Bad UX is keeping the majority of people away from Lemmy
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I really really doubt the part about the content based on my interests part, I've tried Lemmy, Mastodon and Pixelfed, none of the has any content that I care about enough to join a community but they have way too much US politics (WAY TOO MUCH), so it really doesn't encourages me to try anything new on the fediverse (like Loops, picking an instance, creating user just to find no content for me?).
I'd like to know how good or bad the instance block works on PieFed, because here on lemmy I still see hexbear posts that other users crosspost, even when my instance already defederated that instance.In addition to keyword filters that Blaze mentioned, PieFed is basically the only way I know of, other than an app (Sync or Connect) that offers a true instance filter that blocks all users from the specified instance, without requiring admin support. I've blocked all those batshit insane comments from lemmy.ml and now if I go to the same identical posts, those comments from those users from those instances that you specify are flat gone. Regardless of the community. More in this post but that's basically it that I've said already.
Likewise, Categories of Communities allows you to have your cake and (when you want it) eat it too. e.g. check out https://piefed.social/topic/arts-craft and note absence of it, in that category. Likewise https://piefed.social/topic/fediverse, and https://piefed.social/topic/food, and https://piefed.social/topic/gaming, and so on. But, in the very rare event that you ARE wanting it (hey, it happens!) it's still accessible at https://piefed.social/topic/news (& politics).
I would be remiss if I did not tell you that PieFed isn't fully completed yet - it both has features that Lemmy (and even Reddit!) lacks, while also missing some, like its search feature is pretty abysmally bad (on purpose, it just hasn't been the top priority yet, to receive some love and attention:-). Though I still love it even so. You can keep your old account (to do things that PieFed cannot yet), and eventually you should find yourself using the new perhaps 90% of the time, as you adjust and come to love what it can do for you - though note that I find that the approach to finding content is quite different from when I used Lemmy, which only offers Subscribed vs. All, whereas PieFed has so many more options to choose from (it may be overwhelming at first - but it's so fantastic to have choices!:-).
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It will definitely impact their experience though, doesn't matter if they know or not imo
If they look at the "all" feed they'll see 90% of the same stuff from 90% of instances.
Once (from experience) they learn what they want from an instance, they can always switch.
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I can browse the All feed but not much interests me there. I’ve found a few on my instance and stumbled upon some from other instances via links in posts but if I find a community on something like the website you posted I have no idea how to get there and subscribe to the community. I try to paste the link into the search but that just treats it like a keyword to search my instance.
could you give me an example of which community doesn't work?
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This reddit post likely has tens if not hundreds of thousands of views, look at the top comment.
Lemmy is losing so many potential new users because the UX sucks for the vast majority of people.
What can we do?
"feels like old reddit" is a weird way to say "it feels like new reddit, but doesn't leak ram, doesn't take as much or more processing power as AI does to run, and interjects ads randomly into the feeds"
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A lot of disingenuous Lemmy users in that thread pretending that picking a server is more confusing than filing your taxes. I think join-lemmy should probably hot-list like 6 or 7 servers instead of making you choose via a primary interest, since you can migrate your account later anyway. But I am personally not tech oriented and managed to make an account and find an app without an issue.
it's confusing from the perspective of choice paralysis, ultimately you can just make a new account and move to another instance if you really don't like the one you're on.
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You don't need paid mods. If you have a good community people will volunteer to moderate out of altruism, because they enjoy the community and want to make sure it stays good. Paid mods are actually worse than volunteer mods imo, because they don't actually care as much.
Volunteers are a double edged sword. At some volume of users and content it either needs to be a huge team of like minded volunteers which increases the likelihood of ye power tripping bastards or someone who is paid to do it and spend the time with rules to follow.
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Maybe better TLDR of how it works will help people realise it doesn't matter too much which instance they pick
I mean, I lost all my old posts (or at least access to them) when two instances I was on just poof'd.
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This reddit post likely has tens if not hundreds of thousands of views, look at the top comment.
Lemmy is losing so many potential new users because the UX sucks for the vast majority of people.
What can we do?
It's shocking to me just how stupid the average person is today. Computing catering to the lowest common denominator has made it too easy for idiots. Make computing difficult again; make people actually have to learn something. A tall order for the idiocracy of 2025.
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feels like old reddit
They obviously haven't visited https://old.lemmy.world/
oh shit that's awesome almost makes me want to not use sync anymore
almost
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Some instances have very different rules on them that would affect your experience. Like not allowing downvotes, for example. Blahaj users can't see downvotes or downvote anything themselves.
Yeah, true. But that’s cool. Having choice like that is great!
But I suppose that’s the issue. Trying to keep signup simple to help drive user engagement. How much do you try to wrap someone’s head around such nuanced differences, and when do you say “just join me on my instance”?
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Quality content as usual. I appreciate the thought you've put into this and agree with your reasoning.
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This reddit post likely has tens if not hundreds of thousands of views, look at the top comment.
Lemmy is losing so many potential new users because the UX sucks for the vast majority of people.
What can we do?
(Guy who uses email at work): MuLtIpLe sErVeRs ArE tOo HaRd
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This reddit post likely has tens if not hundreds of thousands of views, look at the top comment.
Lemmy is losing so many potential new users because the UX sucks for the vast majority of people.
What can we do?
It's worse than reddit. It's more liberal.
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This reddit post likely has tens if not hundreds of thousands of views, look at the top comment.
Lemmy is losing so many potential new users because the UX sucks for the vast majority of people.
What can we do?
I’m fine with the effort bar being selecting an instance. If someone can’t get beyond that, there’s probably not much they have to say I’d be interested in.
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It's worse than reddit. It's more liberal.
Oh, cool, a new account to block.
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This reddit post likely has tens if not hundreds of thousands of views, look at the top comment.
Lemmy is losing so many potential new users because the UX sucks for the vast majority of people.
What can we do?
That bar to entry is a good thing; it helps keep most of the stupid out. The same stupid that ruined the rest of the internet.
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I use Stealth with the express intent of not contributing to Reddit (there are no ads on Stealth) while consuming their server's resources. It's a sort of protest in its own way. Especially since those niche interest subs are the only way I could quickly get information about the community without having to scroll through discord servers— hell, in Lemmy-Kbin most of them are run by bots reposting from Reddit, and there is no way I can manage or advertise my own magazine, what with my busy schedule in my university.
You could also use revanced and patch the reddit apk on android.
No adds etc.
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This reddit post likely has tens if not hundreds of thousands of views, look at the top comment.
Lemmy is losing so many potential new users because the UX sucks for the vast majority of people.
What can we do?
99% of users are going to check out when you ask which server they want to join
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When reddit was coming up, a big issue people had was it was too confusing with bad UI. People didn't know which subreddits to follow. Its very similar, theres just a whole other layer.
Just find a popular instance that is federated with similar instances. And making accounts are easy too, so just do it in two or three instances. Yeah it's a bit much compared to reddit, but it's very very easy.
In their defense, the reddit UI did suck and the webpage was barely functional for a very, very long time. How many years did it take them to get video to be even passably functional?
Almost every Lemmy interface is an order of magnitude better than anything reddit has ever managed to produce. Voyager is a pleasure imo.
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I’m fine with the effort bar being selecting an instance. If someone can’t get beyond that, there’s probably not much they have to say I’d be interested in.
Likewise, lol. A little friction keeps the chaff out.
