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Could federation be a turn-off for more 'mainstream' users? (lemmy.world)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

144 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Hey everyone, I'm honestly really liking Lemmy so far. Maybe that's because it feels so much like browsing reddit 10 years ago and I think it's safe to say many of us have migrated from the blackout. I'd been a Reddit user since 2010 so I've witnessed the slow decline over the years but popping here has really driven home how corporate it started to feel--less like a genuine hub of community and more like a manufactured product with low effort content and some genuine discussion/input peppered throughout.

That said, does anyone feel the idea of a federated platform might be confusing to some less network-savvy users? There's other successful multi-server platforms like Discord but somehow for me the idea of a 'chatroom' versus something more like a forum/board seems like it would make more sense to a less informed user. I could see hearing that posts are aggregating from other sites or being cross-visible confusing to individuals who understand web usage as, 'visit site--post to site--view content on site'.

Does that make sense? lol Anyways, loving the site so far--hope to see it grow!

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Why should they have to learn anything?

Learning's good?! Not gonna argue much pro-learning here because I think it's self obvious.

It’s not like they owe us effort to get to know the platform, the platform has to be inviting instead.

An inviting platform can be an invitation to a walled garden where somebody else has control and users are more like "useds" - like reddit. So it can be a trap. Especially if you're the kind of person that has something against learning and doesn't want to bother with any of that, just wants to use.

Reddit is relatively easy to get started, you can just scroll through a bunch of default subs and get going. That’s not easily replicated here.

Let's be honest here, it's very slightly more complex, but I think only the most technically ilitterate can't create an account and join the subs they want. I mean it's in plain English, you can ask for help (and it's already been discussed a lot since the blackout), and it's 99% like reddit when it comes to the concepts and the interface and everything.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Learning’s good?! Not gonna argue much pro-learning here because I think it’s self obvious.

And that is just arrogance, sorry. If a system is not self explaining while being marketed as a mass medium, it's simply not a good system. Look at Linux, if that's more your liking. We're coming from Ubuntu and now are supposed to install Arch. Sure, possible. But most people simply don't want that.

I mean it’s in plain English, you can ask for help (and it’s already been discussed a lot since the blackout), and it’s 99% like reddit when it comes to the concepts and the interface and everything.

People don't want that. Most people don't give a shit about any of the federation stuff and technical details and they don't want to ask for help just for some cat pictures.

If you want to appeal to the masses, you have to design an interface for people who don't care. Simple as that.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

To add on to this - computers used to run on DOS commands. What made them mainstream was creating a UI which allowed a layperson to use it. So now a graphic designer can focus on artwork rather than needing to understand computer backend.

Similarly, we're floating around windows '93 or something.

The way I see - we're the early adopters who can both see the potential and can also affect real change. We'll be the ones paving the way for future users. For me, figuring out how software works is like a puzzle to me and I find it fun. However, my sibling would find this site completely unusable because their brain doesn't find this fun, they find this sort of thing overwhelming and complicated.

I'd love to see a mass migration, but without some more user-friendly tools, it's going to be us nerdy folks having fun in our new sandbox.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Exactly.

For most people, technology is a tool. I don't want to learn how to build my own train, I want to get from A to B. If there's no accessible way to ride trains, I'll just walk or drive a car.

That doesn't mean, being nerdy about something is bad, but demanding that kind of commitment from everyone is just ignorant.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago

Learning is bad actually.