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Should we revisit the instance picker to have an easier default choice? (media.piefed.zip)
submitted 9 months ago by to c/piefed_meta@piefed.social
118 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Source: https://old.reddit.com/r/BuyFromEU/comments/1quso40/european_reddit_alternative_piefed_users_surge/o3cfxy9/

Also found in a !fedibridge@lemmy.dbzer0.com post by @biltong@piefed.co.za : https://piefed.co.za/c/fedibridge/p/22233/post-on-r-buyfromeu-on-the-recent-surge-of-users-to-piefed

I like the way Voyager does it: image

https://vger.app/profile

DeltaChat also has a very easy onboarding process: you just put your name, and that's it. The app creates the password in the background and allows you to switch servers easily. That really helps with onboarding new joiners.

Piefed.zip could be a nice default choice. If there are others you see, feel free to suggest.

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[–] [S] 11 points 9 months ago (17 children)

There is definitely some bad faith among a few of those commenters.

However, we should probably try to still improve the signup process. As I said in the OP, Voyager's works already better, and that's a Fediverse app.

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  • [–] 5 points 9 months ago (15 children)

    One user in particular. And nothing will ever satisfy them.

    "I don't want a solution. I just want to be mad" if you are familiar with that mini comic

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  • [–] [S] 8 points 9 months ago (14 children)

    I just skimmed through the whole thread. That one user was the most vocal, but there were dozens of other people making similar comments.

    We all have families that are not tech-savvy. My sister or my parents can use email just fine because the onboarding was easy, with defaults values that can just be used by most of the users without them having to make any choice.

    I used Voyager's as an example, but DeltaChat works the same: you just put your name, and then you can start chatting. And it's federated and self-hostable, but it just hides it by default to make the sign up process easy

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  • [–] 2 points 9 months ago (12 children)

    This is the point.

    People signing up have just landed here, and have never heard or understood a thing about how this works. The community in here is talking like, oh well, if they don’t get it, that’s there problem. Well, no, that’s poor design. Unless that’s the intention and this is a niche type thing you’re aiming to create in here for coders or a community into geeky things?

    But if the intention is to create a platform that is open and accessible to all, a Reddit of sorts, I feel something needs to be revisited because it’s super confusing when you just land here.

    A platform, website should be designed to work like Google, or Apple, something your Grsndmother could click on and use.

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  • [–] 1 point 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (8 children)

    I think the problem is that there's two competing problems here: The federated structure of the fediverse and good onboarding. We certainly can improve onboarding, but trying to bypass it and just throw people into an instance sort of negates what the point of federation is. And I don't think it would stop many people confused now, from being confused.

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  • [–] [S] 1 point 9 months ago (7 children)
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  • [–] 1 point 9 months ago (2 children)

    This is one of the problems – I saw your comment on piefed.social, but your link points to piefed.zip. When I clicked it, I couldn’t upvote or comment because I’m not logged in. Is the post you linked available on piefed.social? Why does your link go to another instance - are you on that one now? I tried changing the link to https://piefed.social/post/410688, but it doesn’t exist. Does it really not matter which server I choose? Will I be able to see posts from any user on any server while using my chosen server?

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  • [–] 1 point 9 months ago

    Now on this, I completely agree with you. You can generate instance-neutral links on Piefed by putting an explanation mark in front of text: !piefed_meta@piefed.social - and it will be clickable and send you there within your own instance.

    And you can do the same with usernames by using "@": @cile.sb@piefed.social

    However, for linking someone a threaded comment specifically like Blaze just did? It's more awkward.

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  • [–] 1 point 9 months ago (3 children)

    "I'm just happy to be here" is a fun archetype but unfortunately not that common lol

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  • [–] [S] 1 point 9 months ago (2 children)

    It could become more spread if we started using good hidden defaults.

    For a while there was a large amount of Sync+Lemmy.world user, because LW was the default instance

    We should try to replicate something similar with Voyager and Piefed.zip

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  • [–] [S] 1 point 9 months ago (2 children)

    On the other hand, sometimes it might just be easier to go with the flow: https://piefed.zip/post/410688 . Seems like things are not that confusing is you just enjoy what there is without digging too much.

    From experience, there seems to be three types of users

    • people who are okay to just click on a few things and see how it goes (see the link above)
    • people who are okay to look at the deep concepts to understand them (most of the people around here)
    • the last one is like in the screenshot in the original post: they don't know about the concepts, but instead of just letting go, they keep complaining that they don't understand every single thing that is mentioned.
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  • [–] 1 point 9 months ago (1 child)

    You guys are like mechanics in here, talking about cars under the hood. You’re coders, logic people, not design minded.

    The best products are when form - meets function. The two must combine. Either one on its own it fails.

    This thing is never going to work out. It’s fundamentally flawed. It’s a jumbled up mess.

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  • [–] [S] 1 point 9 months ago

    Counter point: Bluesky is a well designed product where form meets function. However , Twitter is still the vastly more active micro blogging platform. The network effect is still at play there, and the established platform usually takes it all, even if alternatives have equivalent or better designs.

    As the original post acknowledges, there are improvements to be made to Piefed. But let's not forget that even a very sell design product will struggle to replace an established platform.

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  • [–] 1 point 9 months ago

    We all have families that are not tech-savvy.

    I do want a replacement for Facebook where my family can share vaguely racist updates in exchange for also sharing baby pictures.

    But I'm not willing to give this place up, in exchange for it. LoL.

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  • [–] 3 points 9 months ago

    Yeah, realistically, just get people onto a server (we can bike shed about which is best for that later) and then when they learn more about what they are/imply and what different ones are like they can move if they want to. I'm sure I'm preaching the choir here, but everything can be pretty easily migrated to your new account. The only thing that won't be is your old posts/comments and replies to those won't end up in your new inbox, but that's pretty minor.

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