Whenever barrier to entry is discussed for lemmy, and reducing confusion for different servers is brought up, all of the isolationist comments come out of the woodwork.

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

We have a platform that seems to be working and slowly growing. Shouldnt we want good defaults in place to give the best possible experience with minimal user effort?

  • Scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.techEnglish
    402·
    2 days ago

    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.

    • solarvalleys
      17·
      2 days ago

      Ever since I read this blog post, The Indie Web for Everyone, I can’t stop thinking about this quote when thinking about fediverse:

      It’s like everyone has spent the last few years in a giant all-inclusive resort, screaming at each other for attention at the buffet. Now we’re moving into nice little bed-and-breakfast places, but we’re complaining because it takes slightly more effort to book a room, and the free WIFI isn’t as fast. Maybe its time to rethink some of these expectations. Maybe we need some of that early internet vibe back and be ok with smaller, closer communities. Maybe we can even get some of the fun back and start exploring again, instead of expecting everything to be automatically delivered to us in real time.

      I think you are right, as much as fediverse is an alternative to the current social media, by its design it requires a completely different culture than how the general public has became used to interacting with the web - as a commodity.

    • Broadfern@lemmy.worldEnglish
      22·
      2 days ago

      I’ll never understand people who knowingly come to a currently bare-bones community (said with love!) and then complain that it’s bare-bones, and not bother to engage and help it grow.

      Like no shit it’s nowhere near as huge as Reddit. Guess how content and engagement happen? By posting content and engaging! Ugh. /rant

      • Scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.techEnglish
        12·
        2 days ago

        I’ve quickly realized that many of them are people who wouldn’t participate anyway, they just want constant content for free and will never post or add to the conversation.

        It’s well known that here on the fediverse there’s a much larger percentage of people who participate vs those on Reddit. We really do make our own way here. For others, they have to be willing to put in even just a little effort