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?

  • FilthyShrooms@lemmy.world
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    34 minutes ago

    Yea getting into Lemmy is confusing. I only use sync because it’s easier, I have no idea how to even access it on desktop. It definitely needs some QoL improvements before I can really start recommending it to people

  • JasonDJ@lemmy.zip
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    2 hours ago

    Gonna don my tinfoil hat here for a second…

    Was the monetization of the API a deliberate move to kick out the progressive and tech-literate long-time reddit users (myself included, with 16 year badge and centuryclub), to in turn make the site more of a Nazi, pro-Trump circle jerk?

    Because I really think it succeeded. The whole atmosphere shifted that day, and I’ve barely been back except when I end up there out of muscle memory or a Google result…and those often have the best answers removed by someone who went through and scrubbed their account.

    We all remember how Spez treated r/thedonald, right?

  • 🇰 🌀 🇱 🇦 🇳 🇦 🇰 🇮 @pawb.social
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    8 minutes ago

    Have tell new users just sign up on your instance. Make it less confusing by sending them to a specific website and not just telling them about the software.

    I swear to God, there are so many tech people here that overthink it because they know details that the average user would not give a single fuck about.

  • zarkanian@sh.itjust.works
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    1 hour ago

    but it feels like old reddit

    Yes, and that’s a good thing.

    There are lots of Lemmy apps that display posts in different ways. If you want “bells and whistles”, then find an app that gives you that.

  • Nojustice@lemmy.ml
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    3 hours ago

    Wait wait wait… This implies people like new reddit… That shit makes my eyes bleed wtf

  • MushroomsEverywhere@lemmy.world
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    3 hours ago

    I was on Sync for Reddit before going here, and checked out Lemmy as the devs switched platform. So the joke’s on them, my UX is basically identical.

    That said, sucks that people shy away because of complexity.

  • isaacd@lemmy.world
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    3 hours ago

    This is why email never caught on. Who wants to choose between Gmail, Yahoo, MSN, Proton, and Comcast? A successful email service would be one where you can only communicate with users of the same email service. /s

  • maplebar@lemmy.world
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    2 hours ago

    The fediverse being “endless wars about who is federated” is not really true, is it?

    Sure not everyone is federated with everyone else, but legacy social media is federated with nobody at all. Federation is the entire point of the Fediverse, you connect with people you want to connect with and you don’t connect with people you don’t. It’s as simple as that.

    Plus, do people really want to be on a single platform with everyone else in the world? Because that’s a big part of what broke the internet in the first place…

    99% of users are going to check out when you ask them what server to join.

    I’m so sick of this dumb ass argument…

    People who complain about “servers” need to tell me what they think “the internet” is. The existence of servers didn’t stop online video games, email or discord/slack from catching on with hundreds of millions of people, so why is it suddenly a problem when it comes to the Fediverse?

    Onboarding obviously needs to be better, but I’m going to be totally honest honest here: I don’t think these are legitimate, actionable or useful critiques.

    These are merely excuses from people who are addicted to legacy social media and who don’t give a shit that the internet is owned and controlled by a few rich corporations.

  • Luca@feddit.it
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    2 hours ago

    I found a beautiful web client for Lemmy that I wish was the default experience. It would surely help Lemmy in gaining popularity.

    here’s the link: https://phtn.app/

  • ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de
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    2 hours ago

    Tell them to download the thunder app (it’s very similar to many of the popular reddit apps) and just give them a list of the 10 most popular fediverse’s to pick from to make an account.

    I mentioned this like a year ago. Users will need their hands held to get them to easily come over.

  • underwire212@lemm.ee
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    3 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.

  • LainTrain@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    3 hours ago

    Nothing, this seems like a good thing, I don’t want them here if they literally cannot even comprehend the concept of different servers, though somehow no one has this issue with discord even though it’s dogshit, almost as if they just yearn for the corporate boot.