Defaults are crucial for good UX and getting more users on the Fediverse
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We should experiment with setting different defaults for new users.
For new signups, set 'Auto expand media' to true for half of users, and false for the other half, give it 3 months or a year and see what effect it has on user retention.
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Feel free to crosspost to [email protected], it's a community dedicated to promote Lemmy and make it more welcoming to new joiners, so your post would fit right in!
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It's not that popular of a concept on here, probably since there's massive selection bias (everyone here evidently found a way to struggle through), but you're completely right and I find that that lazer focus on usability is one place that Open Source advocates and projects often struggle with.
And personally, I think it's because most open source projects are built and run by programmers since they're the ones who can build an open source project, whereas a consumer facing site like Reddit / FB / TikTok/ IG, would be planned out and designed by a product manager, working closely with a designer and market researcher, and then get programmers to build that for them.
It's a model that's really difficult to pull off though in a community primarily consisting of programmers volunteering their free time, but I think it's worth keeping that in mind. Open Source projects that are consumer facing (and especially ones that rely on network effects), really need to work hard to stay in that user facing headspace.
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Default instances would go a long way, I know there's a lot of hate for lemmy.world but defaulting to the biggest instance or a random one in the top 10 would help ease some of the early friction. Users can choose an instance later when they get more comfortable with the platform.
Federation is neat but the average person just wants to scroll and chat
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I personally value the decentralization and personal control a lot more than laypeople being arsed to try to figure it out. If I didn't, I wouldn't even be here in the first place. Why try to accommodate for users that don't give a crap about the main selling point by diminishing the said selling point?
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Thank you, I will do that and join their cause
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You would still have control over it. It would just remove a barrier to entry.
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I completely agree. People who have never had to do this before May not know what to pick and never sign up because of it.
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Top 10 ( https://lemmy.fediverse.observer/list )
- LW
- lemm.ee
- lemmynsfw.com - not suitable
- sh.itjust.work - shit in the name, not appealing to the average user
- lemmy.ml - power tripping https://feddit.uk/post/12952230
- lemmy.dbzer0.com - requires to follow and agree the Anarchist code of Conduct - not appealing to the average user
- lemmy.ca - Canada-oriented, non-Canadian users might not want to join as they wouldn't think they would belong
- feddit.org - German-focused, https://feddit.org/c/main content is in German
- lemmy.blahaj.zone - queer-focused
- programming.dev - programmers-focused
I made a more complete analysis in this post https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/37336391 (pinned on [email protected] ), nowadays I basically go with:
" Lemmy has 47k monthly active users
- https://discuss.online/ if you want a server located in the USA (content is still accessible from any server, the most difference latency)
- https://sopuli.xyz/ if you want a server located in the EU
- https://vger.app/settings/install if you want an app
Feel free if you have any questions"
Because yes, the USA/EU question appeared during the Luigi announcement in LW.
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Mastodon: When you block someone they no longer can interact with you or your content
Lemmy: When you "block" someone they can mine your content forever -
Personally I find the UX better on PieFed (unless it's for a part where most of the development hasn't happened yet, so yeah it's hit or miss). See e.g. the tiling view.
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Nothing you can really do about preventing someone from looking at your posts unless you make your profile private, and I don't think Lemmy has that concept.
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Can you explain?
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I had to find this theme (and tweak the colours a bit) to just stand the site. The userscript Lemmytools also helps a bit, albeit half broken.
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While this is of course true (and I too have professional experience in this field), my own experience is the opposite. The UX and defaults here are generally better than on, for example, the R-site.
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That's the problem yes, but we can make small changes that will have a huge impact.
It's a very easy change to default 'Auto expand media' to true for half of new users, and see what effect it has over a few months.
It's also a fun experiment with no real drawbacks. -
I would suggest something like https://phtn.app/ as an alternative desktop frontend (also has mobile view support)
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Not a lot of thought was put into selecting the defaults, all I'm saying is at the very least we should put thought into the defaults that are set.
It takes away no control from the user. -
Isn't there a new UI in the works for the 1.0 release anyways?
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This looks so nice!!
