How can we make the fediverse easier to adopt?

or another way to ask it, what made fedi easier for you to adopt? I don't think the answer is better ways of explaining how federation exactly works, because no matter how good of an analogy you can make, most users don't care and just want to know how to get started

EDIT: I guess I'll go first, for something like Mastodon I think encouraging people to use a client like pinafore.social or Tusky instead of going directly to the website of the instance would help stop people from confusing themselves by getting redirected between instances. Same for Lemmy as better clients start to pop up

Kissaki,
@Kissaki@feddit.de avatar

Guidance over complexity and choice

Better UI and UX - visual guidance, separation, clarity

Making links not redirect to other instances you're not logged in to

thebestlettuce,

Making links not redirect to other instances you’re not logged in to

definitely this

sorrybookbroke,

It took me trying five different sites to join. Two asked for an essay, and neither have responded a day later. This is not tenable.

I'm a dev, and from the statistics I've gathered form abandonment is the largest factor towards failure to take an action. Having a form fail, having to "apply", or having a failure message makes people leave. We have to fix this problem to allow for better adoption.

There needs to be some sort of central system to join. A site whose sole existence is to house an app with four inputs, and a button. Username, password, confirm password, email, and sign up. After this it should take a list of sites that volunteer to take users, and randomly place them into one. If it fails, or takes too long, it should try another. It should then inform them of the site, email them, and finally redirect them to the site logged in.

This would be difficult to implement as it requires these sites to allow third party sign ups but this would solve the form abandonment problem. Allowing this would also allow for apps to do the same.

Nugget_in_biscuit,

The number one rule of getting people to change their behavior is to reduce friction. Someone needs to make a client that can mask a lot of the federation behind the scenes so that non-tech folks can just hop on and start browsing

Subito,

I'd fix inconsistencies between instances. Like, I made this account in Beehaw and now I literally can't create a community anywhere until I make a new account. It shouldn't be like this.

amanneedsamaid,

Explain to people how it works! The most difficult barrier for adopting the Fediverse is a lack of basic understanding.

manitcor,
@manitcor@lemmy.intai.tech avatar

"It's just like email, but we all share the inbox we group-sort by instance then community."

open_world,
@open_world@lemmy.world avatar

I definitely like the people and interactions here way more than on Reddit. However, there are clearly a lot of technical challenges to solve with server management and the general UI experience. I often get confused on how things work, especially with regards to federation.

Hopefully, these issues get ironed out over the next few months or years and I can safely call Lemmy a great Reddit replacement.

computerfan0,

Yes, this is my first time. I was never really a fan of Twitter or similar social medias, preferring the subreddit and thread based nature of Reddit.

kadu, (edited )
@kadu@lemmy.world avatar

If we are going to be mainstream, we really need an app that abstracts away most of the technical aspects of Lemmy.

Sure, you and I might understand federation and like it - your average user will see this wall of text explaining how it works as a brick wall and give up.

So an app that just says something like "pick a server, don't worry you can still see content from others, here's our suggestion" and then "create an account and login" will work as even many games work like this.

Then the main feed needs to be abstracted away, replace long URLs with "community name" and let users subscribe and browse without any subdivisions (unless they want to filter it out). Make sure the interface treats everything as if it were a simple subreddit, they see a group about a game they enjoy and they subscribe - no friction.

thebestlettuce, (edited )

Yeah a good Lemmy client app would probably help users migrate easier. I tried the only one on the android play store (Jebril) but it crashes immediately when I log in

thedeserter,

Isn't there one called Jerboah or something? https://join-lemmy.org/apps Here you go

thedeserter,

I completely agree with the idea. I was initially intimidated about the sign up process a week ago. Left it and came back only because I’m determined not to use Reddit anymore. Also helps that I’m using mlem. It’s not the best but gets the job done. There’s improvements to be made, but if these suggestions are looked upon and implemented, it can really help.

Also I think having a popular person making a YouTube video on the sign up process might not be a bad idea. Visual guides are better than written ones for common users

thebestlettuce,

Mlem looks great! IOS only though rip

thedeserter,

Well if we give it time, there will be more.

Awa,
@Awa@lemmy.world avatar

@ruud created a sticky post that is a work in progress, however I believe it is something that answers your question

https://lemmy.world/post/37906

Bjoern_Tantau,

Honestly, I think the Reddit blackout already is pretty good. If the closed subs already had an alternative community or instance to recommend that would also be great.

Synergy with Mastodon would be nice. As far as I know Lemmy and Mastodon aren't completely linked but also not completely separate. Would be awesome if I could now also just follow people or hashtags there.

But all in all I think the current direction is great. The relevant projects seem to be getting a large influx of bug reports, feature requests and pull requests. We'll probably be seeing huge changes in the coming months.

panoptic,

You might want to check out kbin it integrates mastodon

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