We need a more user-friendly approach to telling people about the Fediverse

I'm assuming most of us here want a large community. The reality is most people aren't into technology nearly as much as many of the people actually on the Fediverse. For other people who are into tech (like myself and a lot of people here), the federation technology itself being promoted as a core component of the appeal makes sense, but for your average person? They just don't care, and they shouldn't have to in order to experience the best things about the Fediverse.

Federation, ActivityPub, and even open source are like "buzzwords" to most people. Yet, when I've seen federated software recommended on other social media websites, every article and many times, we tell everyone about the underlying technology first and THEN about how they actually compare to Twitter/Reddit/etc., on a feature basis, as well as about the community of people actually here. It should be the other way around. Why are we telling people about the tech first over the actual social aspect?

This place can't rely solely on mass exoduses from Reddit and Twitter for new members. We've got to get out there and tell people why it's good. Right now, by many people, it's viewed at best as the "Next best thing" and at worst as "over-complicated social media".

People who do come here should learn about the underlying technology and its implications for them. If someone is willing to come here, by all means, tell them about the benefits and drawbacks of the underlying decentralized technology. Understanding how it works is pretty important anyway in the case they'd like to move their account to another instance or view posts from other instances. However, for someone who isn't here, the case can be made that it makes things seem less user-friendly to begin with. Countless times, I've seen people on the Fediverse who still barely understand how federation works. The paralyzing choice of picking an instance to join alone could make someone back away from Mastodon and just stick with Twitter.

Telling them about tech-related things that they don't know about or aren't really interested in doesn't help much. The local artist down the street likely doesn't care about having a deep understanding about federation works or the benefits of decentralized versus centralized social media. They just want somewhere to post their art for others to see and comment on others in their space.

All in all, this post is meant to target our methods of telling people about the Fediverse. We, as a community, have to be better at making this place more user-friendly. This isn't a post to criticize federation and ActivityPub themselves, but rather about how we tell people about the Fediverse through word of mouth.

nutcase2690,

The best way I’ve been able to explain it is to put it in terms of email domains. If I am on gmail, and I can still interact with someone using outlook. But instead of email, it is essentially reddit, youtube, etc.

qaz,

I like this explanation because it’s a very close analogy while also being understandable to a large audience. Email is so fundamental that basically everyone on the internet understands how it works.

TacoButtPlug,
@TacoButtPlug@sh.itjust.works avatar

I posted some good hurricane links/tags on major social media and said if anyone wants Hilary coverage outside of creepy ass Elon or Zuckerberg then to follow those links. Best I can do.

jeffhykin,

Yeah I like it cause it’s got better UI’s than reddit and users get to pick. There’s a few features I’d like to add (I’m a dev) that I think would also make it better than reddit.

I do think the front-page is kinda uninviting with how much patting-ourselves-on-the-back there is (nobody talks about how great reddit is on the front-page). But other than that, I think better experience is where Lemmy can shine. The best part is each instance can try there own features to see what sticks.

Die4Ever, (edited )
@Die4Ever@programming.dev avatar

I think when telling someone to signup, don’t give them a list of instances, just give them 2 to choose from

“Signup here, or here. Doesn’t matter which one you pick because they’re both linked and we’ll be able to see the same posts.”

Especially if you know their interests maybe you can suggest an instance focused on that, or one that hosts a community

notapantsday,

Yes, this is what made me switch. I had heard about the fediverse, but it seemed too complicated and I didn’t want to do the research and find out how it works. Then someone on reddit said “just sign up to lemmy.world lol”, I tried it and that was it.

After a while, I decided to go with a local instance, but just having somewhere to start was what pushed me over the edge.

erlend_sh,

Yeah, just a single instance recommendation is best imo. Having to choose between two instances is still a significant mental load compared to the singular options most people are used to when joining a new platform.

amanaftermidnight,

I’ve been thinking about how a short questionaire during onboarding would be great. You answer a branching set of 10 yes/no, one or the other, questions max regarding how they’re using socmed, whether they’re into this and that, that leads them to an instance that suits them the most.

Spzi,

I like this idea, but I also studied computer science. From a user’s perspective, I think we can and should dumb it down further:

Automatically choose one instance for new users. With a sophisticated algorithm or simply pick one at random, I don’t care.

And most users probably won’t care either. If they do, they can migrate to another instance. At that point, they know better what this is all about and can make an informed decision.

We trade the worries and time spent by new users trying to understand the system and their needs, against the worries and time spent by more experienced users which instance they might like better.

comcreator,

!redditexodusarmy is a community I created for others to join and share ways of promoting Lemmy to Redditors.

Essentiallly an elevator pitch is the best way to promote Lemmy. Don’t make it a long speech on why Lemmy is good. Keep it short and exciting.

Die4Ever,
@Die4Ever@programming.dev avatar

Too bad lemmy.world is down right now lol

Edit: back up now, subscription went through

Chickenstalker,

Just say thusly:

Are you a corporate cuck? No? Then go to Fediverse, cuck. Cuck.

JubilantJaguar,

You’ve been lazily downvoted because your joke didn’t land right, but I agree with the gist of it.

Nobody likes advertising, nobody. Different people hate different things about it: the visual distraction, the manipulation, the hint of spying and stalking. But literally everyone hates advertising.

So I’d say this is the point that should be emphasized. It’s like Wikipedia. No profit and therefore no frigging ads.

Pons_Aelius,

I'm assuming most of us here want a large community.

Meh. It is not a big driver for me. I have been using text based forums since before slashdot. Some were big, like slashdot, most were not.

Personally, massive is not better.

I didn't use reddit because it was huge, I ended up there because to swallowed a few niche forums I used to visit.

Outside the small single interest subs, reddit reminded me of slashdot. I felt like a small voice drowned out by sheer mass of the crowd.

Yet, when I've seen federated software recommended on other social media websites, every article and many times, we tell everyone about the underlying technology first and THEN about how they actually compare to Twitter/Reddit

In marketing there is a term USP. Unique Sell Proposition. What does your product have that others do not?

The distributed nature of federated software is its USP.

"Why should I move from reddit/twitter/etc?"

It is social media that allows privacy and stops Corps selling your data is its USP.

If the person you are talking to does not care about the above, they have no reason to move.

You said as much yourself:

Telling them about tech-related things that they don't know about or aren't really interested in doesn't help much.

The problem is that in all other aspects of social media: ease of use, userbase etc the various flavours of federated social media are last.

TLDR: If the average user does not care about the technical reasons federated social media differs from the rest. They will see little to no benefit in switching.

The local artist down the street likely doesn't care about having a deep understanding about federation works or the benefits of decentralized versus centralized social media. They just want somewhere to post their art for others to see and comment on others in their space.

Personally, I am a bit sceptical about the long term sustainability and scalability of data storage for data intensive (images and video) federated services.

If they see a large influx of users and usage, the hosting costs are going to rise fast.

Unless the artist you mention is willing to set up and host their own instance and that is another jump beyond getting them to create an account.

Mars2k21,
Mars2k21 avatar

It is social media that allows privacy and stops Corps selling your data is its USP.
If the person you are talking to does not care about the above, they have no reason to move.

Seems like the Fediverse' existence is trying to to send a message at the end of the day. If I were telling somebody about it and stopped as soon as they said the good old "I have nothing to hide" it would be kind of pointless to begin with. Might as well give the whole spill since that phrase likely is to be a given anyway.

The problem is that in all other aspects of social media: ease of use, userbase etc the various flavours of federated social media are last.

I do agree, they are behind the centralized social media. However, I don't think it would help federated social media's case if we didn't at least try to simplify it somewhat and show the appeal.

Personally, I am a bit sceptical about the long term sustainability and scalability of data storage for data intensive (images and video) federated services.

For images, I suspect that something like this would only be a major issue for federated platforms (besides Pixelfed) in the case of a massive influx of users from another platform all at once. Otherwise, the infrastructure would likely catch up eventually. Kbin, for instance, eventually scaled despite at one point being run by a single person on software absolutely not meant for that many people. Video, on the other hand, I do also feel skeptical about on the Fediverse unless a massive organization were to host an instance.

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