There are different opinions on Beehaw's registration process. I kind of see how some people would find it dissuasive, specially after most of us are coming from Reddit. But I still think it's very practical, at least for the time being.
Btw, this is only my opinion as a new user, I don't know any of the admins/mods. Link to my original comment.
update: yeah if @reddog is you then your account exists; we'll get to it when we sort out the email situation which hopefully will be tomorrow because i'm tired of not being able to approve people lol
Awesome! I applied for beehaw the first day of the blackout. It lets me do a forgot password and I get the email so I imagine I’m in the system but not finalized yet.
Awesome! Yeah, it's me there too. Thanks for the feedback and know that it's appreciated. No rush on my behalf -- I'm still figuring all this out and do have other fedi-accounts to feed the fix, so to speak. :)
I actually really liked it as an exercise in reflection.
I probably wrote too much in mine, a good full paragraph for each. They really just need to create the slightest barrier to entry to make moderating 10x easier.
Or if you're just going to lurk... you don't need to make an account at all! As I did for the first week before deciding on whether or not to join, lmao
Right? If you can’t come up with a minimal answer to a very simple question, how could you possibly contribute positively in any way whatsoever here? And why would you even want to join this instance? This isn’t meant to be a shitposting low effort instance…
Vetting users with a questionnaire is a good idea, allows admins to see who they should let in. What and how a person answers the questions tells a lot about the applicant.
I was just accepted yesterday. I have social anxiety, so a younger, less self-aware version of myself would never have even submitted it. But thank goodness I've gotten better at this type of thing. Instead of over-analyzing and writing a huge essay, I timeboxed my response. Thankfully, it seems to have worked.
From what I can tell, I really do align with what the admins are after, here. I hope that it continues to work well.
I wasnt expecting it. But it made me think about my motivation for joining above and beyond "an alternative to Reddit". It took a couple of minutes thought while standing in the post office queue! Instead of mindlessly auto completeing another registration page, I actually spent a fraction of my day thinking about why i was doing it. I found it quite fulfilling.
I just went through the registration process and I really liked it. It didn't go smoothly because of technical problems (the spinning wheel of doom), but this can be fixed.
The fact that users have to read, think and write about the beehaw philosophy makes it far easier to avoid trolls.
I probably wrote "too much" as I was thrilled to find a place which is working towards kindness and community :)
My general rule of thumb is that things tend to go better if every owner, admin or mod team utilises the approaches which work best for them. If an instance is functioning well, I'm going to start from a place of trust that what they've made a good choice for themselves and the existing community. It's up to me to decide if it's also a reasonable choice for myself or if somewhere else would be a better match.
A lot of comments from people with social anxiety; as someone with social anxiety and aspergers, figured I may as well throw my thoughts into the ring.
I've been through the "approval process" dance a few times now, both for Mastodon and Lemmy and honestly, I don't really find it that bad. The secret is internalizing that mods have so many applications to get through, so they won't really scrutinize your language or overanalyze it to too much. I know easier said than done, but really, the fact that you're putting any amount of thought into it is probably more than most people.
Honestly, I think approvals is a good system and should be the norm for social media sites; it slows down trolls/bots ability to make accounts, and IMO is better than all the alternatives. Email is problematic, capchas aren't really accessible, and screw Instagram requiring you to take a photo of yourself when you sign up. One site I signed up for actually wanted you to ask another user to "vouch" for you as not a troll which means talking to scary strangers.
I think there is a "cultural" miscommunication though. A lot of us are deeply ingrained in "fediverse culture" where this sort of thing is the norm, and so we intuitively understand that it should only be a sentence or two.
However, if you look at where non-fediverse people have seen this type of requirement before? Job applications, university applications, that sort of thing. I think this is why people think that they need to write long, intricately detailed posts saying why they deserve to join what feels like an exclusive club.
I think Beehaw could make it clearer that they are only looking for about three sentences demonstrating that you've read the documents (actually, do you need to fully read the documents? It's a bit unclear), and that you aren't being "graded". Out of interest though, would "I just want to lurk and read posts" be acceptable as an answer to the third question?
Hold on. Does instagram actually make you take a photo of yourself to sign up now? lol And some people complaining about having to answer three questions...
It did for me! I made an account a few months ago, and it immediately suspended me and asked for a phone number. I gave it that and then it asked for a photo of me holding a piece of paper with my username.
Think it might have been because I did the cardinal sin of not using a gmail or hotmail email.
But creating an account using my Facebook account and single sign on works, so ehhh.
Screw all these companies wanting access to your phone number... Bleh.
Thanks for sharing your experience! Before I read your comment I thought it would just keep some people away who wouldn't adhere to the rules anyway. Having ADHD myself it was just another task to struggle with, nothing out of the ordinary. I put it on my list and did it at a time i could concentrate on it sufficiently.
I think Beehaw could make it clearer that they are only looking for about three sentences demonstrating that you’ve read the documents (actually, do you need to fully read the documents? It’s a bit unclear), and that you aren’t being “graded”.
we did make a few edits so hopefully this is more clear. i don't want to "give the game away" though so to speak, so unfortunately i'll have to be mum on the first bit besides what i just said.
Out of interest though, would “I just want to lurk and read posts” be acceptable as an answer to the third question?
we're pretty generous as long as their whole application isn't only "i'm gonna lurk" or something.
The registration process and their statement on wanting a community based on kindness, respect, etc is why I signed up on Beehaw in the first place. No trolls and such to deal with, dealt with that enough on R*ddit. So, I like it lol
I only saw one question - guess I got lucky! I thought about providing a link to my reddit user page so they could verify that I wasn't generally a jerk, but then that would give reddit clicks. It also seemed like turning the application work around on the mods, which I assume they have too much of at the present time, so I didn't.
It was quick and easy. It also gave me a bit of comfort knowing that they're at least doing some vetting to ensure we aren't overwhelmed with bots, trolls, or other messed up individuals.
Didn't felt like an interview at all, I don't think the "what do you want to contribute" question was there when I signed up 2 weeks ago, but I remember the other 2 and it took me 2 or 3 sentences it was literally just "I heard great things about beehaw, people seem great and the ones shitting on lemmy on reddit right now are sounding like the people I'll want nothing to do with in the future and they're making here soumd even cooler, so I want in."
It would take me zero effort to add how a sentence or so about how I like to help and see here grow and not devolve into a toxic mess.
Also, I know a lot of people don't use facebook these days, but many groups now have a vetting process like that now and the chillest ones will always, without fault, have something that with 3 questions and one that will just force you to read the rules to find a random word password in them. The ones that don't turn into a mess real fast. So that's not even a niche thing, the "normies" do it with no problem.
I personally don't find it a problem but I think it may lose a lot of users who are simply too impatient to fill out the questionnaire and then wait to see if they were approved.
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