Does federation have a bit of a learning curve? No doubt.

Is Lemmy buggy as heck? Absolutely.

But I don’t think that really justifies a lot of the comments I’m seeing in Reddit alternatives threads that it’s hard to figure out. The front page feed and sort options are very similar to Reddit. Searching for same-instance communities is not too difficult. Posting, commenting, and voting are all quite intuitive. What’s the problem?

Edit: I do think terminology is a bit of an issue. I can tell a lot of people don’t understand “instance” vs. “community” at first. “Magazine” is the biggest offender here. That’s a very unintuitive term.

  • WhiteTiger@kbin.social
    0·
    1 year ago

    The first step is completely different from anything else you’ve ever done

    “Pick an instance to sign up for”

    This does not compute. What is an instance? Why do I have to pick? Which one should I pick? Compared to

    “Create an account at reddit.com” makes sense and is something everyone has done before.

    It doesn’t matter how simple the answers to those questions are, the fact that the very first step requires multiple explanations is huge, and will always be a barrier to entry.

    • RoboRay@kbin.social
      1·
      1 year ago

      Even a low barrier to entry tends to significantly improve the signal-to-noise ratio in discussions.

      So, I’m fine with people that can’t get past making a simple, almost irrelevant, decision as step 1 of gaining access… not gaining access.