I’m curious to hear if you have any thoughts or ideas about this. As a developer I understand very well how Lemmy works, and cant tell at all what might be difficult or confusing.

  • @Miso
    12•3 years ago

    Many respond with specific issues, but for me it’s just the federated structure. For non tech persons this may be a difficult concept to grasp and even though I programm a lot, some things got me confused, because I’ve never used anything like it. List for readability:

    • if I remember correctly I had to choose one instance for my account. (I had no idea if I get any restrictions depending on what instance I choose)
    • How can I visit or follow another instance and more importantly where can I find a list of instances? (I am using lemmur, but this may be a general point of confusion)

    Maybe I missed some obvious things, but a getting started video would be great :)

    • @nutomicOPA
      6•3 years ago

      Each instance has its own rules, and admins can decide which other instances to federate with. You also wont see all content from other instances by default, particularly if you are on a small instance.

      Instance list: https://join-lemmy.org/instances

      Federation getting started: https://join-lemmy.org/docs/en/administration/federation_getting_started.html

      Improvements to the docs are always good, and if someone wants to make a video about this, that would also be helpful.

    • OrangeSliceM
      1•3 years ago

      I think that the fediverse is in its infancy at the moment (what a time to be here), but when/if things mature there will be a lot more structure and resources available. One example is that you might join a server with instances of multiple services running on it (Lemmy, Mastodon, chat etc…) which will help make some sense of things and prevent the confusion of juggling a bunch of accounts (ideally).

      In the short term though, the best one-line explanation I’ve heard is to “think about it like email: you can sign up on an email server and chat with people, but you can also chat with people on other email servers.”

      I think the target in the very short term should be disenfranchised power users (most likely starting with people who have a strong interest in technology) since they will be able to contribute feedback, development, and other resources to progress thing.