this post was submitted on 13 Feb 2025
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191
Onboarding experience needs to be simpler for mass adoption (lemmy.world)
submitted 1 week ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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If the fediverse is to be adopted by the masses, the onboarding experience needs to change. A new user can't be presented with a choice of instances as part of signing up or at least the process of making the choice needs to dumbed down a lot. I don't know how or if this can be solved, I just know as someone involved in app development and UX that the current experience won't work.

My mother would not know how to handle this paragraph: "Lemmy.world is one node in a network of hundreds of Lemmy instances. Before you sign up here, take a moment to explore all the instances at https://lemmyverse.net. You may find an instance with a regional or topical emphasis that speaks to you! Don’t worry about being left out; Lemmy instances are interconnected so users from each instance can participate with communities on other instances."

For mass adoption it needs to be so simple that even non-techie older people can get through it without feeling like they might be doing something wrong.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

If what instance you chose truly didn't matter this wouldn't be as big of an issue. Unfortunately defederation causes a tangled mess of netsplits.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Indeed, I see people saying "we should just randomly assign an instance from the top 10", when hexbear (RIP) was in the top 5

Also top 10 ( https://lemmy.fediverse.observer/list )

  1. LW
  2. lemm.ee
  3. lemmynsfw.com - not suitable
  4. sh.itjust.work - shit in the name, not appealing to the average user
  5. lemmy.ml - power tripping https://feddit.uk/post/12952230
  6. lemmy.dbzer0.com - requires to follow and agree the Anarchist code of Conduct - not appealing to the average user
  7. lemmy.ca - Canada-oriented, non-Canadian users might not want to join as they wouldn't think they would belong
  8. feddit.org - German-focused, https://feddit.org/c/main content is in German
  9. lemmy.blahaj.zone - queer-focused
  10. programming.dev - programmers-focused

I made a more complete analysis in this post https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/37336391 (pinned on [email protected] ), nowadays I basically go with:

" Lemmy has 47k monthly active users

Feel free if you have any questions"

Because yes, the USA/EU question appeared during the Luigi announcement in LW.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

If new users were asked to pick 3 or more topics from the top 10, then the most relevant instance could be assigned

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago

join-lemmy.org tried that approach, the experience is subpar: https://lemmy.world/post/24220536

[–] [email protected] -3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

hexbear (RIP)

Rest In Perdition

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

What happened to hexbear? I mean, I blocked the whole instance so I didn't have to read their crap any more, but did it disappear?