You tell the average dude about how servers exist and the first instinct is that it matters, so they stop, fret about the importance, look for a second, then just drop it because they dont give enough hoots yet to invest more effort versus using a centralized service.
Want ppl to join, don't even tell them about servers. No choice paralysis, no fear of being wrong, nada
I haven't used Mastodon, but on Lemmy the instance you are on totally matters.
For example, beehaw.org is pretty happy to defederate. It tries to give you a more moderated and curated environment. Feddit.de is slow, laggy and often outdated, and they just deactivated federation in general (at least they said so, to me federation seems to be still working) to avoid that session stealing vulnerability.
In general, federation is pretty buggy right now, with federated posts/comments having a decent chance of not being replicated.
So the choice of instance really does make a difference. But there is no help at all up front to choose the correct instance.
And just hopping over to another instance is also not a great solution, since people are used to build their social media account. It's not some anonymous throw-away thing.
The average dude who can't figure out how to sign up for an account on a website can go fuck off back to Facebook, where SOMEHOW they managed to create an account.
Most people weren't ever taught about this shit and had no reason to spend time learning about it on their own. Most of us are either professional or amateur nerds, figuring this out wasn't really that hard because of our circumstances rather than our ~superior brains~
They have just as many braincells as you, throw that attitude away.
How is it difficult to find a server? Just pick whatever server you come across first and create an account.
You tell the average dude about how servers exist and the first instinct is that it matters, so they stop, fret about the importance, look for a second, then just drop it because they dont give enough hoots yet to invest more effort versus using a centralized service.
Want ppl to join, don't even tell them about servers. No choice paralysis, no fear of being wrong, nada
I haven't used Mastodon, but on Lemmy the instance you are on totally matters.
For example, beehaw.org is pretty happy to defederate. It tries to give you a more moderated and curated environment. Feddit.de is slow, laggy and often outdated, and they just deactivated federation in general (at least they said so, to me federation seems to be still working) to avoid that session stealing vulnerability.
In general, federation is pretty buggy right now, with federated posts/comments having a decent chance of not being replicated.
So the choice of instance really does make a difference. But there is no help at all up front to choose the correct instance.
And just hopping over to another instance is also not a great solution, since people are used to build their social media account. It's not some anonymous throw-away thing.
I the case of lemmy, i feel like it's definitely some anonymous throw-away thing. We're not here to build a follower base are we?
Much less than on other platforms, that's true, but after a while you do start recognizing usernames again.
Sure there's exceptions like SrGrafo on Reddit but most are here to lurk around or engage in random discussions
you could also simply recommend them an instance
The average dude who can't figure out how to sign up for an account on a website can go fuck off back to Facebook, where SOMEHOW they managed to create an account.
It looks like most people don't have enough braincells to do such a simple task. Isn't it just nice to live in a world like this?
Most people weren't ever taught about this shit and had no reason to spend time learning about it on their own. Most of us are either professional or amateur nerds, figuring this out wasn't really that hard because of our circumstances rather than our ~superior brains~
They have just as many braincells as you, throw that attitude away.
At least this is one thing that's not as bad as decades ago. Just remembering how computer illiterate most of the developed world used to be.