People need to realize you can use alternatives
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 created my own server…
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.
If the registration process just picked a random instance for you, maybe something nearby, and assured new users that they can visit communities and interact with users across instances, very few would pick the biggest instance.
That isn’t guaranteed, though. The other day I wanted to create a new community and was browsing instances on join-lemmy.org/instances for an instance that was compatible rulewise. The one I picked evidently wasn’t a good pick (burggit.moe). Trying to advertise my new community, I found out it was defederated from beehaw (and likely others) and got insulted as a pedophilia sympathizer …
Randomly assigning new users to instances would make a substantial fraction of people very unhappy.
I would be very sad if I was randomly assigned an instance in French (for example) because I don’t speak French.
It’s also that lemmy.ml is the instance I’ve seen posted everywhere when it’s brought up, so naturally people would just sign up there instead of finding somewhere else.
How’s it work if I get banned from one instance? Yet I can still comment in that instance I got banned from? No clue how that works
If you get banned from your home instance, you’re banned everywhere.
If you get banned on a different instance, you can no longer visit communities there but otherwise you’re fine.
stupid beehaw 3:<
Beehaw kind of seems like a problem child. Like, the first thing I saw about them is that they were de-federating.
Just joining in, and what will happen if the instance you created your account on decides to stop running. Does your account just dissapear?
Yes. But it is easy as hell to set up on another instance or even throw up your own.
I applied to 3 instances when I decided to join and lemmy.ml was the only one that responded so there’s that.
deleted by creator
First I created account there and then landed on my current instance, because lemmy.ml’s admin views looks sketchy for me. Been living in ex-ussr for all my life I just cant accept all that communists and marxists and the fact that lemmy.ml has /c/Communism on it.
I know that’s silly but that’s why I’m not there anymore.
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?
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…
I think clarity on this or maybe a “roulette” of which instance on new user accounts would help. Most new users are Reddit refugees and just sign up to the mothership.
A roulette would be nice, the system balances the load of each instance. The downside of this is that it will negate the theme or purpose of the instance since the assigning of the members would likely be randomized instead of joining by choice of instance values and purpose.
I think that’s a pretty low stakes problem. I would wager it’s better to get people in the door so they can begin to understand what it even means to be on an instances that fits the vibe they’re looking for.
Even if ideally we could migrate, it’s always possible to just create an account elsewhere.
It’s low stakes to you because you don’t care about it. It’s not low stakes for the people who set up instances specifically based around building communities with a common theme.
That’s very true! I don’t think it should be completely random but something instances could opt-in to or have some other opt-out criteria.
It would indeed be bad if an instance focused on a specific mindset, goals, or subject was essentially invaded by clueless new users!
I think it could benefit severely from having like a couple of “newbie” instances where people get placed unless they choose otherwise, where their accounts then have to be migrated from by choice when a month has passed or something. Like a beginner server on an MMO with people who help newcomers understand the basics.
Yeah I think opt-in would be great.
I don’t think a roulette would work, because not all instances are created equal. Like, just look at Lemmygrad for the proof of that. There are other differences too, like some instances turn off downvoting.
The documentation explaining how fediverse works is so bad. It’s so long and convoluted anyone new just can’t be bothered reading it.
Don’t look at me I’m on feddit.de
Nah just register at whichever instance that sounds the coolest to append to your name. Just FYI I’m from
programming.dev.This is the way
This is the way
I just went with our local instance. :)
First was on programming.dev, but it’s a quite new instance and it’s search cache doesn’t show a lot of community’s, so I switched and made an account on my local one.
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.
yeah. i think the other problem is that people don’t know if the instance would be good performance wise. i.e. i joined lemmy.ml because it was the one i found first.
A good way to handle it would be to have an instance list. with number of users vs maximum users. like joining a server in a video game. if i see its super full, i’ll pick another server. of course, we’d need some large banners to make sure people know they won’t be missing out on other instances.
I would go one step further that the instance thing should be transparent. Like when you sign up, some process could determine from a “neutral instances pool” which is the one you should join, then when you log in you’re in that instance but you don’t really know where you are. It just “works”. That probably requires a lot of rework and sharing login infomration between instances. But as a more “aspirational thing”
This is something that lemmy devs need to better address.
I mean, it’s not like there are big warnings at the top of lemmy.ml’s sign-up page and join-lemmy.org that tell you not too (with a link where to find other instances)… *end sarcasm
But really, how much more adressing do they need to do? Just close off join requests all together? Because I don’t think it can be much more clear to be honest.
Yeah it’s there “This house is full, please go to another one…” but unless you know what’s up. That could be a huge deterrent to new users which I don’t think it’s the goal. I now know how this fediverse thing works and that it doesn’t really matter which instance I’m using. But for a lot of new users that concept doesn’t even register. So it needs to be more transparent from a UX perspective. Sure we could leave it as a sort of “gatekeep” and from a certain point of view it makes sense. It all depends on what the lemmy devs what to achieve.
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 was pretty much exactly my thought process. My biggest concern here is account stability-from what I can tell, if your instance gets taken down by its owners, your account is gone.
So until the devs figure out a way to centralize account credentials so that isn’t an issue, I’d much rather join on a big instance than a small one, especially one that the devs of lemmy themselves own. They have a clear interest in keeping it running, so the chances of my account vanishing are small, just like with bigger social media sites.
The hard reality here is that, much like in real life markets, federated social media will likely tend toward a small number of very large instances and lots of significantly smaller ones. Most people want a stable, consistent experience and don’t want to worry about losing communities or accounts. And unless an instance is STRICTLY policing it’s communities, like lemmygrad for instance, then I think we will see the same thing happen with communities-right now there are lots of communities that are basically identical, and I think we’ll see one or two of each become the “main” ones people use-and those will likely be on larger instances.
so the chances of my account vanishing are small
As long as you don’t mention Tiananmen Square or the CCP’s ongoing genocide of Uyghurs 🙃
I keep seeing people joke about this-do the mods here really ban people for talking about it? It seems like it’s a bit of a meme here…
Short answer: yes, the mods consider criticism of the CCP to be “orientalism” (ie, racist against Asians).
There was a bit of a kerfuffle the other day: https://beehaw.org/post/457546
You worry it’ll close if you choose a smaller server, but you don’t mind your server being instable due to being over capacity (something it’s already having issues with, hence asking people not to join)? Like, no matter if the servers goes down due to it being over it’s capacity or due to quiting, you still can’t use it… Sure it may come back up, but why not join a stable (semi-)big sized instance instead that run smoothly for you and doesn’t cause more trouble for the devs?
I mean, you trust the developers to keep things running smoothly, but you don’t trust their message to not join because they currently can’t…
Correct me if I’m wrong, but being over capacity will likley get sorted. Quitting is permanent.
Proud to be a sh.itjust.works user
I’m reppin’ Lemmy.World
As someone who intentionally joined a different instance, the biggest issue is the “federation” doesn’t allow cross-authentication. Clicking a link to another instance moves me to that instance where I’m not logged in. Authentication should really be cross-instance.
When I first looked into Lemmy I thought picking an instance confined you to that instance. I think a lot of new people don’t realize that isn’t the case.
