- cross-posted to:
- memes@slrpnk.net
- cross-posted to:
- memes@slrpnk.net
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This seems like as good a thread as any to make my first post in as a Lemmy user. I’ve been on Reddit since '09, and was on slashdot back in the 90’s. I really am hoping that these new, federated services take off. Onboarding still seems like the biggest hurdle.
After onboarding the interface is kind of rough to figure out. Mostly because the mobile web version isn’t that great, and jerboa also isn’t that great, and they’re different enough that switching back and forth gets you confused. With reddit’s problems, I imagine we’ll see some more client apps and ui improvements show up in the next couple months with the added attention, and that’ll be the end of that. Honestly, I thought it’d be rougher. I do wish I got more replies to my comments though, so i’m trying to make a point to post a bit more than I ordinarily would.
The desktop web interface seems pretty similar to old reddit/rif so I haven’t had that much difficulty with browsing. The fact that I’ll be losing my niche subs is the hardest part of moving entirely to Lemmy though.
Agreed. I’m quite the nerd, so i’m holding out hope some of my favorite subs will move over.
If that’s really a problem, why not start the communities here yourselves? Literally nothing and no one is stopping you.
Lack of time, autism, and anxiety. Not exactly good traits for starting and maintaining a community. And to be honest, interacting at my own pace is OK, but feeling like I had to would be way too socially taxing.
It’s really not for everyone. I’m not cut out for that. I’m the kind of person who comes along with a weirdly detailed answer to an incredibly niche question. It takes all kinds to have a vibrant community.
I’m finding a lot of my favorites are appearing on the Fediverse, popping up hour by hour. Sometimes just searching by the sub name is enough to find them, let alone searching by the subject.
I don’t have much to say, but here’s a reply anyway! Hope it seems a little less quiet in here.
Absolutely agree. I first tried Lemmy on my phone and found it really difficult to like. As soon as I logged on from my iPad it all “just worked”. Hopefully some of the apps under development will solve that problem.
Its an issue, but Its at least barebones and information dense. Feels like going back 20 years on internet design, with some new things. Its old school and a bit of whiplash even for me. Some younger users are going to have a task getting around at first.
Not that I would say change it, just an observation and barrier to entry.
Bare bones and information dense are things I like about it, honestly; crammed with popups about cookies and privacy policies and newsletters and adverts is the nominal experience.
I’m not a tech savvy person and I had no problem to adapt to this platform. It’s very similar to Reddit and after 15 minutes playing around I also understood how everything works out. Even the federation concept is pretty easy.
I am with you, part of the Reddit exodus after about a decade. First post too, and I hope this place turns out to be my next all in one stop for interesting stuff. Since its up to us, users, to make it happen I’m going to be optimistic.
Similar story, but I still poke at /. - it’s still going! The most refreshing thing about using Lemmy to me is not having ads everywhere, I used a pihole and other browser extensions but you still have to deal with the inline ads mimicking user posts on reddit.
Yeah, the front page was a little intimidating and it took a little time for my to get the account confirmation email. But otherwise, this space feels and acts very similar to old.reddit and some customization (like night mode) … which is a good thing!
Just jumped over from Reddit and if I hadn’t read the comment about sh.itjust.works I probably would have no idea how to get started with Lemmy. Hopefully with more publicity there will be a more streamlined signup process a la new mobile apps or certain servers trending when you search for it.
Didn’t see some of my old communities from Reddit on here yet but I guess it’s time to make them!
Also - does anyone have any good alternatives to Youtube on the Fediverse? Is Odysee popular?
does anyone have any good alternatives to Youtube on the Fediverse?
Peertube would be the most popular. It works the same that there isn’t one server/instance that hosts all the videos. A popular one is tilvids.com but there are others
I’m unique in this, but I firmly believe video creators should just make torrents, and post links to them from whatever site / forum they choose.
Torrents have already solved the big static data problem, we only need a place (like here), where people can post links.
I believe Peertube has support for webtorrent streaming so viewers upload the video to other viewers as well.
Ya, but unfortunately only a tiny minority of seeders use webtorrents, and peertube still has to store every video locally. Because of that, peertube instances find that they can’t last long, because of the huge disk space required.
I was just thinking about this. The content creators already have the original quality copy stored on their machines.
Yep, and they could share those high res versions too.
tilvids doesn’t federate for some reason, it’s annoying, they have the best vids. it’s like they want to force people to use their site
Hmm, that is annoying. Hopefully it’s not deliberate.
I only saw a link to that peertube instance earlier and had a tricky time discovering other instances. Although, I admittedly didn’t spend too long trying.
Woo hoo, me too. Was there for the rise and fall of each (and Digg). Also - I think its up to us to go back and encourage users from all our niche communities to come on board to these other places. I know a lot of them won’t at least not right away. But we can encourage it.
Same here, this feels a bit more like the newsgroup days, except less porn spam.
Ooh, I forgot all about slashdot!
honestly, its best if you continue forgetting about it.
I was also on slashdot back in the 90s. Still am too.
Someone just reminded me of Slashdot yesterday and my account is still active, and the posts are still pretty good. Why did I ever leave?
I agree.
I love the idea of a decentralized network like this, but I can’t help but feel like it lacks some level of transparency to how it works?
After being around here for a bit I get the idea of federation and all that, but its incredibly overwhelming when trying to create an account (Hell I still don’t know if I created my Mastodon or Lemmy accounts in the right place)
I can’t help but feel like it lacks some level of transparency to how it works?
I agree, which is actually kinda funny since it’s open source. The documentation helps some, but it’s a LOT of reading to do, and it still leaves a new user like me with questions- and I’m a software developer, with more technical knowledge than most. I have a feeling that someone without that technical background would find this VERY confusing to understand at a fundamental level.
The big question that I still have, that should be readily apparent but isn’t: if I subscribe to a community that’s hosted on another instance, can I still post/like/comment there? I just tested it- you can. I notice now that the guide says:
Lemmy will then fetch the community from its original instance, and allow you to interact with it.
I think they could make it a lot clearer for a casual user if they reworded the “following communities” section to name it something like “joining communities,” and re-worded the first paragraph to something like this:
After logging in to your new account, its time to follow communities that you are interested in. For this you can click on the communities link at the top of the page (on mobile, you need to click the menu icon on the top right first). You will see a list of communities which can be filtered by subscribed, local or all. Local communities are those which are hosted on the same site where you are signed in, while all also contains federated communities from other instances. You can also find more communities by going to the Lemmy Community Browser. You can join communities from any instance, regardless of which instance you created your account in, and once you’ve joined you can like, comment, and post in those communities.
What did you find complicated about the onboarding?
Having to write a cover letter explaining why I’m a good fit for the instance.
It’s not a difficult ask, but it’s going to turn a vast majority of potential users away from the service.
I understand the need for it, but a typical user is going to be confused by:
- Having to “sell” yourselves to some unknown individual, or group of individuals
- Choosing an “instance”, when most users have never heard of such a thing, and don’t understand how a federated system operates
- For the above: Understanding different instances and which one allows cross-instance posting
- Simplicity. None of this is “simple” in terms of making a new account for a social media platform. This is unlike any mainstream platform out there.
Again, I understand the need for all this. But your average user, which Lemmy desperately needs more of if it wants to become the safe haven for Reddit refugees, is going to be incredibly frustrated and dissuaded by the whole process.
All I put in my “cover letter” was “reddit refugee” and I got accepted on lemmy.ml, lemmy.one and beehaw.org, 2/3 with no email verification either. I don’t think that it’s hard to sign up here, it might just be unfamiliar to some people, who will hopefully grasp the simple concepts quickly.
I’m pretty sure this is just a “human test” to make it harder for people to register a lot of accounts or to programmatically register them.
I apologize in advance as I’m one of the many reddit refugees seeking alternatives. I can’t believe how fast reddit is unraveling and you’d think with u/spez’s recent AMA he would try to placate the community instead of inciting the situation even further. Anyway, Lemmy’s pretty cool so far.
Don’t apologize. All refugees are welcome here. Although… there is one small thing you could do to help. Maybe make an account on a less crowded instance? Too many people see “dev-run” and think “main instance”. We do need to spread out a bit to make this sustainable.
I’m new here, too. How do I switch instances from the mobile app? Edit: I’m using androids jerboa
You just add another account under the arrow on the top left side. Then you can switch between the accounts on different instances if you like. But I prefer having one account only on a small instance.
Sorry to use you as tech support, but in what app? I tried jerboa and couldn’t log in at all.
Why couldn’t you log in? Yes Jerboa.
I couldn’t find the login button. Every button I touched just told me to login first.
Yeah it’s a common problem and I had it too. There was many threads about it. It’s pretty much hidden.
Anyway, if you click on the top left hamburger menu in the app, there is a tiny arrow there at the top right. Click it. :)
It’s open source I think its gonna get a lot more development just from Redditors
They have people astroturfing hard right now arguing that reddit is not wrong for anything they are doing
I’m looking forward to lemmy becoming my primary time waster 😁
Given there is no algorithmic recipe to hook you, I’d wager Lemmy is far better for everyone’s mental well-being. You’ll ultimately squander less of your time mindlessly scrolling.
That’s what I love about Fedi in general. The algorithms are either fully gone, or are almost entirely working in favor of the users rather than against them.
Late-stage social media is to have the platforms themselves socialized. You love to see it
This has not been my experience so far.
F5
That’s why I’m here 😁
We still need a good mobile app for Lemmy. I tried using the Jebora one, and its scrolling speed is abysmal.
Silver lining, I am looking forward to all the new things getting developed for lemmy and the like when they can’t make things for Reddit anymore. Their loss is our gain.
Praying that Infinity for Reddit moved to Lemmy 🙏
This right here. Infinity is/was my go-to. Fingers crossed!
Amen
That would be a amezing! I do really hope some of the third party apps consider moving to Lemmy
It’s going to be tough for some communities. Some of the Lemmy devs are literally avowed Communists and that is bound to cause friction.
Maybe for you, but I honestly read that, thought it was interesting, and went on with my life.
I need captlizm to feel not bad 😭 what’s a good name for a free market lemmy?
@god
@mrmanager Lemmynade.store ?$41/year 😢
Interesting. I’m using Jerboa right now and while I have a few complaints, scrolling speed isn’t one of them. I wonder if it’s a phone specific issue.
the only shrinking issue I have is, when there are images in the comments - then it flickers all the time
I am having the same issue (Pixel 6) but a propose fix is underway.
Same here, scrolling is fine for me (Pixel 6 Pro in case it matters).
Right now I’m just using the web interface on mobile - selfhosted though so I got to change the theme to dark.
I just use a dark reader extension on the browser.
Dark Reader made Firefox on Android so unbelievably slow for me that I disabled it out of frustration, and have just been blinding myself rather than waiting 10+ seconds for Firefox to load sites that Chrome loaded near instantly.
ehhh I don’t use firefox tho I use Kiwi Browser with dark reader extension. It works very very fast.
I would use firefox but firefox is kinda slow on my phone and I dislike slow.
TIL about Kiwi Browser, thanks for this, I think I could like this a lot. Firefox’s mobile extension support is extremely limited, so this is a breath of fresh air.
The only warning I can give you cuz it bothers some people around me is that it’s centralized and closed source. It’s also not privacy oriented. Other than that I like it more than Firefox in all respects.
The dev from RedReader wants to integrate support for Lemmy.
RedReader is a fantastic app. I hope the dev works it out.
I’m using jerboa right now, agreeded. It’s not the worst experience but there’s definitely improvements to be made.
There’s a real opportunity in transitioning existing reddit clients to access Lemmy instead. Keep the user base, change the platform.
Mlem for iOS is a beta still in early development but it’s buttery smooth on my phone. If the dev sees this, I appreciate your work a lot!
Seconding Mlem! I’m still getting used to how this app works, but I like it so far!
Tbh I prefer just good old firefox browser over jerboa. The site is optimized pretty well for mobile
I use the website for mobile, and it works really well
The problem is that even though you and me are ok with not having an app, most people need an app 🤷
Hello i’m from the wave !
which one -)-)
(・_・;) the one of the normal people of course.
The sub with all the waifu plane girls?
Nah, waifu car girls is where it’s at.
I’m part of the problem. How’s it going guys?
Well kbin.social and beehaw.org have both gotten the hug of death over the last 25 minutes so that’s fun haha. Might have to hop over to a smaller instance to spread the load out
Its fitting for Reddit to give multiple hugs of death as it ends brings back fond memories of crushed servers
I don’t really know how this system works but if I’m on one instance looking at stuff on another does that help at all? Is stuff cached to help spread out the load?
Yeah, like I’m on sh.itjust.works and subscribed to this community, so when people make posts on !memes@lemmy.ml those get synced and cached on sh.itjust.works, so whenever people on this server scroll through memes it puts load on sh.itjust.works instead of on lemmy.ml.
That’s the impression I got from the devs and admins here, but I’m not certain my impressions are correct or what kind of impact external users posting to beehaw communities impacts beehaw’s instance
Our current coding work should help, but ya it’s not been an easy time for us server admins, when reddit fucks up so bad that half the site tries to join the fediverse.
Thank you for your hard work, and sorry for being part of the reddit hoarde 😂
But seriously, thank you 👍
I’m part of your woes, so sorry, but at the same time don’t stress! I’m good with server instability. I do tech professionally, with contracts. You ain’t signed no contracts so feel free to tell us to fuck off so you can sleep and relax.
I think partly the problem is that they are trying to join the largest instances… There are many smaller ones but people think they are not as good.
Me too!
We’ll be fiiiiine 🥲 starts hyperventilating
I can’t wait for Lemmy to be my time waster and news grab all in one ❤️
Hell yeah, just got here and am ready boost some engagement! I already like it here, I forgot that being able to see the amount of down votes used to be a thing
*Looks like I’m the 69th comment here, what a start!
One of the things I love about Lemmy is that I’m literally over here in a different instance. I can willingly see other content but I also have this local group I can be close with. It brings me back to the old Internet with the benefits and reach of the new Internet.
Excellent point. A small community, that can easily interact with the larger community. This is what the internet always should have been.
Oooh lawdy there are servers! My time wasting will scale exponentially now 😅
Digg -> Reddit -> Lemmy
ICQ -> IRC -> Digg -> Reddit -> Lemmy
NNTP -> Slashdot & Fark -> Reddit -> Lemmy.
Everything old is new again.
ahh yeah forgot about slashdot and fark
I can still hear the UH OH!
Funnily I remember joining both Digg and Lemmy shortly before Digg’s implosion. It’s really bittersweet cause there’s so many smaller subreddits like r/SS13 and multitudes of show subreddits that collect fans to chat with that I wish I could take with to the fediverse reddit-likes.
When the main servers get hit hard (such as lemmy.ml), will users and/or communities using other servers be less impacted by the wave? Or will the wave hitting the popular servers be a problem for everyone?
Will federation save us to some extent?
I think if people can get past how it’s a bit complicated they can pretty easily just pick a random smaller server to sign up to. I’ve been on Reddit recommending sh.itjust.works because it doesn’t ask for an essay or some shit, just a username and password, as god intended
I’m opening up my server to about 100 users. My server seemed a bit overkill for one account so I figured may as well help a little. We’ll see what usage looks like and maybe I can add more people without it starting to get expensive.
I would set up and encourage a donation system. The costs are going to build up in a hurry.
That’s why I’m capping it at 100. That might be permanent. I don’t need a huge community. I don’t need growth. Federation provides more than enough content.
Plus considering probably 8/10 users will only login once or twice, realistically I’m looking at 1-2 dozen actual users. I can work from there and see what I can handle.
I just use the email metaphor and it usually gives people a rough idea how it works. It seems more complicated than it is.
I’ve been using the email metaphor to explain what it is and then sending them to sh.itjust.works
I’ve been explaining it as countries/international travel. Lemmy is a country, Mastodon is a country, you can travel freely between them but you need a passport. Each service has it’s own government whose rules you have to abide. Lemmy instances are like states (or provinces or what have you), where you can just… freely travel between them. Each instance has it’s own local government whose rules you have to abide. Communities are like cities/towns, with their own small local government whose rules you have to abide… etc, etc.
Nice way to explain it
Such a great instance name
It definitely lives up to its name as well
One of the servers asked me what I would contribute to the community. Good way to confuse people who don’t understand lemmy.
What are some good communities there that you’d recommend?
It has the best cats community
It was my third account and so far it’s held up to its name.
So this is what I don’t get - do i need an acct in every instance or a single one will suffice? Can I view and participate in all communities in the other instances that I don’t have accts in? Is there an advantage to having an acct on one instance over another or it doesn’t matter at all?
I think a lot of other first-timers are confused about this as well.
You only need one account. Each instance does have the ability to block other instances, meaning if you want to see the whole WHOLE Lemmy federation you’d have to get multiple accounts and switch between them, but honestly right now 95% of everything is on lemmy.ml and Beehaw.org
I’m on Midwest.social
Theoretically yes. I remember when mastodon.social went down and I didn’t notice a thing… Well aside from the constant “guys guys guys mastodon.social is down so exciting” :)
Once, Apollo shuts down, this site will get hit hard. I look forward to it and want to make as many posts as I can to increase the level of activity.
Many other apps also shut down on the same day. For example:
RiF: https://redd.it/144gmfq
ReddPlanet: https://redd.it/144glbz
Sync: https://redd.it/144jp3wAnd my favourite, relay for reddit. Sad sad day.
Also loved relay! On iOS now so need someone to get an iOS Lenny client out soon…
I imagine they are all going to shutdown on that date.
Yay for signing up before the masses.
I sure hope Lemmy has good crowd control… as a reddit refugee myself
thanks for taking in a poor refuge like me
already nuked everything on my account, once 1st comes around gonna delete it
Yeah, I’m already doing Thanos snap on mine. Gonna miss reddit.
Gotta get in early and snatch up one of those good names like…CosmicSploogeDrizzle
It’s the best name in the whole Milky Way Galaxy
So, hoping there is no API policy change in Andromeda?
Fingers crossed🤞
Oh no. Our non-centralized website system will get more users. Aaah.
