People like to commit, though. They want to commit. They want to make an account and be done. The ability for established users and communities to move around is a great feature that makes Lemmy superior to other sites, but it really needs to work on making new users feel comfortable enough to stay put when they’re first figuring things out, because if a new user decides to leave, they’re probably not switching instances, they’re switching platforms.
Comment on Bad UX is keeping the majority of people away from Lemmy
Steve@communick.news 1 month agoThe idea that one must commit, is the problem. At first, I signed up for 3 or 4 servers. It needs to be pointed out that no commitment is necessary.
Signtist@lemm.ee 1 month ago
Steve@communick.news 1 month ago
That’s a good point. May be true.
Resonosity@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 month ago
Having the ability to export your account data (say to a CSV) might be useful for this reason.
If you want to move to a new instance, you can pack your bags and head out.
You can probably imagine how this won’t be a 1:1 transition, however, because the new instance might not have the same communities as the old instance. I commented on another thread about how it would be cool if Lemmy took your communities list, looked at how those communities federate for instance (or just do a word search on the new instance with names of the communities of the old instance), and serve you suggested new communities to subscribe to.
And if you can export your data, then there’s no need to store it in a centralized way to make these types of actions doable, which favors privacy.
3dmvr@lemm.ee 1 month ago
Some apps kinda let you do this
frog_brawler@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Was your experience different between those 3-4 servers or was it pretty much universally consistent?
Steve@communick.news 1 month ago
One didn’t allow down votes. Seemed like a good idea. I rarely down vote. But in practice, when I do it’s for a reason. And I want the option.
Another went down for roughly a week. So that didn’t work out.
Which is one reason I embraced Communick; a paid instance. Been here since.
imaqtpie@lemmy.myserv.one 1 month ago
Communick is a nice option. I have an account there too. Unfortunately many Lemmings are weirdly hostile to it being a paid service, so it hasn’t gotten much traction.
I think having more small business type Lemmy servers would be a decent solution to the onboarding difficulties people are discussing in this thread. There’s definitely a chunk of users who just need the security of having someone to contact if they are confused about something or something isn’t working. And if they’re paying for it then the provider has an incentive to give them customer support.
3dmvr@lemm.ee 1 month ago
Like I genuinely hope you dont pay that much littlecreek (im same dude as other comment) has a 3.50 deal for 4 core 4gb ram on lowendtalk, more than enough to run lemmy for yourself
Dil@is.hardlywork.ing 1 month ago
I pay 7$ monthly for 8 core 16gb ram littlecreek, yunohost for free, installed lemmy on it, works solid, use like 10% of the resources with friendica also on the server lol That site looks insanely expensive monthly.
Maalus@lemmy.world 1 month ago
So now you are telling a user to make 3 or 4 accounts at once
Steve@communick.news 1 month ago
Not necessarily. That’s just what I did.
The point is, they aren’t making a permanent decision. They can switch or move at any time for any reason.
Ofiuco@lemmy.cafe 1 month ago
Yeah but you have to see it through the normal-user eyes, for them just creating a new account is a whole ordeal, then they see that ordeal makes them investigate the server before picking and then it turns out they picked wrong… For them that’s that and they delete the app (never deleting the account, mind you), branding the whole lemmy experience under whatever server they picked first.
If there was some sort of… Quiz? That could help them pick… But a brutally honest one, since some instances have pretty extremists opinions, new users have to know what they are dealing with.
ProdigalFrog@slrpnk.net 1 month ago
I could see merit to that argilument if the sign-ups process was kind’ve a pain, but honestly it’s so easy to create an account on Lemmy it’s hard to give that too much credence. Most servers just want a username and a password, and many don’t even require an email to verify. If putting in a username and password somewhere else because they didn’t like their first instance is too much for them, that’s a pretty flighty user to begin with, and they would probably leave for a host of other reasons too.
Saying that, a better way to narrow down that initial choice of server would not go amiss, but ultimately people will need to understand that this is all run by volunteers and there may be more bumps than a corporate controlled platform, but the other advantages (if they appeal to this theoretical user) are worth it.
Even with a better server picking tool, and even if they pick a server they like the first time, it’s possible that server has to shut down some day due to unforeseen circumstances, and that user will have to either accept that they have to create a new account somewhere, or decide that’s not an ideal UX and never come back, which would be a shame, but impossible to prevent.
3dmvr@lemm.ee 1 month ago
People like that weren’t going to add meaningfully to any discussion either way, if they flake that easily they were planning on lurking and likely wouldn’t have commited to using this app over reddit, I was one of them til I got perm banned. I definitely preferred reddit because I had karma, over decade old accound so I could post wherever and had “credibility” in my head lol. Almost joined mbin before I realized I don’t want user karma anymore. I do like post and comment upvotes/downvotes