Hello everyone,

Thinking about this as the on-boarding experience on Lemmy can be subpar, especially because new joiners have to

In order to avoid this, what would you think of having a “new joiners” instance, where

  • hexbear, lemmygrad and ml would be defederated
  • politics and news communities would be blocked at the instance level

That could help to onboard people, so that the first time they look around, they see more gardening, cute comics and casual conversation rather than another set of depressing memes.

Disclaimer: politics and societal issues are important and should be discussed extensively (they are quite popular on Lemmy, let’s be honest). I’m not advocating to hide them all, just to not show them as the first content people potentially interested in Lemmy would see.

  • Onomatopoeia@lemmy.cafeEnglish
    1·
    1 day ago

    This is a major issue.

    New users run the gamut of tech neophyte to very old hands. Both have reasons for not wanting to do this, even more, not knowing this can be done. As part of the “old hand” crowd, frankly I don’t have the time to go look for this stuff - it really needs to be upfront when you join.

    I think, overall, what you’re talking about is the Discovery process for a new user. And with new users being new to lemmy, they don’t understand how it all works. I’ve yet to sign up to a new instance and have anything clarified, up front - how lemmy works, and not just “federated like email”, but how your stuff isn’t replicated (I get this, but most people don’t automatically get the implications of “federated, like email”). Also, what communities they federate, what they block, etc, again, in detail. This isn’t done because documentation is hard, no one likes to do it - I’m as guilty of this as anyone.

    Getting new servers to do this would be challenging, but just like the sidebar for a community, it’s really crucial.

    I think you’re on to a good idea.

    • Blaze (he/him)@feddit.orgOPEnglish
      11·
      1 day ago

      This isn’t done because documentation is hard, no one likes to do it - I’m as guilty of this as anyone.

      There are a few posts on !newtolemmy@lemmy.ca, but they are far from exhaustive, and how to get new users there automatically is another challenge.