this post was submitted on 02 Jun 2024
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Fediverse

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A community to talk about the Fediverse and all it's related services using ActivityPub (Mastodon, Lemmy, KBin, etc).

If you wanted to get help with moderating your own community then head over to !moderators@lemmy.world!

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Learn more at these websites: Join The Fediverse Wiki, Fediverse.info, Wikipedia Page, The Federation Info (Stats), FediDB (Stats), Sub Rehab (Reddit Migration), Search Lemmy

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I've introduced two of my friends (not into tech) to Lemmy. Since they're not into tech this is their first web forum.

I've explained the federation thru the usual email metaphore and that's ok, but to lookup for communities is not quite there on client side.

Let me explain.
He wanted to see all the communities on an instance because that instance is in his native language but he's registered on another instance. So to see all those communities you must go on instance.domain/communities, copy the name of the community you are interessed in and paste it inside the app/web client to look it up.

And to see all the communities all over the fediverse you must use lemmyverse.net which is a cool site, but still you got to copy paste back and forth to the app.

This could be implementend inside app itself by listing all communities and add ability to filter by things like instance.

Obviously open to discussion about the issue itself and how that could be improved.

Feel free to tag apps/clients devs to ear their opinion too.

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[–] Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 56 points 5 months ago (10 children)

Non-techie here. It's true. I have no idea how !instance.domain/community works.

I understand that I'm on an island. Lemmy.World is a pretty big island, kinda like Austrailia, but it is still an island.

I can't just go to otherinstance.otherdomain/community and click subscribe. Or comment. Or anything. That instance should know I'm Lost_My_Mind@Lemmy.World just by the fact that I'm still logged into Lemmy.World, even if I'm on Lemmy.ml

So if I go to any other instance, I shouldn't have to do a thing.

As long as I'm not banned from Lemmy.ml, and as long as Lemmy.ml hasn't defederated from Lemmy.World, I should be able to log in on Lemmy.World, travel to Lemmy.ml, and immediately be able to comment, upvote, downvote, subscribe, whatever. And when I do these things, even though I'M on Lemmy.ml, my actions will have come from Lemmy.World

Lemmy/The Fediverse is a great idea. It has a lot of foundationally sound ideas that should be able to continue to thrive for decades. It just needs a userbase.

I remember in 2000 saying the same things about linux......and it never got that userbase until Android took all the techie sound ideas, and put them behind the curtain. When 16 year old blond valley girl Britney uses her Android phone, she doesn't know what a terminal is. She doesn't have to know. She doesn't have to think about it. She just opens her app drawer and plays spotify. And thats it.

I know the concept of a techie platform hiding the techie advancements sounds completely foreign to the idea of someone who spent 3 years learning how to techie, but thats what needs to happen.

Otherwise Britney will get about two sentences into you explaining the fediverse, before her brain turns off.

If Britney can't use it, this will have a userbase to reddit, in the same way that Linux has a userbase compared to Mac/Windows.

Lenny can grow. I feel like the ideas here are built to last. They just need to be more accessable to idiots. I have other issues I feel could be fixed, but I think this one is by far the biggest barrier to entry for most.

[–] Aurelius@lemmy.world 23 points 5 months ago (7 children)

You make great points. I think this should be one of the top goals for frontend Lemmy devs. Most users are not super technical. The fediverse (lemmy included) should work with minimal friction to be accessible.

If you're open to it, I'd love to get your feedback on my Lemmy frontend's onboarding and overall user experience. I've been trying to make it simple, effective, and accessible. I can DM you!

[–] Natanael@slrpnk.net 3 points 5 months ago

There's some things which Mastodon does you can copy, like the question about what your home instance is

https://slrpnk.net/comment/9042474

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