Having to write a cover letter explaining why I’m a good fit for the instance.
It’s not a difficult ask, but it’s going to turn a vast majority of potential users away from the service.
I understand the need for it, but a typical user is going to be confused by:
Having to “sell” yourselves to some unknown individual, or group of individuals
Choosing an “instance”, when most users have never heard of such a thing, and don’t understand how a federated system operates
For the above: Understanding different instances and which one allows cross-instance posting
Simplicity. None of this is “simple” in terms of making a new account for a social media platform. This is unlike any mainstream platform out there.
Again, I understand the need for all this. But your average user, which Lemmy desperately needs more of if it wants to become the safe haven for Reddit refugees, is going to be incredibly frustrated and dissuaded by the whole process.
All I put in my “cover letter” was “reddit refugee” and I got accepted on lemmy.ml, lemmy.one and beehaw.org, 2/3 with no email verification either. I don’t think that it’s hard to sign up here, it might just be unfamiliar to some people, who will hopefully grasp the simple concepts quickly.
That’s exactly my point. I know it’s not difficult for the people already here, that’s why we did it.
What other social media platform requires you to answer open-ended questions about “why” you’re joining? I can’t really think of any. It’s an unfamiliar concept to the majority of people.
Combine that with the concept of “federation” that may make many users feel as if they’re signing up for some silo within the community, and it’s a recipe for low adoption.
Like I said, I don’t disagree with the concept or the process. I’m fully aware of the reasons, and I generally agree. I’m just explaining how this will be a major adoption roadblock for the vast majority of users.
I don’t really have a good solution either; I wish I did. I don’t think everyone and their bot needs to flood Lemmy, but I also don’t want people too dissuaded from joining if the sign up process appears arduous, even when it’s not.
There’s many Facebook groups that have you answer some basics questions before letting you join. I’m thinking it’s not as big of a hurdle as you think. One of the positives is that it will weed out those who don’t plan to participate.
I tried one other instance of lemy to join and there were no questions to answer. That server was way too overloaded. It made me think the questions might also be there to slow down the registrations. The servers could then keep up.
Having to write a cover letter explaining why I’m a good fit for the instance.
It’s not a difficult ask, but it’s going to turn a vast majority of potential users away from the service.
I understand the need for it, but a typical user is going to be confused by:
Again, I understand the need for all this. But your average user, which Lemmy desperately needs more of if it wants to become the safe haven for Reddit refugees, is going to be incredibly frustrated and dissuaded by the whole process.
All I put in my “cover letter” was “reddit refugee” and I got accepted on lemmy.ml, lemmy.one and beehaw.org, 2/3 with no email verification either. I don’t think that it’s hard to sign up here, it might just be unfamiliar to some people, who will hopefully grasp the simple concepts quickly.
That’s exactly my point. I know it’s not difficult for the people already here, that’s why we did it.
What other social media platform requires you to answer open-ended questions about “why” you’re joining? I can’t really think of any. It’s an unfamiliar concept to the majority of people.
Combine that with the concept of “federation” that may make many users feel as if they’re signing up for some silo within the community, and it’s a recipe for low adoption.
Like I said, I don’t disagree with the concept or the process. I’m fully aware of the reasons, and I generally agree. I’m just explaining how this will be a major adoption roadblock for the vast majority of users.
I don’t really have a good solution either; I wish I did. I don’t think everyone and their bot needs to flood Lemmy, but I also don’t want people too dissuaded from joining if the sign up process appears arduous, even when it’s not.
There’s many Facebook groups that have you answer some basics questions before letting you join. I’m thinking it’s not as big of a hurdle as you think. One of the positives is that it will weed out those who don’t plan to participate.
I tried one other instance of lemy to join and there were no questions to answer. That server was way too overloaded. It made me think the questions might also be there to slow down the registrations. The servers could then keep up.
I’m pretty sure this is just a “human test” to make it harder for people to register a lot of accounts or to programmatically register them.