I think the way Mastodon is handling new users is pretty problematic. Not only did this lead to huge amounts of spam on the network because Eugen's instance couldn't handle the amount of new users, but also this goes against the very idea of federation.

Unpopular opinion: if finding an instance is too hard for you, maybe the federated internet just isn't for you. I see people on reddit still complaining about how difficult Mastodon is, and I'm sorry but if that's too complicated for you, just stay on reddit. Considering the level of discourse of both sites, I think it's a feature, not a bug.

I'm a new user, so my opinion counts as such. My first concern upon signing up was understanding which communities I was allowed to see from which instance. Maybe a page where people can search by communities first and then show them where they are hosted/federated could solve this issue. Also, improving federations between servers could ease the signup process too. If any server allows communities from most other servers to be viewed, choosing what instance to join will be more a matter of personal beliefs and tastes than else.

I'm afraid that setting a default instance could cause it to experience explosive growth and monopolization of the communities. As someone pointed out in a comment in another post, while users on Lemmy are growing, donations are not, so the bill for a single instance with all the people on it will probably be huge. Also, if all the largest communities are going to be on a single instance, how difficult will be to create new original ones to bring some people to the small servers?

Captchas are bad for privacy. They allow the provider to track users between websites, and they are also bad for people because they are generally hard to solve for people with impairments. Also, automated solutions to bypass captchas exist on the market.

Also, I believe a network with high-quality content is better than a bigger generalist one. A little barrier of entry and manual screening of people may serve well for this purpose, so I'm favorable to keeping it.

I think the main problem here is that there isn't a really accessible explanation of federation and how these social platforms differ from the other, larger options. There is lots of great documentation for interested users to acquaint themselves with, but it would be beneficial to have a more 'elevator pitch' version that can get people moving through the signup process with more confidence. Even just a short message saying: "hey, choosing your instance isn't as important as it looks right now, you'll be able to freely use any other instance once you sign up" could go a long way towards making on-boarding much smoother. Once a user is in the system, they can learn what details they care about through osmosis for the most part.

I do think that having a default instance would help with streamlining the on-boarding process, but I don't think that the idea aligns with the values of lemmy as a whole. It's important to keep services decentralized in order to keep things free and open.

I've just found kbin.social and find it has superior signup options. It's just: make an account (email/password), or sign up with Google or Apple. No server talk.

Actually, it is not a superior signup option*. /kbin simply has no other English-language server! (remaining three /kbin servers are Polish-speaking)

*Well, corporate logins being available as an option actually are an advantage - for not-deGoogled users.

yes please. This is lemmy's time to shine. If the servers can handle the load and people don't understand the Fediverse just yet, i say let people be directed towards one good location.

As far as i can tell, after people join and learn the basic interface they start asking questions about the broader capabilities of the fediverse on their own.

As a new user, I think someone with a lot of experience with federated social media platforms and Lemmy specifically should create something that can be passed around which makes it easy to understand for incoming users.

An infographic or short video would probably help a lot.

Oo, I hope this posts gains traction, you're totally right, although I speak from the perspective of someone who started out not knowing shit about fuck with federated social media, to being exclusively on it now.

I think it’s a great idea. Let there be an Ellis Island, accepting the tired, the hungry, the poor. As long as there are signs everywhere letting them know “you probably shouldn’t live the rest of your new life here, try somewhere else!”

You can't have a default server unless someone is ready to pay for it. (Idk how Mastodon does it.)

What I'd do is:

1. have every instance list its most prevalent topics/communities/interests (technology, games, communism, memes...)

2. when the user is signing up, have them select their interests

3. try to find the ideal match. Let the user override if they want to, perhaps let them know if the community is tiny, requires approval etc, but other than that just show a "suggested instance: example.org, change link"

i like mastodon's approach - its clean, simple, and easy to understand.

i think the fediverse is just a very hard concept for people to wrap their heads around if they aren't internet savvy or already knowledgable on these things. i think in general there needs to be an easier way to fully explain what it is and get it across to people.

lemmy should def adopt something similar here to mastodon. i think having a default server is smart and probably the right move (with the "Pick your own server" option or something similar right below, just like what Mastodon is doing, so users easily have the option), HOWEVER i think before that happens, lemmy does need to allow migrating and moving servers, and ik lemmy.ml is being overloaded really badly rn in general, so those issues probably need to be sorted too.