Ask Lemmy

Currently, it seems most Lemmy users are very technically inclined, there are a lot of software devs and sysadmins. I certainly don't mind that, but I would love to see a more diverse demographic. I do feel like some people here seem to think that technical knowledge strongly correlates with the ability to have intelligent discussions, which I don't.

Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.

Diversity is paramount for social media, otherwise it becomes an echo chamber or worse.

Say what you will about the average redditor, but remember at a certain point they're just the average person.

I mean, love me some Linux nerds and Germans as much as the rest of you but lemmy needs more.

In my opinion, everyone who is like "we only want more people who understand the fediverse" are stupid.

How are people supposed to learn and understand the fediverse if they don't try it?

The more people we get off of corporate bullshit, the better.

Lemmy is undeniably smaller but it feels a lot more free, like I'm not walking on eggshells when posting here.

On Reddit I have to mince my words on a lot of subs and be careful about using certain words, lest I want Automoderator to effectively shadowban me. Reddit is ruled by tyrannical power mod assholes who likely got slammed into lockers and beaten for their lunch money in high school, and are now using their role as an internet janitor to exert a repressed power fantasy. And don't get me started on the Tintin-looking supreme cuck who owns Reddit Inc either.

Put it this way, Lemmy is a place where you can post about Luigi Mangione, or about the people involved in Elon Musk's DOGE operation without risking a ban.

I support it because I want more people to talk about shows with

The more we can do to move people to the fediverse, thereby reducing corporate control, the better.

I don't think Lemmy is going to catch on. There's too much friction every step of the way, at least in my experience with it. I still enjoy using Lemmy, but I can see why the majority of people won't end up making the switch

This is probably in response to the thread here.

I know I said something that may be taken this way, and I stand by it so I'll repeat it here:

There was something in retail I learned. There are people who will come in on sale days, and they will demand perfect customer service, and demand the lowest prices, and ask for more sales and bring coupons, all while talking about how they spend so much money there and that they’re so loyal. Then they’ll leave and you’ll never see them again

You can spend time and effort with them, the ones who only care about the cheapest place, or you can spend time with the customers who are actually there regularly. The ones who get to know your names, who are loyal, or enjoy a sale sure but also will be there even when there isn’t one.

I don’t want to attract users simply because reddit bad, and cater our experience for people who can’t bother to learn just the basic tenant of the fediverse. I want to cater our experiences for those who are here daily, and the ones who are genuinely interested. It’s the longer slower approach, but we’ll stay more true to our goals

I'm not afraid of saying that yes, that is my opinion. I've helped a lot of people migrate here away from Reddit, and I also hold the opinion that sign up is a bit daunting for users - but it's not impossible and it's gotten much easier than it was even just a few years ago.

What I see more often from people dipping their toes into the fediverse is constant complaining and whining. I've been through... 5-6 waves of new reddimigrants, and each time there are a quiet majority who pick up the fediverse and start running with it, and I've chatted with a good many of them. However, there's also a major chunk of people who immediately start complaining. There isn't feature parity, it's more confusing, it's less stable, why can't it do video - all of which have been answered a thousand times and are constantly improving.

To me it's exactly like the people shopping for sales. They come in, demand the absolute best service, complain that their niche communities aren't thriving, and refuse to even stick around for a week to see what it's like. If they aren't willing to even do the bare minimum of finding out "What is an instance?" then they're not going to stick around when we tell them that none of us can afford to host video, or that we will never have stability like Reddit, or this, or that. So I say let them leave. We came here to the fediverse because we want to build something different, and we know there are shortcomings that come with it.

If people want to join earnestly and help us build something here, curate small communities that we can be proud of, then I welcome them with open arms. If they can't even bother to read the first two sentences on the joinlemmy page, well, you make your own success there.

We just need to send them to a neutral instance and teach them the damn rules, especially about switching instances so they can go be in a place that fits their style. I vote Lemm.ee, as I agree with their “Administration, moderation, and federation policy”, and their site wide rules:

• No abusive language
• No bigotry
• No advertising
• No pornography

Who's "we"? I don't run a lemmy instance. I'm not against new users. I'm also not opposed to a lot of hard work and money going into making the experience better, but since I'm not providing either - who's "we"?

In reality we should.

To many in lemmy are to happy to stay in their special little corner.

What I've seen many times is people stating the opinion that we don't need to grow. We're not some big commercial platform and we don't need to satisfy some investors. Growth will come naturally. Or it won't.

My opinion is, judging by the numbers... We aren't growing for quite some time now, so Lemmy will most likely stay what it is. I'd love if it were a super attractive place, though. And everybody would like to join.

Sane defaults are always a good idea. I'm a bit split on the "minimal effort" though. Minimal effort is letting some algorithms dictate what to consume, simple truths, and not bothering with complicated stuff like freedom or privacy.

And what I often see is people trying to solve such problems solely by technical means. And I think that's not even half of it. We mainly need a nice and welcoming atmosphere, nice and interesting people, good content...

I'm happy to stay in my weird little corner.

I haven’t seen many comments not wanting people to join but more like, we are fine even if they don’t.

When I joined lemmy, I found it to be rather easy, so I never understood this barrier to entry.

I think it’s because someone just linked me to an instance, so I just went there and signed up like a regular site.

Ideally we want more users and for the fediverse to hit critical mass but idk how that can ever happen when corporate social media sites will always have a marketing budget.

So imo it’s not the difficulty, it’s like wondering why people keep paying for certain software when there are free alternatives, cause corporate software will always be more dumbed down.

Apparently redditors who are too dumb to register should stay on reddit?

This has come up on Mastodon as well. Mastodon has a default server, which is mastodon.social. It's somewhat controversial. I think it's helped adoption but it's also putting the ecosystem more under Mastodon gGmbH's thumb...which is not great. I myself am on mastodon.social because it seemed like a sane default. I'd have chosen differently if I knew what I know now.

I'm not as plugged into what the defaults are for Lemmy or if there even are any. I'm sure there is room for improvement, but it is fair to say there are a lot of people who willfully refuse to understand how federated software works and act like it's so complicated that no mortal can possibly understand it.

Can we do a lot more to help people who wish to join decentralized social media? Yes, absolutely. Should we give people shit for acting like choosing a server is so hard and confusing that they'd rather be on fascist-aligned platforms? Also yes.

Check out [email protected] ... people there are actively thinking about ways to help people migrate. To some extent also [email protected]

I don't think the barrier to entry is all that bad.... if you install Jerboa or Boost you're immediately presented with Lemmy content without worrying about creating an account... then you can get a feel for whether you like it or not.

It's only a problem if someone is told they must choose a server and create an account to see Lemmy content at all. Ideally people would just be pointed to a server and told to select "Scaled" to get a sense of the smaller communities...

This isn't a lemmy only thing.

Seen this since the 90's and the start of Eternal September. 'How dare we change or help these constant Lusers show up. How DARE we allow for differing opinions. Our way is the ONLY right way! Why should we allow this CANCER to infect us?'

To further emphasize that point: I'm part of a tilde community. I have been working on a migration document highlighting services and other options for social media migrants. The local newsgroup is sparcely populated. So the one technical guy that's a frequent poster had this to say:

I think these followers and likes counters' places unleash the wrong attitude. People write stuff to collect these by pleasing the potential reader instead of writing just facts. Fights over points and factually wrong answers that gained a lot of up-votes drove me away from reddit and SE. Some even write BS and get terribly upset if you point them to a man page that contradicts their statements.

Communication media should fit the job. Chats be volatile and fast while mail, mailing lists and news are allowing detailed discussions in long articles.

Sending people from twitXter or FB to Mastodon does not help them evolve. It just gives addicts a supposedly more free variant of their drug instead of getting them away from it.

Less is more!

The isolationists are wrong, and to me would rather watch the world burn for the sake of being proven right in their isolation than to help people.