Before reddit goes dark on Monday, I would like to add a short video to the join-lemmy.org site that shows new users how to create a lemmy account and subscribe to (remote) communities....
Most of the Lemmy instances seem to require an email to sign up. That's fine, except most of the places you would go to sign up for email want you to... already have an email. And often a phone number. And almost always a first name, last name, and birthday....
The instance list has a couple of recommended sites at the top. They are defined in this file and seperated by language. For most languages there is only one recommendation or none at all, so you can simply add yours by making a pull request....
I think we should add the following criteria to instances at the VERY TOP that are recommended to new users:
The instances does not define an allowed list of instances
Downvotes are enabled
NSFW content is allowed
Users can create new communities
...otherwise new users (eg from reddit) are not going to use lemmy because it won't match their expectations.
Personally, I was pretty disenchanted by my experience on lemmy when I first joined. I had to create accounts on like 5 different instances before I found one that worked (that's why I created the comparison table of lemmy instances).
Most new users won't have that perseverance. If, for example, they see there's no downvotes on the "recommended" instance, they'll probably give up and leave lemmy.
Downvotes are important to ensure quality content. It allows the community address statements made by a user based on objectively incorrect (mis)information. This feature is an important reason why many reddit users aren't on Mastodon. Also, democracy is important.
Recommended Instances shouldn't wholesale block content just because it's NSFW. As you say, policy on what NSFW content is allowed is distinct from the instance enabling NSFW content.
People being able to create and moderate their own communities is positive
If an instance (eg Hexbear) wants to deviate from this, that's fine. That's what the Fediverse is all about :) But we shouldn't recommend those instances to new users as it will cause new user attrition.
Honestly I'm not sure I'll stick to lemmy if the amount of content doesn't grow. And I'm sure I'm not alone. I'm here for news, and there's very little coverage of world events on lemmy (though that has already noticeably improved as our userbase grows).
I do want lemmy to grow, but not for growth's sake. I want it to grow so the content (news article submissions and quality comments about those articles) grows.
It doesn't say porn, it says adult. The legend describes how it's determined
Adult "Yes" means there's no profanity filters or blocking of NSFW content. "No" means that there are profanity filters or NSFW content is not allowed.
This site is currently struggling to handle the amount of new users. I have already upgraded the server, but it will go down regardless if half of Reddit tries to join....
See which instances are blocked more than others
awesome-lemmy-instances adds two new columns:...
Intro Guide to Lemmy (tech.michaelaltfield.net)
I wrote a guide to help users with their migration to Lemmy...
[Request] Intro to Lemmy (Video Guide) (lemmy.ml)
Before reddit goes dark on Monday, I would like to add a short video to the join-lemmy.org site that shows new users how to create a lemmy account and subscribe to (remote) communities....
awesome-lemmy-instances adds server uptime (github.com)
The GitHub repo that provides a comparison table of different lemmy instances now includes server uptime %...
[RedReader] Update 4: Reddit grants non-commercial accessibility exemption to RedReader (old.reddit.com)
Hello everyone, after a few days of discussions with Reddit I finally have an update to share on the current situation....
BusKill Warrant Canary for 2023 H2 ๐ต๏ธ (buskill.in)
We just published our #WarrantCanary for 2023 H2 ๐ต๏ธ...
Where are people getting their emails?
Most of the Lemmy instances seem to require an email to sign up. That's fine, except most of the places you would go to sign up for email want you to... already have an email. And often a phone number. And almost always a first name, last name, and birthday....
Which instances should be recommended on join-lemmy.org?
The instance list has a couple of recommended sites at the top. They are defined in this file and seperated by language. For most languages there is only one recommendation or none at all, so you can simply add yours by making a pull request....
Uptime Monitoring of Lemmy Instances?
I'd really like to find a website that displays the percent uptime for each of the lemmy instances in the Fediverse. Does one already exist?...
Comparison of Lemmy Instances (github.com)
I created a repo on GitHub that has a table comparing all the known lemmy instances...
lemmy.ml is overloaded, use other instances instead
This site is currently struggling to handle the amount of new users. I have already upgraded the server, but it will go down regardless if half of Reddit tries to join....