Here's why more people won't switch to Lemmy.

rozno, 1 year ago

It’s weird to me that so many people have a hard time figuring out Lemmy; honestly for the average user, the process is:

1. Join big instance
2. Browse and search from there

Searching for communities could use a bit of work to make it easier (for example, I shouldn’t have to have the full community link to search for one from a federated instance if nobody on my instance has subscribed; why aren’t community lists updated automatically?) but the basic experience is pretty easy to get into

matthieu_xyz, 1 year ago

@fediverse
@rozno @SuperSpruce
Choosing a server is often the hardest step. That’s why you should send the signup page of your fav instance to your friends and not the official lemmy page.

cabbagee, 1 year ago

I agree that it sounds like your friend doesn’t want to put in the effort. But he’s right on a couple points. Lemmy is easy to learn and use, but that fact that you have to learn at all will scare most people away. People are used to immediate gratification. Sign up, maybe fill out a 2 sec questionnaire for your interests, enjoy. Lemmy isn’t streamlined to that level yet.

tristero, 1 year ago

The fediverse is not suited at the moment to fixed mindset types.

Personally, I find that refreshing. It reminds me of my earliest interactions with the Internet on BBS. The web for a long while has felt very consumerist; first curated spaces becoming walled gardens and then the subtle shift from web services as products to our attention & data as the Internet’s main product. We lost the magical sense of exploration and experimentation that made the early Internet so special. The fediverse is the first instance (pun half-intended) I’ve come across that speaks to that spirit.

heyztb, 1 year ago

I do agree that the average Redditor will not only not switch, but will probably continue to use Reddit, at least until the 30th. We’ll see what happens after that. That being said, I think that’s a good thing. Reddit has 500m MAU. Not sure the fediverse is up to the task just yet.

In the meantime, Lemmy as a platform can benefit from this by fostering a solid community from the refugees that do make their way over. I imagine there’s a fair few software engineers who may now be interested in working on this project, which I think will be healthy for things in the long term.

nutomic, 1 year ago

I cant even imagine that Lemmy could handle one million users. But there will probably be ways in the future, after all Mastodon managed it somehow.

nrab, 1 year ago

I agree it’s not user friendly (at least not as userfriendly as centralized platforms are) but I’m sorry I really doubt he has master’s in CS and if he does he bullshitted his way through to get it

burgersc12, 1 year ago

It took me five minutes to find an instance and sign in. I figured out (mostly) how instances work over the course of a couple of days. I dont have a degree. Sounds like youre friend just doesnt want to give it a shot

Cadende, 1 year ago

Just to get it out of the way: there are obviously some issues with lemmy discoverability and quantity of content

But to be blunt: this is not the kind of user lemmy needs right now, he won’t be missed. He doesn’t want to join a community, he wants to scroll a feed that is pre-curated for him. And to be honest, that is most redditors, for better or for worse, but the core of the site, what gives it most of its value besides just scale, is powerusers and mods who will see: “oh there isn’t a formula1 comm yet? I’ll make one”. Boom. Problem solved. among a userbase of thousands there will be other people who want to talk about F1, but you need at least one person to be engaged enough to create the community and post to it once in a while.

This perspective is fundamentally self-defeating if you want to get an alternative off the ground. It will take off if people get into it, and it won’t if they don’t

comfy, 1 year ago

Yeah, this site is in early stages and if someone just wants to be babysat… we literally don’t have the manpower for that yet! A smaller dedicated userbase is more important at this stage than mindless growth.

ksynwa, 1 year ago

He has a master’s degree in Computer Science and works as a software engineer.

:O