Tl;dr
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Signing up- “Basic version”- you’re given a server automatically (so the user isn’t scared off by perceived complexities of the federated model)
- "Advanced version" - as normal, you choose a server. -
Normal use - everything defaults to “All” (for posting, viewing your page)
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**Links to communities ** on other servers for the basic mode are simplified
I spent a bit of time while signing up trying to decide which server to sign up to and whether it matters. I would say that this would be a barrier for many average Reddit users. Let’s make it as seamless as possible-- No need to choose a server.
Your front page has a “local” and “all” view. I don’t know the benefits of only browsing on local (faster? Less resources? Better if most of your communities are hosted on your local server?), However as many of my comms are global, I can’t see why I’d ever not use All. Let’s simplify it for the average user and not have the option for Local.
I’ve had a few instances where someone gives a link for a community and its not given in the right format so I can’t sign up to it (?it’s a server specific link - I still don’t know). This would be frustrating to the average user and another barrier. Let’s simplify these links and make them universal.
The “federated model” has clear benefits, however the additional learning curve will scare off the average Reddit user who is not tech literate. The changes above may be controversial and may Increase resource use on the platform or may be impossible, but I would say they would make Lemmy easier to allow new users to sign up and stay on the platform.
EDIT: I asked a few AI bots for their recommendations, and Claude-v1 had the best:
- Provide curated lists of recommended public instances. Lemmy could maintain an official list of featured instances that meet certain standards of moderation, activity, topics, etc. This makes it easier for users to find good communities to join without having to research instances themselves.
2.Create categories and tags for instances to aid discovery. Instances could self-categorize based on topics, languages, moderation policies, and other attributes. Users could then filter and search for instances that match their interests. This helps address the issue of needing to choose a server.
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Develop “instance spotlight” posts or videos. The Lemmy team could work with instance administrators to create blog posts, videos, and other media highlighting specific instances, their communities, moderation, and cultures. This raises visibility and drives more informed choice.
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Implement an instance recommendation system. Based on a user’s interests and the instances they join, Lemmy could recommend other instances that may be of interest. This makes it easy to discover more communities without needing to search manually.
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Create a “new user onboarding” process with instance suggestions. When a user first signs up for Lemmy, they could go through an onboarding flow that asks about their interests and then provides some initial instance recommendations to join based on their preferences. This helps new users get started easily.
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Allow users to follow tags, topics, or keywords instead of just users and instances. Users could then see posts from across the network related to things they care about, even if the posts are on different instances. This provides more centralization and cohesion without sacrificing server autonomy.
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Increase interoperability between instances. Making it even easier for users to follow users/posts, see profiles, share posts, and otherwise interact with different instances could help Lemmy feel more cohesive while still being decentralized. Increased interconnectivity leads to a better overall experience.
It’s a slight architecture change and people will get it with time. When I first started on reddit I couldn’t wrap my head around how a self text post worked but with time it made sense. Each Lemmy instance is like its own reddit front page but it houses its own communities.
Sure, though I imagine when most people want to talk about photography or gaming or whatever they want to talk with the entire community (All), not a small part of the community (local). We want good discussions, and fragmenting these discussions on the same topics in local groups seems to me backward as you’re missing out on the views of the majority and vice versa, hence why I’d say make “All” the default (and invisible, unless you want an advanced view).
If you want the average Joe and Georgette to come to reddit it has to be as simple as possible, and choosing servers, parsing links and deciding what view to see is too much overhead for most people IMO
As the ecosystem develops, I imagine several Lemmy instances will become somewhat of a network where they all federate each other, this sort of already exists between many of the largest instances. Though I’ve discovered bakchodi.org which it seems does not federate with anybody which is disappointing.
So yes technically you are commenting on a thread within your own server that is a mirror and then if the original server allows, users there will see your comments and can reply to you also.
I also would like to see the platform be more proactive about indexing communities on other sites, to me that is the whole point of creating an allow list for federating. I shouldn’t have to search for a community 5 times for it to appear on my home instance, and I should be able to subscribe from anywhere as long as my home server is federated.
Oh boy, you’ve confused me! The server mirrors other server’s communities? I was wondering about this as sometimes I have the same community open in two tabs and they have slightly different addresses, or maybe I had that wrong.
THis is the sort of backroom technical stuff that most users don’t want to see.