an account I had to wait to be accepted.. 1 hour later couldn't login so I went to lemmy.ml and it was instantaneous so..here I am
New user, signed up on an alternative. It isn't intuitive to add a community from another server. Got there eventually though!