People need to realize you can use alternatives

  • zouhair@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    The documentation explaining how fediverse works is so bad. It’s so long and convoluted anyone new just can’t get bothered reading it.

  • WalterzarBoBalterzar@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I tried to make an account on lemmy.ml and it looks like their servers are (understandably) overloaded

    I ended up choosing lemmy.world instead

    My understanding is I’m not missing out on anything by chosing a less-popular instance. Did I get that right?

  • Menachem@midwest.social
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    1 year ago

    tbf people just wanna sign up and click on funny links, not browse through 100 rando instances to find the one that lines up with their exact interests and wait for approval and worry about uptime and whether their instance will still exist in a year

  • daguito81@beehaw.org
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    1 year ago

    This is something that lemmy devs need to better address. This is an “Eternal September” kind of situation. People (me included) are not used to the fediverse. They think you can participate only if you’re in that instance. And people want content, so they think "why’s the instance with most people? Ahh lemmy.ml? Cool, let’s join.

    • Cambionn@feddit.nl
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      1 year ago

      This is something that lemmy devs need to better address.

      I mean, it’s not like there are big warnings at the top of lemmy.ml’s sign-up page and join-lemmy.org that tell you not too (with a link where to find other instances)… *end sarcasm

      But really, how much more adressing do they need to do? Just close off join requests all together? Because I don’t think it can be much more clear to be honest.

  • decksdark@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    I chose lemmy.ml based on two things:

    • I wanted a server that wasn’t likely to close I don’t really know for sure, but I imagine it’s easy to underestimate how much money or time is required to run a server. And I’d really prefer not having to worry about migrating. The ‘run by Lemmy’s developers’ part makes me think that either the risk will be lower or the people running the server will know how to prevent reaching a point like that.
    • I didn’t want to join a very specific instance As I see it, there are two possible scenarios:
      • The instance I join will affect the content I’m exposed (and not exposed) to, in which case I want to experience ‘the whole internet’ rather than a section of it.
      • The instance I choose is irrelevant to the content I get, in which case, (apart from community rules) it shouldn’t really matter which one I choose, so I would just join the biggest instance.

    Still something that could help with the choosing-an-instance process is to display in the list of servers the community rules and if they are blocking certain communities.

  • vodnik@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    They need to do away with the ridiculous manual approval process on most servers and recommend servers that forego it on the main site.

    • darkstar@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      Same… why would I use a smaller instance when the bigger one has more stuff on it? Maybe I just don’t understand this instance thing properly, it all just feels so fragmented

      • neo (he/him)@lemmy.comfysnug.space
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        1 year ago

        Same… why would I use a smaller instance when the bigger one has more stuff on it? Maybe I just don’t understand this instance thing properly, it all just feels so fragmented

        You don’t NEED to be on the big instance in order to participate on the big instance.

        That’s the true beauty of what we’re doing here.

          • Boe6@beehaw.org
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            1 year ago

            One instance might have separate rules than another, so you can use multiple to get around that. Also if one instance gets shutdown for whatever reason you’ll need another instance to browse through.

            Generally though, no. One instance is fine and helps keep the system from getting overloaded with users.

      • NebulaBC@beehaw.org
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        1 year ago

        It’s mainly a thing of controlling your own stuff if you’re speaking of self hosted servers. If you mean just smaller instances in general, it’s normally because you prefer their management/moderation. You can still view all of the stuff from the other instances just fine even if you’re on a single user instance.

      • Galiratabbycat@lemmy.sdf.org
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        1 year ago

        Like so many other people here. The federation concept is completely new to them and over time people will settle down and get used to how it works. Maybe people will set up their own instances for the ultimate name swag.

      • Silviecat44@vlemmy.net
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        1 year ago

        Imagine an Instance as an email address. You can still access any content from any instance (mostly). All posts and comments just go through your instance for you to see them

        • f_lambda@lemmy.fmhy.ml
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          1 year ago

          You can even see it looking at the usernames of people in different instances. For example, I see your username as @[email protected], which pretty much identically follows the format of an email address.

  • deva@sh.itjust.works
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    1 year ago

    Idk why anyone would use the main instance and choose to be admined by genocide denying tankies

  • Ghostalmedia@beehaw.org
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    1 year ago

    Problem is that a) new users don’t know that they can join communities across servers, and b) it is intuitive use start with the servers that a lot of people like.

    Instance browsing and onboarding is probably the biggest challenge to Lemmy’s growth. The current experience either scares new people away, or encourages them to congregate on a limited set of instances.

    • nattekrant@feddit.nl
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      1 year ago

      If the registration process just picked a random instance for you, maybe something nearby, and assured new users that they can visit communities and interact with users across instances, very few would pick the biggest instance.

      • _cnt0@feddit.de
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        1 year ago

        That isn’t guaranteed, though. The other day I wanted to create a new community and was browsing instances on join-lemmy.org/instances for an instance that was compatible rulewise. The one I picked evidently wasn’t a good pick (burggit.moe). Trying to advertise my new community, I found out it was defederated from beehaw (and likely others) and got insulted as a pedophilia sympathizer …

        Randomly assigning new users to instances would make a substantial fraction of people very unhappy.

      • StringTheory@beehaw.org
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        1 year ago

        I would be very sad if I was randomly assigned an instance in French (for example) because I don’t speak French.

    • mangel@lemmy.ca
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      1 year ago

      It’s also that lemmy.ml is the instance I’ve seen posted everywhere when it’s brought up, so naturally people would just sign up there instead of finding somewhere else.

    • goat@burggit.moe
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      1 year ago

      How’s it work if I get banned from one instance? Yet I can still comment in that instance I got banned from? No clue how that works

      • Vlixz@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        Just joining in, and what will happen if the instance you created your account on decides to stop running. Does your account just dissapear?

        • RoosterBoy@lemm.ee
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          1 year ago

          Yes. But it is easy as hell to set up on another instance or even throw up your own.

      • Barbarian@sh.itjust.works
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        1 year ago

        If you get banned from your home instance, you’re banned everywhere.

        If you get banned on a different instance, you can no longer post/comment/vote in communities there but otherwise you’re fine.