For years, the internet has been shrinking. Not in size, not in data, but in ownership. A vast, decentralized network of personal blogs, forums, and independent communities has been corralled into a handful of paved prison yards controlled by a few massive corporations. Every post, every “friend,” every creative work—
  • Hejej@lemmy.mlEnglish
    132·
    2 months ago

    The problem is that it’s “too complicated“ by presenting choices before knowing what they mean. It’s a decision tree without knowing the outcomes.

    I’m new to Lemmy and it wasn’t as easy to sign up and use as Reddit or other social networks.

    First I had to choose a server. To do that I had learn the consequences of choosing a server. Once I decided .ml had a sign up process where I had to be approved.

    Then I wanted to choose a community, I think it’s called, and found there were multiple communities with the same name. Once again I had to make a choose without knowing the difference.

    It all reminded me of the Paradox of Choice TED talk, https://www.ted.com/talks/barry_schwartz_the_paradox_of_choice .

    Finally I had to choose an app, as there is no official one. Now I’m in Mlem, but I don’t know if it’s better or worse than the others.

    Choice is great but for easier onboarding a first stop for server and app would be great. Like browser, you’re given one when you start and if you want better, and you’re ready too look for one, you can go looking.

    • Raptorox@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      5·
      2 months ago

      There is an issue open on Lemmy’s github about merging communities of the same name together in the ui by an “all” button, but sadly it’s been inactive for a year: #1113

        • 4am@lemm.eeEnglish
          1·
          2 months ago

          I’m not in a rush to endorse client apps adding large, experience changing features. That will radically alter the way different users interact with the service, they might need two apps to get all the features they want, etc

          Sounds like a good way to make things even MORE confusing for new users.

      • GhostlyPixel@lemmy.worldEnglish
        01·
        2 months ago

        I wonder how moderating would work in a merged community, would mods not from instance X only be able to hide a post from that instance from the merged community, or would they have power to remove a post from another instance? I’d imagine that is one of the hiccups of a feature like this, it is a shame it has been collecting dust though

        Edit: re-read the issue, now I understand it would be more of a multi Reddit than a merged community, so mods would only have the power for their own instance/community it sounds like

    • JackGreenEarth@lemm.eeEnglish
      41·
      2 months ago

      If you choose the app first, and you choose Voyager, everything else - browsing, creating an account - is intuitive and just works.

    • Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      2 months ago

      Anyone want to clue him in on who runs .ml? I feel like it’s going to break his heart. But also, I kinda feel like he should know…

    • Thekingoflorda@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      2 months ago

      As someone new here, what do you think would have really helped you without changing the fundamental principles of the fediverse? Like a website with clear information, or something else?

      • joanwestenberg@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        2 months ago

        I think we need simple, non technical content that gets people who haven’t used the fediverse stoked to find out more and try to get involved. That’s what I’m trying to do with articles like this - add momentum and tap into a big potential audience who are primed for this. But I also do want to put together a Getting Started landing page that helps people kick off.

        I really do think we need to get people pumped enough to want to be educated about it all.

        • Gexilla@lemm.eeEnglish
          1·
          2 months ago

          Any thoughts on

          https://fedi.tips/

          I haven’t really used it since I wanted to populate my Mastodon timeline. Now it’s happening a little bit more naturally, through boosts and hashtags.

    • Naich@lemmings.worldEnglish
      21·
      2 months ago

      On the other hand, there is something to be said for having a small test before joining. I remember Usenet before and after it became easier to use.

      • Ibuthyr@lemmy.wtfEnglish
        1·
        2 months ago

        This can be said for the internet in general. Just look at the brainwashed masses. Without easy access to the internet via smartphones, Trump, Weidel, Wilders, Meloni etc. would never stand a fucking chance.

        • tal@lemmy.todayEnglish
          1·
          2 months ago

          I was reading some articles the other day, and the impression I have is that that’s really not true for at least Trump.

          The Trump route was more:

          • Conservatives in the US felt that media had a liberal bias. Whether it did or didn’t doesn’t matter for this discussion — that was the perception.

          • Fox News offers a viewpoint appealing to conservatives. It becomes essentially the only mainstream conservative media outlet. Liberal viewers watch a variety of news media, but Fox News dominates among conservatives.

          • Fox News — already somewhat opinion-based from the start — starts to veer off into conspiracy land. Because so many conservatives watch Fox News, this has a major impact.

          There’s some back and forth here. It’s not that Fox just pushed ideas that were out there, but that they’re willing to show material based on what people will watch, and they gained more viewers than they lost if they ran bonkers stuff.

          https://www.cnn.com/2021/06/08/media/fox-news-hoax-paperback-book/index.html

          Section

          When Donald Trump lost the presidency last November, Fox News lost too. But unlike Trump, Fox was never in denial about its loss. The network’s executives and multi-million-dollar stars stared the ratings in the face every day and saw that their pro-Trump audience was reacting to the prospect of President Biden by switching channels or turning off the TV.

          “We’re bleeding eyeballs,” a Fox producer remarked in December. “And we’re scared.”

          To fix the problem, Fox ran even further to the right. And here’s the thing: It worked. It was toxic for the American political system, but it was profitable for Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch.

          “Fox is a really different place than it was pre-election,” a commentator said to me, with regret, after Biden took office.

          The post-election changes at Fox happened one day at a time, one show at a time, but when viewed in totality, they are unmistakable and stark. Practically every change was about having less news on the air and more opinions-about-the-news. It was like serving dessert without dinner, when the dessert consisted of screaming about how awful the dinner was, and warning that the meal might be a socialist plot, and hey, while we’re at it, why are chefs so corrupt?

          And because Fox News is the primary trusted source of information for millions of Americans, including Republican elected officials and party activists, the changes affect everyone.

          Trump’s loss was a pivot point.

          ‘We denied the pandemic and now we’re denying the election outcome.’

          Fox’s ratings declined in the immediate aftermath of Mitt Romney’s loss in 2012, so the slump after the networks projected Biden as president-elect was no surprise. But the precipitousness was a shock. Fox’s afternoon and evening hours fell off by 20, 25, 30 percent, even though the news cycle was nothing short of epic. For people at Fox who were used to winning for years, this was disorienting, and for some downright terrifying.

          “Our audience hates this,” one executive said to me in a moment of candor. “This” was Biden as president-elect and Kamala Harris as VP-elect. “They’re pissed,” said a second source. “Seething,” said another.

          I granted anonymity to these sources because they weren’t allowed to speak with outside reporters on the record, and because I wanted them to freely offer blunt assessments of the situation.

          Fox’s problem was that the audience suddenly had somewhere else to go. On the up-and- coming channel Newsmax, Biden wasn’t called president-elect right away. In other words, Trump wasn’t a loser yet. Newsmax’s 7 p.m. host Greg Kelly kept saying that he believed Trump could stay in office for four more years. “IT ISN’T OVER YET,” Newsmax’s banners proclaimed. While Fox only dabbled in election denialism at first, Newsmax went all-in.

          There wasn’t really any major center-right mainstream news source other than Fox News, so if Fox shifts into conspiracy-land, so does the conservative public.

          I dunno. Maybe the answer is something like a news source somewhere between CNN and Fox News. Something that a conservative audience is comfortable watching, but doesn’t fly off the handle to the degree that Fox has. It maybe can’t capture an audience that’s as large, but it only needs enough to be viable.

          I mean, there are center-right media sources like the Wall Street Journal, but those are kinda not aimed at mass audiences.

    • 4am@lemm.eeEnglish
      1·
      2 months ago

      I did always think that a shared (somehow) login would be great; but how do you federate that? Do you? What if the original server goes down? How does moderation work?

      It gets really complicated really fast.

    • Psychadelligoat@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      11·
      2 months ago

      Finally I had to choose an app, as there is no official one

      It’s called Jerboa and it’s one of the worse ones, but it does exist

    • SushiRain@lemmy.worldEnglish
      0·
      2 months ago

      What’s Mlem? Can’t find it on the Play Store. I’m using Sync which is pretty good…