With previous Rexit’s like the API debarcle etc. many users were left looking for an alternative, but with decision fatigue and bad UX etc. most did not find the Fediverse a viable option.

What needs to still improve, how can we be ready this time?

  • Barbuzie@piefed.socialEnglish
    27·
    1 month ago

    As a new user (I started using PieFed 2 months ago), the UX can surely be improved, but I feel like the main issue is relative to how users are supposed to use the fediverse: I still don’t have a clue on how the fediverse works and how to use it properly.
    And I’m motivated in learning to use it.
    But for someone who isn’t motivated, it’s a huge “no thanks, goodbye”

    • Ek-Hou-Van-Braai@piefed.socialOPEnglish
      211·
      1 month ago

      I think we should just hide all of that complexity and just set defaults for everything that the user can decide to change if they want. You don’t have to understand how the Fediverse works to be able to use it. Most people don’t understand how email works, they just use it.

      BlueSky has 40+ million users, and it’s also technically decentralized like the Fediverse.

      aka. you can use the eurosky.social or bluesky.social server etc.

        • Ek-Hou-Van-Braai@piefed.socialOPEnglish
          9·
          1 month ago

          No, that’s why I said it’s technically decentralized.

          They have 40 million users though, they focused on UX first, and will now hopefully not be dicks and actually become decentralized

        • aquovie@lemmy.cafeEnglish
          1·
          1 month ago

          It’s not decentralized although it tried really hard to be.

          I don’t want to google/remember the exact details but IIRC basically they run a centralized identity server that is impossible to avoid. At best, you can set up an island instance that doesn’t federate with BlueSky proper (like Truth Social vs Mastodon).

    • mrmaplebar@fedia.io
      9·
      1 month ago

      I’m not sure what can really be done about that; the fediverse is, by its very nature, pretty complicated. It’s at least as complicated as http or email, and those things are widely used but probably not that well understood by the average person.

      I think people are accustomed to using things that they barely understand the inner workings of (car, microwave, computer, etc.) during their daily life. So, I guess my question is, to what degree do people need to know “how the fediverse works” in order to use it?

      If anything, we probably have to change the way we talk about the fediverse to make it more streamlined for people. For example, instead of suggesting that people “join lemmy”, it would be better to send them directly to a specific instance that we would like to see grow.

      Then there’s the friction of actually joining an instance. Some instances won’t let users view content without registering, and some require you to “apply” for registration, pending approval. Both of those things are reasonable and justifiable, but at the same time I think they do create a barrier of entry that we may not want if we are going to try to attract more users.

      • mesa@piefed.socialEnglish
        5·
        1 month ago

        It reminds me of this:

        image https://lemmy.zip/post/47438646

        But yeah making the process of signing up and using the fediverse easier for users will go a long way. As much as I dont like bluesky, one thing they did right over Mastodon is making the sign up process dead easy for end users.

        • mrmaplebar@fedia.io
          2·
          1 month ago

          Sure, but Bluesky did that by not really being federated at all, especially during the early rush.

          Bluesky is certainly a step or two better than Twitter, but I would imagine it’s still de facto centralized around the main bsky.social server, as that’s what the vast majority of users are probably using.Nowadays it’s getting more federated, but it seems to still be very far behind where ActivityPub is.

          So they avoided the challenges of federation by not really being federated in the first place. Mastodon doesn’t have that luxury, since it was fully federated and self-hostable from the start. There was no half step and nobody else to copy.

    • Vogi@piefed.socialEnglish
      2·
      1 month ago

      What do you think about https://phtn.app/ ? Sadly the PieFed support is in Beta for quite a while now, but I do like how clean everything looks. You can also hide away a lot of the complexity but I am not sure if that is the default.

      • Barbuzie@piefed.socialEnglish
        2·
        1 month ago

        I didn’t know it, and I’m trying it. The UX is really nice, though I don’t understand why I needed to submit the reasons why I wanted to subscribe, and why I have to wait to be subscribed to the different communities… But thanks for the suggestion!

        • Vogi@piefed.socialEnglish
          2·
          1 month ago

          That is odd, normally you are only asked for a reason when you sign up for a new account and not when you just subscribe to a community. Can you share the community you were trying to subscribe?

          I have to wait to be subscribed to the different communities That is unfortunately in the nature of the decentralization. Your instance cannot be sure that that the instance the community is on will respond in a timely fashion so it shows it as “pending”. The only thing we could maybe do about this is to be overly optimistic. Most requests to subscribe a community go though without a problem so we could just show it being subscribed even though are are not, but that would introduce other problems.

          • Barbuzie@piefed.socialEnglish
            1·
            1 month ago

            My bad choice of wording, they asked me for reasons during sign up, not subscribing to communities. Anyway, thanks for the explanation, any chance you can share also android apps? I’m currently using Summit linked to my PieFed account