This reddit post likely has tens if not hundreds of thousands of views, look at the top comment.

Lemmy is losing so many potential new users because the UX sucks for the vast majority of people.

What can we do?

  • underwire212@lemm.eeEnglish
    151·
    5 hours ago

    It’s why my less “tech savvy” friends won’t join. They don’t understand what federation is, and No they don’t want to take 2 minutes to learn.

    It’s annoying, but it’s reality. People don’t understand the whole different servers thing, federation, and how to pick one.

    I realize marketing isn’t a strong suit (nor should it be), but I’m proposing two solutions (well maybe not solutions, but something to help):

    • A quick animated video showing the benefits of Lemmy and how this all works (if it hasn’t already been done yet)

    • A service that basically simplifies and centralizes the signup process to one screen. During server selection, users can see the most populated servers and click on them to learn the specific rules for the server, etc.

    Idk, maybe we already have all this…or this is just complicating the issue. Or maybe we only want people willing to take 2 minutes to learn about how it all works. Tbh that’s a pretty good natural filter for the types of users I want to be interacting and discussing with.

    • aphonefriend@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      11·
      3 hours ago

      Agree. It’s not about being smug or entitled or whatever. Getting a simple lemmy client on your phone and signing up for the most basic instances takes literally 5 minutes of reading tops. And that’s for non tech savvy readers. If you can’t put 5 minutes of effort into an online discussion forum setup, then how can you be expected to put even 5 minutes of effort into a discussion post or in reading an article before commenting?

      It’s a natural filter indeed. And a good one at that. Keep the short attention spanners who need tiktok level ease of use on reddit.