Tech literacy is definitely a problem. I see laziness from from fellow sysadmins on making the switch to Lemmy because “it’s too confusing”. I’ve seen some decent graphics people have made attempting to simplify how this all works - I bet having one handy when convincing a friend to join would be helpful.
On a similar note - patience and understanding will be big. If a newbie makes an honest question and they get met with “RTFM” or anything similar then I think it risks a bad first impression of the community which could turn away someone that could’ve been a long time user. My philosophy will be to address any question, big or small, with respect. We should be happy someone is interested in learning more!
Honestly, I don’t buy it when people say this. I think they’re just resistant to change. Which is OK! But I don’t think we need to get caught up in explaining the details. If something doesn’t work, we just say “Well it’s brand new” and pivot to whatever features we think they’ll like.
My philosophy will be to address any question, big or small, with respect. We should be happy someone is interested in learning more!
I agree that people are resistant to change. This is a tough problem to overcome… change comes from within.
I also agree that the fediverse doesn’t necessarily need how it works overexplained to a new users. Many car-owners probably don’t even have a basic understanding of how a motor vehicle works and yet in the US it’s hard to imagine living without one. What matter is that it’s intuitive to use and isn’t too complicated to learn.
I think if I can take a stab at tying both of these points together regarding growing the fediverse it’s that continued development of the fediverse applications are essential. Give people an intuitive product that works and the masses will want to come use it. Give people products that are easy to learn and function properly. And of course the beauty of open source projects are that anyone and everyone with programming know-how can help with this. Lemmy has gotten way better since I first joined but of course there’s still room for improvement.
Tech literacy is definitely a problem. I see laziness from from fellow sysadmins on making the switch to Lemmy because “it’s too confusing”. I’ve seen some decent graphics people have made attempting to simplify how this all works - I bet having one handy when convincing a friend to join would be helpful.
On a similar note - patience and understanding will be big. If a newbie makes an honest question and they get met with “RTFM” or anything similar then I think it risks a bad first impression of the community which could turn away someone that could’ve been a long time user. My philosophy will be to address any question, big or small, with respect. We should be happy someone is interested in learning more!
Honestly, I don’t buy it when people say this. I think they’re just resistant to change. Which is OK! But I don’t think we need to get caught up in explaining the details. If something doesn’t work, we just say “Well it’s brand new” and pivot to whatever features we think they’ll like.
This is so important thank you for saying that.
I agree that people are resistant to change. This is a tough problem to overcome… change comes from within.
I also agree that the fediverse doesn’t necessarily need how it works overexplained to a new users. Many car-owners probably don’t even have a basic understanding of how a motor vehicle works and yet in the US it’s hard to imagine living without one. What matter is that it’s intuitive to use and isn’t too complicated to learn.
I think if I can take a stab at tying both of these points together regarding growing the fediverse it’s that continued development of the fediverse applications are essential. Give people an intuitive product that works and the masses will want to come use it. Give people products that are easy to learn and function properly. And of course the beauty of open source projects are that anyone and everyone with programming know-how can help with this. Lemmy has gotten way better since I first joined but of course there’s still room for improvement.