I was invited to comment here by u/BlazeAlt on Reddit last week regarding ways to lower the barriers to joining the Fediverse for average users — so here I go.
I'm sure a lot of this has been discussed ad nauseam, but I do have some specific starting suggestions at the end.
With corporate, single-instance social media, there's one place you go sign up, and you're in. You can find things that interest you with a simple search, and you can find people you know either by their names (Facebook) or by a very simple handle ([at]nickname). And if you're trying to build up an online identity — say, for your new podcast — if you're handle is unique enough you can end each episode with "and you can find us at MyNewPodcast on all the socials!"
Federated social media requires you to choose an instance before you can even sign up. But...
[average user voice]
- What the hell's an "instance"?
- How do I choose one?
- Why do I have to choose one?
- What do their names mean?
- What does the instance I choose say about me? -Does choosing one over another have any effect on the experience I will have?
- How does someone on another instance find me?
- How do I find someone on another instance?
- How do I find topics on another instance? -Does my choice of instance affect my access to those topics?
- Are the rules different on each instance?
- Who sets the rules?
- Where do I find them?
- What if I want to change instances?
- Will anyone be able to find me?
- How will they know I'm still me?
[/end average user voice]
Federated social media also requires weirdly complicated handles. [average user voice]
- Why are there two @ signs?
- What does it mean if there's a "!" instead of a "@" at the beginning?
- What the hell are all these weird domain names?
- Why can't I be just [at]TheSameHandleIUsedOnTwitter?
- If I'm trying to create an online identity, what's to stop someone from using [at]MyHandle[at]SomeOtherInstance.url and posing as me?
- What's the Lemmy equivalent of a blue check?
- If there isn't one, how can anyone be sure someone on Lemmy saying they're me really is me? -I mean, other than starting my own instance with recognizable name — but then I have to learn how to host my own instance.
[/end average user voice]
To be clear: I'm not literally asking these questions. I'm just illustrating some of the hurdles to adoption I described above, and some of the ways in which federated social media is exponentially more complicated than corporate social media.
As for solutions, I don't have an all-encompassing proposal at the moment. But a good place to start would be to agree upon a single default instance for new users to sign up, so that instead of being faced with "first choose an instance," it would be...
Welcome to Lemmy.URL, where you can join Lemmy communities for any topic, all over the world! What do you want your username to be?
- [____________]
OK, do you want your username to use a common lemmy "instance," like...
- [ ] ____________ [at] lemmy.URL
- [ ] ____________ [at] lemm.ee
- [ ] ____________ [at] etc.
OR would you like more custom username connected to a particular Lemmy community, like...
- [ ] ____________ [at] sci-fi-fans.url
- [ ] ____________[at] knittingnuts.url
- [find Lemmy instances where your username is available]
- [I know which Lemmy instance I want to join first]
Choosing a community-based username doesn't affect how you use Lemmy — no matter what community you chose, you'll have access to all the same content, communities, users, and feeds.
The [find Lemmy instances] button would lead to a page where you check off various areas of interest to then get a curated subset of relevant instances with a reasonable amount of information about them to help new users select one.
The [I know which instance] button would have you fill in the name of the instance, check if your username is available, then take you to that sign-up page.
So...something akin to join-lemmy.org, but with a flow closers to what I've described above, with very few, easy, "common" default choices, and a little more help through the process of choosing a specialized instance (if you want one).
This onboarding suggestion doesn't solve most of the problems/questions in my bullet lists (ideas still forming), but it would help prevent what happened to me the first few times I looked into Lemmy, which was that as soon as I saw I had to choose an instance before I did anything else — with pretty much zero information on what that meant or how it would affect my use of Lemmy — I said, "I don't have the time for this."
BTW, as I write this, my first Lemmy post, I will also add that the comment fields need to be WYSIWYG for if Lemmy ever hopes to be populated by refugees from Reddit, etc. Creating the quote section above was a huge pain in the ass, that required multiple rounds of [Preview] [Edit] [Preview] [Edit] [Preview] [Edit] [Preview] [Edit].
Food for thought. Cheers.
Who manages this, and who defines the criteria?
I'm personally recommending Lemm.ee by default nowadays, with posts like this
https://old.reddit.com/r/BuyFromEU/comments/1j0xkqa/lemmy_as_an_alternative_to_reddit_using/
Seems to address most of OP points without needing to rework join-lemmy.org
Actually, that Reddit post was exactly the thing that got me thinking about this in the first place. That is not a post for average people. It starts out with an attempt at a simple explanation — "No need to understand federation, servers, or any technical jargon" — but very quickly devolves into exactly those things it said you didn't need to understand. For example, it uses the word "server" 21 times without ever explaining what the word means. And, as I mentioned elsewhere, explainers shouldn't be necessary. What's needed is a cleaner, simpler UX. I've started by suggesting a clearer, simpler onboarding process. The rest I'm still noodling.
I posted another version of that post on /r/BoycottUnitedStates: https://old.reddit.com/r/BoycottUnitedStates/comments/1jrcrh6/lemmy_as_an_nonus_alternative_to_red_dit_using/
I explicitly added another disclaimer to address your point
That's exactly the kind of thing the Lemmy community needs to figure out together. There doesn't have to be just one, but there should only be a handful, and they should work basically the same way. Ideally some consortium or committee would come together to agree on a simplified protocol for onboarding. I realize that's easier said than done in the early, Wild West days of Lemmy. But if the Fediverse is going to take off and undermine the billionaire-run social media networks, it needs to be easy enough for your grandma to understand it, and be able to sign up and get around without getting lost of confused.
That's a good intro text. Mine is similar.
You probably want a single URL like join-lemmy.org that manages the selector.
Would likely need some algorithm based on geography and referral data, with some amount of randomisation.
There is no simple solution, but removing instance selection (or any discussion around federation) is a must for on-boarding.
Mind you, I do think there is value in talking about the benefits of federation - e.g. "A single entity cannot buy out Lemmy, it is designed to withstand such takeovers and remain independent", but not about specific when people are just joining. The ones who are interested will figure it all out themselves.
Very much agree with this. Multiple onboarding instances that all work basically the same way, routing new users to them based on geography and language to start, and maybe when the sign-up in complete, the first post they see is an automated very basic primer that includes something about that Lemmy isn't owned by anyone, let alone by a giant corporation that wants to collect and sell their identity.
What do you think of https://pangora.social/join ?
whoa, that is very cool! I do think some things could be tweaked, but other than that, it seems perfect!
Indeed, but my question was more: who decides to add or remove an instance from the selector. The current join-lemmy.org website still recommends lemmy.ml, as join-lemmy is managed by the lemmy.ml admins. The consensus nowadays seems to be that lemmy.ml isn't probably the best recommendation for a new joiner (except if they agree with the .ml political stance, but that's not every new joiner)
https://pangora.social/join might be closer solution. Still, there is the risk of the person managing that website to arbitrarily remove an instance because they can.
Best option would be a contracted out 3rd party that gets baseline payment for managing the onboarding landing page and an additional bonus for 12 MAU growth.
ML should of course be removed from the default instance pool. The Lemmy Devs should understand why this needs to be done if they are acting in good faith. Any Marxist-leninists and supporters of russian genocidal imperialism can find ML via other means.
lol
sorry, but there's not much money being passed around here...
I get that, I am saying in an optimal world. Like if Europe happened to give a grant for independent European-hosted social networks.