There’s nothing wrong with that particular demographic or anything, but it doesn’t feel like a win to me if the entire fediverse is just one big monoculture.

I wonder what it is that is keeping more diverse users away? Is picking a server/federation too complicated? Or is it that they don’t see any content that they like?

Thoughts?

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[–] krayj@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Right now, the fediverse is not very user-friendly for non-tech people.

I mean, there's instances de-federating from each other, weird federation sync anomalies still going on between instances, users have to create and maintain multiple user accounts on multiple instances if those instances have defederated each other, even the 'official' jerboa app for lemmy shits itself if you try and connect in to an instance that's one sub-dot version lower than what it was built for - plus it crashes on 1/3 of my android devices, some of the best lemmy apps have been removed from app stores due to non-compliance with app store terms and have to be installed manually from github. It's all still very DIY right now instead of plug-and-play....and if lemmy is to appeal to anyone other than tech nerds, it needs to become much more user friendly and much more plug-and-play.

I tried explaining it all to my wife (who is still a Reddit user) and she argues that lemmy on fediverse sounds way too complicated...and she's not wrong.

[–] andobando@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Sign up at lemmy.world.
Done

No need to explain all the other crap

[–] krayj@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

For several weeks straight, the 'official' lemmy app, Jerboa, wouldn't even connect to Lemmy.world due to the difference of a minor version number, and when beehaw.org de-federated, many of the communities I was subscribed to just ceased updating and I could no longer participate in them. This is a major problem for people who don't have a deep understanding of how federation works and is implemented. Common users shouldn't need to have deep understanding of technology to be able to use it. This is a massive hurdle that lemmy will have to overcome if it is to be adopted by more than just tech geeks.

It's not as simple as you make it out to be...I can't tell if you are just being willfully ignorant or if you like arguing from the point of a wrong/bad position just for the sake of arguing here, but it's not simple and easy yet for your common non-technical reddit user...and it has to be before it sees more adoption among that group.

[–] acrobaticpenguin23@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

So true but the game changers are on the way Boost for Lemmy, Sync, and I think one I am missing. Hundreds of thousands if not several million potential Fediverse users .

These apps asked for preregistration for their upcoming Lemmy versions and some users may be maintaining Reddit until their app is ready . Some I am sure signed up for Lemmy, KBin, etc.and were discouraged and stayed with Reddit.

I am almost certain over the the next several months the user base will increase but will it increase enough to get decent engagement levels on more of the niche communities.

That is the sizeable advantage has at the moment.