we havent solved the ‘new user’ -> instance’ problem
its hard to explain to people the concept that the server you login to is just the home base of an entire network. explaining the dance of instance interoperability immediately tunes out potential new users.
the fediverse isnt really open to newcomers… they tend to land on the big ones like .world and then slowly warm up to the idea theyre communicating with many remote servers… if they stick around
For real. Hosting is work, not necessarily a huge amount but it’s continuous work. I would probably technically be able to get an instance off the ground and usable, but I don’t have the time to do maintenance or user management or the hundred other little things that come with hosting public resources. If you “succeed” and establish a userbase, congratulations, you now have a (optional, but with an implied understanding with your users that you will continue to do it) job that pays anywhere from a little bit to negative a lot.
I’m on .zip just because the voyager iOS app puts it at the top of the list when you sign up 😂
It was simple to sign up but I think maybe the waiting period between sign up and account creation might put off younger users who haven’t experienced it on forums etc. before, also.
This is kind of a problem I’m dealing with. I get the federation and the different servers, that’s just using gmail to message Yahoo. However, I picked lemmy.world when I bailed out of reddit because I wasn’t keen on losing my account if a smaller server closed. Now I don’t know where to move because half the verse has a block on world.
theres some open servers minimal on de-federation that have been around for awhile… i would call these ‘on-ramp’ servers… they host little locally-created content, but users can interface with the rest of the verse freely… mine is one of those.
cept im not using lemmy. lemmy is kinda fugly imho. i wanted a more contemporary old.reddit
As a casual user, having your server (picked due to larger size) blocked by others due to poor moderating (assuming this is the problem with .world), will likely lead to simple abandonment of the platform. At least by those who are generally well meaning, but not engaged enough to learn more quickly.
I imagine the attrition rate from this alone will keep adoption low.
I’m willing to put in a bit more effort, but I’m in the same boat… Just chilling on .world, probably missing out on things I don’t even know about, and I’m not likely to put in the time to change that soon, I have other problems lol.
If the general trend is to wall up when in disagreement, and larger servers collapse too easily under the weight of to many casual users vs dedicated mods (as selection pressure would tend to move more dedicated people to smaller more controlled servers)… Well hopefully the smaller communities can grow at a sustainable pace, while us casuals try to find the right one/s.
maybe mastodon and lemmy could have a tutorial button/mode that is a “Learn As You Go” if you click on a user profile it explains federation or others like when you click on a community it teachs you the chronological algorithm
we havent solved the ‘new user’ -> instance’ problem
its hard to explain to people the concept that the server you login to is just the home base of an entire network. explaining the dance of instance interoperability immediately tunes out potential new users.
the fediverse isnt really open to newcomers… they tend to land on the big ones like .world and then slowly warm up to the idea theyre communicating with many remote servers… if they stick around
Or that simply joining certain instances means you can’t interact with some communities.
Also, have a backup for downtimes and closures.
I’m on my fifth account and not bc I’m choosy but bc every instance I’ve joined has shuttered.
theres another big problem… funding and administration. anyone can throw a federating server up… it takes some work to make it (and keep it) reliable
For real. Hosting is work, not necessarily a huge amount but it’s continuous work. I would probably technically be able to get an instance off the ground and usable, but I don’t have the time to do maintenance or user management or the hundred other little things that come with hosting public resources. If you “succeed” and establish a userbase, congratulations, you now have a (optional, but with an implied understanding with your users that you will continue to do it) job that pays anywhere from a little bit to negative a lot.
I’m on .zip just because the voyager iOS app puts it at the top of the list when you sign up 😂
It was simple to sign up but I think maybe the waiting period between sign up and account creation might put off younger users who haven’t experienced it on forums etc. before, also.
This is kind of a problem I’m dealing with. I get the federation and the different servers, that’s just using gmail to message Yahoo. However, I picked lemmy.world when I bailed out of reddit because I wasn’t keen on losing my account if a smaller server closed. Now I don’t know where to move because half the verse has a block on world.
yeah, not sure what to tell you… theres just no warning when your instance is run by shit heads.
you could go check https://fedidb.com/servers for places to test.
theres some open servers minimal on de-federation that have been around for awhile… i would call these ‘on-ramp’ servers… they host little locally-created content, but users can interface with the rest of the verse freely… mine is one of those.
cept im not using lemmy. lemmy is kinda fugly imho. i wanted a more contemporary old.reddit
theres a frontend that works exactly like old reddit called mlmym
theres a few instances that host it like old.lemmy.today old.lemmy.zip old.lemmy.world
yeah, but then you have to use lemmy which has almost zero microblog interaction… my other deciding factor
As a casual user, having your server (picked due to larger size) blocked by others due to poor moderating (assuming this is the problem with .world), will likely lead to simple abandonment of the platform. At least by those who are generally well meaning, but not engaged enough to learn more quickly.
I imagine the attrition rate from this alone will keep adoption low.
I’m willing to put in a bit more effort, but I’m in the same boat… Just chilling on .world, probably missing out on things I don’t even know about, and I’m not likely to put in the time to change that soon, I have other problems lol.
If the general trend is to wall up when in disagreement, and larger servers collapse too easily under the weight of to many casual users vs dedicated mods (as selection pressure would tend to move more dedicated people to smaller more controlled servers)… Well hopefully the smaller communities can grow at a sustainable pace, while us casuals try to find the right one/s.
Not many instances defed .world, I don’t think it’s anything to worry about unless there’s specific ones you know you want
PieFed has added features that reduce the need for defederation, and hopefully Lemmy will copy them
Also you don’t really need to leave .world, you can use 2 accounts, the 3rd party apps all handle this nicely
maybe mastodon and lemmy could have a tutorial button/mode that is a “Learn As You Go” if you click on a user profile it explains federation or others like when you click on a community it teachs you the chronological algorithm
i think its a bit kiddish but maybe