I found a super simple way to refer people to Lemmy.
One simple message:
Try out the Reddit alternative called Lemmy https://vger.app/
It also has a mobile app: https://vger.app/settings/install
This way a user can just click, start seeing content and what Lemmy is about, and if they want to comment etc. they will be asked to create an account with lemm.ee selected as a default.
This should fix most of the onboarding UX issues, and eliminate the decision fatigue of trying to figure out which instance is best.
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Sadly lemm.ee federates with both lemmygrad and hexbear, which could turn off new users. I think blaze’s criteria works best for absolute beginners (sopuli for EU, discuss.online for US).
I don’t know if it would actually drive people off. Most people can handle their ideas being challenged. I’d be more worried that they might join in…
I am not super into lemmy, but what is wrong with hexbear?
piefed.social is defederated from hexbear so you may not have seen much of them, but a quick summary: They are a toxic instance that brigades and trolls. Pretty much anyone who disagrees with them is a “lib”, they even banned db0 with the reason of him being a liberal, despite him being an anarcho communist.
Most people dislike them, and many popular instances defederate from them.
As someone not defederated from them, it’s not terrible. For the most part, you just see shitposts. Occasionally, you see tankie shit and move on with the day. A load of times, they post and engaging isn’t terrible. It’s like most places on the web, except here you can ban them.
My approach has been to not explicitly ban unless there are active issues. People posting aren’t problematic; there’s a new conservative sub that posts some garbage links, but I’m not going to ban them for having terrible takes from breitbart.
Same, and true; i was trying to look at it from a new users perspective. At least they can be blocked. (kind of; lemmy doesn’t have full instance blocking, but piefed does.)
Crap, good point!
Didn’t mean to be aggressive, just personally trying to prevent the bubble effect that’s gotten us to where we are 🙂
Haha thanks, and don’t worry, you didn’t come off as aggressive 😅
You could use a link like this instead https://vger.app/posts/lemmy.world/local
(The link long “dodgy looking” link could put off some users)
Good idea, thanks.
Sopuli is great!
Absolutely; if i were european i’d probably use it.
I think redirecting to https://join-lemmy.org/ is the best option.
I feel that’s not a great way to onboard people, there is too much happening on the page, and too much friction to get to a point where you see content.
I mean, select “Join a Server”, select “General”, then select “English”. Explore one instance that is listed.
The newbies should at least know what a instance is, don’t you agree?
People tend to scroll, missing the Join button, and then get stuck towards the bottom of the page (that’s what happened to me)
If you click join, you end up with a long list of servers, and decision fatigue kicks in.
I feel it’s better to show users content first, or immediately try to get them to login.
Then with the parameters already set: https://join-lemmy.org/instances?topic=all_topics&language=en&scroll=true
The thing is, they most likely will register at that instance you give them. So the burden of changing the instance once it gets too big is yours. Let’s say sopuli.xyz becomes too big at some point, you’d have to manually change all your recommendations to sopuli.xyz or have the admins there disable registrations, and at that point the user most likely won’t care and go back. The official join lemmy website is the better option in the long run.
I think the best solution for this is a website that helps you pick a good instance for you, not like join lemmy just throwing an entire list of instances at you (hat categories but imo that’s not enough).
If I ever get off my ass I’ll do it lol.
Basically the join-lemmy.org list but it selects one instance randomly depending on user’s input/preferences?
Close, but it would be exclusively for picking an instance and’d have more questions, to more specifically narrow down a good instance for them.
