As a new user I would like to point out some issues I encountered getting off the ground with lemmy in the hopes that ironing these out will help the network welcome more users.
- join-lemmy.org is really hard to find without the “join”. On startpage.com there is exactly 1 link related to the link aggregator software out of 10 pages. And that one links to the github. You’re gonna lose a whole bunch of possible users on this hurdle.
- join-lemmy.org doesn’t do what it says on the tin. The home page is almost exclusively dedicated to get people to self host. In terms of overall population these people are a rounding error. The focus of a site called “join lemmy” needs to be to get people to join lemmy. To that end: explain what it is then move them along
- picking an instance to join is not something the average user wants to do. They want to join LEMMY. They do not have the information to make an educated decision at this point.
- there should be a short list or wizard to guide them. language? country? nsfw content yes/no/maybe? Then give them a few recommendations for ACTIVE instances.
- there needs to be accounting for the fact that if they register on a non-NSFW instance they will not be able to consume NSFW content. This is an important information regardless of what you want, as picking the wrong one means you have to do it all over again. An appreciable number of users will just leave at that point.
- there should be an option for users to move all their contributions from one instance to another. There will inevitably be instances that go under. I don’t know about others but I would like to be able to take my history with me if I’m forced (or decide) to move.
- The initial content offered to new users is often suboptimal. Firstly, it defaults to showing only the local communities, which is fine if you consider instances as their own ecosystem but horribly disappointing for someone looking for a reddit replacement. There should be an initial community selecton like on reddit. A few busy quality general interest slices (group of lemmings) to get people started and engaged. Maybe have each instance curate their own collection? Then default to that.
- figuring out which new community to subscribe is annoying. There are currently a LOT of duplicate communities with little to no content. In addition to subscriber stats there should be an activity stat.
- community groups and collectives could help in this regard. Say you’re interested in TTRPGs. There are currently like half a dozen communities (slices).
- If a user could subscribe them into a larger (personal) group they could check on each of them in one go instead of visiting each individually
- The communities themselves could organize into “collectives” in a similar way as hashtags are born. These could be a very useful first point of contact for the corresponding interest.
- auto reload pushing new content in at the top is hugely annoying. we have refresh buttons for a reason.
Point 2 is unfortunate framing.
I believe the developers should continue to push self-hosting. The Fediverse needs people who roll their own instance to remain a healthy ecosystem. You give an instance leverage over the Fediverse if too many people rely on that instance. They have the most content, so they can defederate themselves to become a centralized social media platform. Everyone they federated with now lost their primary source of content. Although I must admit that this may never happen, and that the consequences may be overblown due to my lack of knowledge in ActivityPub.
Of course, the developers should also improve the self-hosting experience for normies.
- Quick and easy one click install.
- Integrate with hosting providers.
- Automated patching.
While I appreciate managed Lemmy services due to their ease of use, they’re also a magnet for people who aren’t tech-savvy enough to run their own instance. idk whether that counts as a win or a loss in my books yet.
You make a good point on the importance of new instances but an actual “normie” (sounds a bit derogatory) is never going to self host. For them you absolutely need a very convenient and obvious path to registering on an existing instance.
To be fair the site does currently start with two buttons “Join a Server” & “Run a Server”. But that choice almost disappears next to the more prominent explanation of what lemmy is. How about this instead:
Lemmy
Lemmy is a free and open social link aggregation and discussion network that is not controlled by any company but instead consists of many independently run servers, that all connect and share their content. This means that there is no advertising, tracking, or secret algorithms. Content is organized into communities, so it is easy to subscribe to topics that you are interested in, and ignore others. Voting is used to bring the most interesting items to the top.
If you just want to join, you can browse [ all available servers ] or answer a few questions to narrow down your selection:
Country: International/USA/Germany/…
Language(s): English/German/…
NSFW Content: Block/Allow
[ Show me some suitable communities ]If you want to provide a home for other users in addition to yourself we’ve made [ hosting your own server ] as simple as possible.
Everything about this screams user testing. User testing allows the developers to give people a friction-less experience that encourages the people to try to host their own instance. Much like how Steam practices weekly play testing… when they develop games.
I don’t see the point in discussing what solutions to usability problems could work inside of our bubble when you can walk up to the target group, give them 10 bucks, and let them dump their thoughts when they see a variation of the landing page.
Perhaps encouraging people to self-host fails miserably during the user tests. But that’s okay. Let’s appeal to people who’re eager to host and share their own instances instead.
