this post was submitted on 06 Aug 2023
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i got on lemmy without understanding how instances work, and even now, after 2 months and +100 comments, i know very little
I take this as a big point for "see how well you can do without caring about it". And think talking about it should be kept to a minimum during onboarding. Although it's understandable why pages like https://join-lemmy.org/ talk so much about it, even about hosting your own server!
This is from nerds to nerds, in a wholesome way. But most people aren't nerds, and as you prove, don't need to get into the details to use it, enjoy it, participate and contribute.
My vision is: Hide all the tech talk in 'advanced signup' and make the default signup process as quick and easy as possible.
I agree, you want bums in seats as quickly and effortless as possible. Your average user coming from reddit just wants an "all" feed they can use to curate their own front page, they don't really know, care, or want to learn about the plumbing underneath. The ones that do care will figure it out as theres plenty of resources available.
Knowing very little about the technical side - and speaking only from my experience trying to get my own account set up - I almost think the fediverse need a dedicated, standalone sign up instance (or series of instances) that has no posting enabled, but is automatically federated to the X most popular instances - so that apps and web interfaces can create simple default sign ups for new users without them needing to understand what instances even are.
Something like "lemmy.gateway" that can act as a home for the user account that then looks at the instances where the content actually happens, that can have high availability and redundancy in the event of server load on the popular instances, and that "just works" for your average reddit migrant so they don't have to go diving into instance details to dip their toe in the water. That way your "content instances" can go up or down without impacting new user signups, your apps can work to load popular posts even if what would normally be your home instance is down, and you can decouple things a bit - maybe your "gateway" lemmy instance can drop some code to run leaner since it doesn't have to worry about posting content.
To fund it you'd need some selfless souls, or perhaps agreement between major instances to shell out some revenue to host the sign up instance network, with the idea that getting users in to the fediverse generically is just as important as getting them on specific instances.
I have no idea if this is even possible but from a new user flow, if the intent is to maximise active users, you just want to get people "in" so they can eyeball, vote and post - then let learn how lemmy is different. Not the other way around.
Like driving my car. I haven't got a clue how it all works under the hood but I know enough to get me where I want, when I want.
Absolutely! I love the steps Mastodon is taking. Basically when you click join from the main page you get an account on mastodon.social and it just works. You really need to dig around to find other instances.
I'm hoping there's an instance that figures out how to become popular and financially sustainable enough to be able to support that scale. Maybe it's lemmy.world or maybe it's another one in the future.
That's quite good going - although it could be that,.unless you run an instance, there isn't actually much to know and the little you know is all you need to know. It's a hurdle, but a low one.