Don’t tell people “it’s easy”, and six more things KBin, Lemmy, and the fediverse can learn from Mastodon

https://privacy.thenexus.today/kbin-lemmy-fediverse-learnings-from-mastodon/

Reddit’s strategy of antagonizing app writters, moderators, and millions of redditors is good news for reddit alternatives like KBin and Lemmy. And not just them! The fediverse has always grown in waves and we’re at the start of one.

Previous waves have led to innovation but also major challenges and limited growth. It’s worth looking at what tactics worked well in the past, to use them again or adapt them and build on them. It’s also valuable to look at what went wrong or didn’t work out as well in the past, to see if there are ways to do better.

Here’s the current table of contents:

* I’m flashing!!!
* But first, some background

  1. Don’t tell people “it’s easy”
  2. Improve the “getting-started experience”
  3. Keep scalability and sustainability in mind
  4. Prioritize accessibility
  5. Get ready for trolls, hate speech, harassment, spam, porn, and disinformation
  6. Invest in moderation tools
  7. Values matter

* This is a great opportunity – and it won’t be the last great opportunity

https://privacy.thenexus.today/kbin-lemmy-fediverse-learnings-from-mastodon/

Thanks to everybody for the great feedback on the draft version of the post!

#kbin #lemmy #fediverse @fediversenews @fediverse@kbin.social @fediverse@lemmy.ml

  • modulus@lemmy.ml
    6·
    2 years ago

    Blind user. So far my experience with Lemmy is good, slightly better than Reddit. The major accessibility hurdle is some way to easily navigate through comments. Possible ideas would be using HTML landmarks, headers, or invisible (to sighted users) separators.

    • tetris11@lemmy.ml
      4·
      2 years ago

      Wow the comments are are all nested under the same parent, without hierarchy.

      See:

      document.getElementById("comment-517862").getElementsByTagName("p")[0].innerText
// and 
document.getElementById("comment-517862").parentNode.getElementsByClassName("comments")
  • generalEdo@lemmy.fmhy.ml
    5·
    2 years ago

    Today is my first day using lemmy on a desktop and not a mobile device. It was certainly not easy on mobile but finding and subscribing to communities was easy once I used desktop. But mobile is certainly not a good way to start. I would recommend to anyone starting out use web browser on your desktop first and then you can transition to mobile.

  • !ozoned@lemmy.world@beehaw.org
    4·
    2 years ago

    Don’t tell people it’s “easy” anytime. Anything is easy when you know how to do it. Learning new things is difficult and telling someone it’s easy just makes people feel dumb and that they can’t do it. Encourage folks to learn.

    • SanguinePar@lemmy.world
      3·
      2 years ago

      I’ve been trying not to say it’s easy, but I can’t help but want to counter the claims that it’s too hard/impossible for average users.

      That was me two days ago, and after a bit of confusion, it’s fine. Am I an expert in federation? No. Do I need to be to enjoy Lemmy? Also no.

    • SyJ@lemmy.ml
      1·
      2 years ago

      I was a little perplexed to begin with but quickly got the hang of it. My biggest gripe is its difficult to link to or find communities outside of your instance.

  • Mastur@kbin.social
    2·
    2 years ago

    I came here after reading a migration guide at r/redditalternatives, i just wanna say, describing the technical aspects of kbin and ActivityPub doesnt really help navigate the the kbin UI.

    It’s not really necesary to explain how kbin, lenny and mastodon can interact with eachother when the average brand new user doesn’t know how to interact and is overwhelmed by kbin’s webpage alone. Currently these platforms are being intoduced from the developer’s POV and it’s like being thrown to the deep end of the pool.

    Anyways back to reading any and all posts i can find to figure this site out lmao

  • Grumpycat8@dmv.community
    2·
    2 years ago

    @thenexusofprivacy @fediverse@kbin.social @fediverse@lemmy.ml

    I’m a first-wave Reddit refugee and I agree, don’t say the fediverse is easy. I’ve been online since the early 90s and it’s not an easy transition. I wish there was a map. I wish it were easier to set up new communities for chatting.

    But having been through these cycles (online and IRL) before, I must say that maybe you *don’t* want it to be too easy. You *don’t* want to get too popular.

    I hope the Reddit revolt works. I want my niche communities back.

    • Hot Saucerman@lemmy.ml
      1·
      2 years ago

      I stated a similar sentiment elsewhere. The reason the discussions on reddit became less rigorous and interesting over time is a case of Eternal September. As you make a site more user-friendly and accessible, you actually are inviting a lot of users who are would have been unwilling to learn a slight learning curve, whether technical or social. Maybe it’s remiss of me to say, but I think it speaks to their unwillingness to change their minds or being willing to view a new perspective about much.

      As an older person here who was on Slashdot and left for Digg and then left to reddit, I genuinely think having a slight learning curve prevents people who would otherwise be shitposters and nothing else from joining the fray. I really would like to see high quality discussions online thrive again like they often did in the early days reddit (and where they often still do on its predecessor, hackernews), and as elitist as it is to say, I think having it be a little more technical and confusing isn’t a bad thing.

      Also, as an older person here, if people are willing to figure out the initially quite confusing way (to me anyway) that Discord works, they can figure this out, too.