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There are different opinions on Beehaw's registration process. I kind of see how some people would find it dissuasive, specially after most of us are coming from Reddit. But I still think it's very practical, at least for the time being.
Btw, this is only my opinion as a new user, I don't know any of the admins/mods. Link to my original comment.
Honestly, if you aren't prepared to fill out a simple text box to join the instance, I'd prefer you went somewhere else.
Right? If you can’t come up with a minimal answer to a very simple question, how could you possibly contribute positively in any way whatsoever here? And why would you even want to join this instance? This isn’t meant to be a shitposting low effort instance…
Or if you're just going to lurk... you don't need to make an account at all! As I did for the first week before deciding on whether or not to join, lmao
I actually really liked it as an exercise in reflection.
I probably wrote too much in mine, a good full paragraph for each. They really just need to create the slightest barrier to entry to make moderating 10x easier.
I've been through a bit of an emotionally exhausting week with some personal things...
I suspect some of that might have come through on my mini essay ... uh... sorry to whoever had to read it?
But hey I'm here so....
They need to add a word limit though, I think I went a bit overboard lol
I didn’t think it was too bad. Like others I wrote 3 sentences or so basically just answering the questions honestly. I was approved fairly quickly.
I wrote a frikkin' essay. I wish I'd saved a copy because I was sure they were going to read it and file it under "whackadoodle: do not admit."
yeah I think a lot of people who haven't actually done it are misconstruing it as something far more than it was. I wrote 3 sentences for each but a commenter on another instance thought I needed to write "3 essays"
The way I see it, it doesn't take that much longer than writing a post or even a long comment. If a person isn't willing to take the time to do that, I wonder how much they were going to contribute to the community in the first place? lol
reminds me of the people who got pissed when we defederated from a few instances. I guess they're just angry that they don't have access to something other people do, even if they won't use it.
They're so accustomed to centralised social media that allows them to troll and bait without caring for the people in those platforms, that, when, they find instances here, like Beehaw, that do not want to have contact with people and instances that promote that type of attitude, they feel confused and betrayed.
They expected the fediverse, Lemmy, Beehaw to be a replacement for Reddit, not only as content/link/information aggregation platform, but as a place to continue acting like they acted on Reddit with no consideration or understanding that they aren't in Reddit anymore.
The fact that many are calling Beehaw admin/mod team "snobby" "snowflakes", etc just says it all
The fact that many are calling Beehaw admin/mod team “snobby” “snowflakes”, etc just says it all
I even saw one that called them "oversensitive ninnies" and it was weird how they didn't make the connection as to why they defederated
Honestly. Zero self-awareness.
I wonder how much they were going to contribute to the community in the first place? lol
Pretty much that. They're not even hard questions to answer, you could even lie. But, the day or two wait period and general approval process means you weed out a lot of the undesirables who are looking for a quick way to upset and bully people. It's a good thing.
I don't know why people can't be bothered to click the "register" button to see for themselves. I've spent more time writing each individual post I've made on Beehaw than I did the questions for registration. Granted, I also read all of the literature discussing the philosophy and goals of Beehaw beforehand and had the answers in my mind by the time I saw the questions, but it was really just a line or two per prompt. Basically the bare minimum of user vetting. Imagine my surprise when I see people talk about it like we were asked for an in-depth literary analysis of the themes behind "Great Expectations" and how they can be translated to the modern world.
I'm really glad they ask a screening question. It takes like max 30 seconds of your time to form coherent thoughts and add them to the form. I want to have discussions with folks who are capable of doing that.
Leaving Reddit made me realize that being a part of a truly affirming & thoughtful space is still possible. I'm so used to taking all the racism and classism and transphobia for granted - like "oh I'm on the internet, of course people are complete garbage." What if we all had a stake in making spaces that actually serve us? What if we were ALL a little more invested in contributing? Seeing all the folks coming from Reddit complaining about how the Fediverse is just infuriating & and impossible to understand kinda shook me, too. I was like that for the first like 3 hours of trying to figure out what the Fediverse is - "why isn't there just one fucking website and I can search all the fucking communities and see them all in one gd place holy shit I hate this, way to make it unnecessarily complicated" - and then I went and read about it and figured it out (somewhat). I put in a little effort. Realized, holy shit, I'm so fucking apathetic after years of companies spoon-feeding me shit in exchange for my personal data. Like "just make it easy whiiine yes accept all cookies yes you can read all my messages and contacts whatever just open the damn app" and it's like. Fuck it doesn't need to BE like this. We don't NEED to just put up with this shit.
Life is always kicking my ass and sometimes writing 3 coherent sentences after a week of working and not enough sleep is just too much. Like I'm constantly burnt out and sometimes, it really is too much. But if we all did even .5% more, if we thought about what we were doing and put even that .5% more effort, if we committed to thinking and contributing just .5% more, maybe we could really make shit happen. I think it's worth a try.
So yeah, I wrote a few lines on my application. Come on y'all, we can do this.
Beehaw's registration process is quite easy, asking you only to write a few words on why you want to join (which could just be "it seems like a nice instance"), in comparison to other registration processes I've seen and done.
I've been through registration process where to guarantee that you've read the rules and anything required would hide words in the post containing that essential content and then asked you questions of which the answers where those words. Sometimes with the addition on asking you why you wanted to join.
This (Beehaw's registration process) is nothing in comparison
So many people are just looking for something to complain about with Beehaw. Just go to another instance. It's not that hard! That's the beauty of the Fediverse!
I think registration is a good litmus test for Beehaw overall. We want and encourage thoughtful comments. If someone finds the registration process too much to deal with, then Beehaw isn’t right for them anyway.
In my experience, a community with even the most basic and rudimentary filter to join has consistently higher quality people in the community. Kinder, more active, and better posts. A bigger community does NOT mean a better one, often the inverse has been true ime but blah blah analogies aren't evidence.
I like that the mods are prioritizing healthy growth over just growth. It's easy to look at number go up and get excited, then to open the flood gates. And whenever a community does that, a bunch of people whom are not wholly interested in the point of the community swoop in and push out the invested crowd.
The only downside would be wanting to answer something more personal, but making a throwaway account isn't exactly easy with this system. That's, really, the only downside I can immediately point to.
I come from a different point-of-view that I support the question portion, but I did find it hindered me slightly. Only because of my own anxiety, not because it's a bad idea.
I mostly wanted to reply how the handling of my application was really personable, in case anyone else is lurking and finds it intimidating, like I did for a week or two. It's not a college thesis and I imagine those running beehaw want more people to make the place more bustling.
I think the little question bit being there will lead to a better environment overall. I'm outing myself, but back in my roleplay forum days the ones with a bit of an application process had better quality engagement. Ymmv, of course.
The process to ask simple questions like these is not a barrier for users looking for honest conversation.
That is one of the facts I did choose Beehaw, because it shows the will for maintain a non-toxic community.
I don't get what all the fuss is about. I told them I don't like Nazis and was approved within minutes. It was not a complicated process.
It's not like you have to write an essay. I just wrote a couple of sentences and was accepted almost immediately. Took me all of 1 minute total to apply and could post within the hour.
Honestly, I was more frustrated with the spinner of doom that kept me from actually submitting my registration for a few days. That meant re-writing my response to that application question until I decided to just save it in notepad until I was able to get a registration form actually submitted.
The "interview" process itself makes total sense, and I'm happy to have even something so simple that helps keep some of the low-effort riff-raff out.
Hot take: its a bigger impact on those with anxiety disorders or other tendencies to rewrite things a million times when they are "important". I find it easy to post online because its cheap, but writing my beehaw paragraph definitely stirred up some "eeeek, I gotta say this right!!!" fears in me.
A lot of comments from people with social anxiety; as someone with social anxiety and aspergers, figured I may as well throw my thoughts into the ring.
I've been through the "approval process" dance a few times now, both for Mastodon and Lemmy and honestly, I don't really find it that bad. The secret is internalizing that mods have so many applications to get through, so they won't really scrutinize your language or overanalyze it to too much. I know easier said than done, but really, the fact that you're putting any amount of thought into it is probably more than most people.
Honestly, I think approvals is a good system and should be the norm for social media sites; it slows down trolls/bots ability to make accounts, and IMO is better than all the alternatives. Email is problematic, capchas aren't really accessible, and screw Instagram requiring you to take a photo of yourself when you sign up. One site I signed up for actually wanted you to ask another user to "vouch" for you as not a troll which means talking to scary strangers.
I think there is a "cultural" miscommunication though. A lot of us are deeply ingrained in "fediverse culture" where this sort of thing is the norm, and so we intuitively understand that it should only be a sentence or two.
However, if you look at where non-fediverse people have seen this type of requirement before? Job applications, university applications, that sort of thing. I think this is why people think that they need to write long, intricately detailed posts saying why they deserve to join what feels like an exclusive club.
I think Beehaw could make it clearer that they are only looking for about three sentences demonstrating that you've read the documents (actually, do you need to fully read the documents? It's a bit unclear), and that you aren't being "graded". Out of interest though, would "I just want to lurk and read posts" be acceptable as an answer to the third question?
@eclipse also as a new user coming from Reddit, I personally liked that they are screening new users. Super quick and easy to fill out.
I probably wrote "too much" as I was thrilled to find a place which is working towards kindness and community :)
My general rule of thumb is that things tend to go better if every owner, admin or mod team utilises the approaches which work best for them. If an instance is functioning well, I'm going to start from a place of trust that what they've made a good choice for themselves and the existing community. It's up to me to decide if it's also a reasonable choice for myself or if somewhere else would be a better match.
It's good to ask users to write a bit about their thoughts to a) make it a bit harder to register bot armies, b) make users read the rules, and c) disincentivize unfriendly users from registering. Just the delay in registration is probably enough to make the majority of unwanted accounts seek out some other place.
The registration said registrations would usually be approved within day. Mine took a few dsys, which is very understandable, but unless I'm the exception the estimated time could be set to a bit longer to give mods time to approve people.