Hear Me Out: We Probably Need More "Closed-off" Fediverse Servers
-
So, uh... explain to me why we can't just use invite codes without having the servers closed off? Like yeah, sure, that does make the invite technically redundant, but psychologically it's still there while retaining openness.
-
GMail did this early on, and it most definitely worked.
-
It does, though, because not every instance federates with every other instance. If someone is coming from Reddit, and they interact with a set of specific subs there, and they want to interact with the analogue communities here, they don't want to join an instance like, for example Beehaw, that has very strict federation policies, or (probably) .ml or lemmygrad, where they'll be exposed to stigma they weren't aware of going in and which might not apply to them.
A list of servers with very open federation could solve this problem in theory, assuming new users knew to reference it, but that might not be what they want, either.
The invite code idea is actually solid, I think, assuming they're handed out to people who have things in common with the target userbase of the instance, and not arbitrarily.
There's also some instances that hold united views on specific topics, for example blahaj with trans rights, and someone arbitrarily choosing that instance that doesn't hold those same views might feel that they don't fit in.
Obviously anyone can just choose a new instance and move, but for a new user coming in, that's a 'quit moment' in many cases. Giving an invite code to someone that leads them to an instance that at least broadly fits what they're interested in could help solve for this.
-
You could.
-
Fair enough, but you sound like the type of bitch-made brat who didn't return back the everlasting gobstopper. Just saying.
-
Wow I was interested to hear what your opinions were but nevermind after that comment.
-
It kind of does matter which instance someone joins, because not everything is federated with everything else.
But that's not really the point. The point is that potential new users think about joining "Lemmy" only to find a big list of servers that they don't know anything about, and that scares people away. Giving them an invite removes the need for them to choose anything at all.
-
The difference there is that Gmail was offering something (for free) that nobody else was at the time: the linear, conversation-based display of back-and-forth emails which we're all used to now, and a whole gigabyte of storage. Everybody already had an email address when Gmail arrived on the scene, but Gmail was, from a pure usability perspective, better than the rest. People wanted access to that.
For an invite-only Fediverse server to be especially attractive, it needs to have some reason why access to that server specifically is more desirable than going to any of the tens (hundreds?) of alternative servers that offer literally exactly the same thing. Unless they start adding features the others can't provide (which is close to impossible in an open-source project), what's the benefit?
-
Nobody is going to wait for an invite when they can just join any server.
well if they look hard enough to realize this then that's a good thing, so I think it works out
-
Don't take yourself so seriously or you'll end up like the guy above.
-
I think when you give the invite don't say "Lemmy" just say the name of the server
-
Don't have too much of an opinion on your proposed solution but I certainly got frustrated trying to figure out how to even get started the first time.
The whole process of trying to find a list of options was a PITA to begin with.
-
Being exclusive works really well. Like getting VIP access makes people feel important.
It's what made Facebook cool. When only selected schools were allowed to join, students, faculty, and staff felt important.
I know they needed to grow, but keeping it just for college students would've kept its cool factor for a lot longer.
-
Fuck that I died drinking fizzy lifting drink like a boss
-
Other than the benefit of being part of a more tight-knit community, you're taking one of the biggest points of onboading friction away by giving them a code instead of asking them to pick from a list of servers they know nothing about.
-
Floated straight into that big metal fan up top and gibbed like a half-life NPC, eh?
There are worse ways to go.
I did edit my post a bit by the way. Don't blame me for being cringey. I'm neurodivergent (or something, I'm not a doctor).
-
If that's something you want to try out, then set up an instance and try it out.
-
For an invite-only Fediverse server to be especially attractive, it needs to have some reason why access to that server specifically is more desirable than going to any of the tens (hundreds?) of alternative servers that offer literally exactly the same thing. Unless they start adding features the others can’t provide (which is close to impossible in an open-source project), what’s the benefit?
Most people don't even know about Lemmy or the Fediverse lol, you basically trick them into thinking it's something exclusive and then they join, that's a success
-
We can do both tho. Like Tildes but open if people want to "brave the trouble" of selecting a home instance or whatever.
-
Maybe this is a me problem, but especially on the threadiverse side (Lemmy/Mbin/PieFed), how much are we really in tight-knit communities based on our servers? I'm from Fedia, but I don't really interact with Fedia people any more than I do anybody else, or even bother to take notice of where other people are from, unless they say something especially goofy. Communities in the "subreddit" sense are more likely to feel tight-knit than servers
I definitely get how allowing people to skip choosing a server is good for some types of potential fediverse users, I just don't think Gmail works as an analogy for that. When Gmail was in its invite-only era, people weren't paralyzed by choices of providers, they specifically wanted the one that was the best, and that was Gmail.
