Don't tell people "it's easy", and six more things KBin, Lemmy, and the fediverse can learn from Mastodon
https://privacy.thenexus.today/kbin-lemmy-fediverse-learnings-from-mastodon/
Reddit's strategy of antagonizing app writters, moderators, and millions of redditors is good news for reddit alternatives like KBin and Lemmy. And not just them! The fediverse has always grown in waves and we're at the start of one.
Previous waves have led to innovation but also major challenges and limited growth. It's worth looking at what tactics worked well in the past, to use them again or adapt them and build on them. It's also valuable to look at what went wrong or didn't work out as well in the past, to see if there are ways to do better.
Here's the current table of contents:
* I'm flashing!!!!!
* But first, some background
- Don't tell people "it's easy"
- Improve the "getting-started experience"
- Keep scalability and sustainability in mind
- Prioritize accessibility
- Get ready for trolls, hate speech, harassment, spam, porn, and disinformation
- Invest in moderation tools
- Values matter
* This is a great opportunity – and it won't be the last great opportunity
https://privacy.thenexus.today/kbin-lemmy-fediverse-learnings-from-mastodon/
Thanks to everybody for the great feedback on the draft version of the post!
#kbin #lemmy #fediverse @fediversenews @fediverse@kbin.social @fediverse@lemmy.ml
Don't tell people it's "easy" anytime. Anything is easy when you know how to do it. Learning new things is difficult and telling someone it's easy just makes people feel dumb and that they can't do it. Encourage folks to learn.
I've been trying not to say it's easy, but I can't help but want to counter the claims that it's too hard/impossible for average users.
That was me two days ago, and after a bit of confusion, it's fine. Am I an expert in federation? No. Do I need to be to enjoy Lemmy? Also no.
I was a little perplexed to begin with but quickly got the hang of it. My biggest gripe is its difficult to link to or find communities outside of your instance.
Once the community figures out instance discovery or Super communities then the adoption process will be a lot smoother.
you can use relative links so anyone can click it, like
!gaming@beehaw.org
if you view source on my comment you'll see it as
[!gaming@beehaw.org](/c/gaming@beehaw.org)The two words I hate in anything remotely instructional are "Just do" (as in, "Just paste it in the search bar" or "Just pick an instance"). In 99% of cases, that "Just" there is doing so much it's almost unreal, yet most writers don't exactly see that viewpoint as they're already familiar with whatever they're writing about.
💯. With Mastodon, it turned out that "just pick an instance" was disastrously bad advice for many people -- if you pick a badly-moderated instance, or one that's widely blocked, you're a lot less likely to have a good first experience. My guess is that'll be equally true here once things get a bit farther down the line.
Just solve faster than light travel! It's easy! Go buy a faster than light drive and install it! 😉
@ozoned exactly! I'm working on a revision, can I add this as a quote to the "Don't tell peole it's easy" section? You say it better than I did!
Absolutely.
@ozoned cool, thanks very much! It's now at the start of the "don't tell people it's easy" section -- https://privacy.thenexus.today/kbin-lemmy-fediverse-learnings-from-mastodon/#its-not-easy
Thank you for bringing up the point. :-) I've been in IT for 10+ years, and this was NOT easy for me to understand at first either. Keep spreading the good word. :-)