The mastodon and lemmy content I’m seeing feels like 90% of it comes from people who are:

  • ~30 years old or older

  • tech enthusiasts/workers

  • linux users

There’s nothing wrong with that particular demographic or anything, but it doesn’t feel like a win to me if the entire fediverse is just one big monoculture.

I wonder what it is that is keeping more diverse users away? Is picking a server/federation too complicated? Or is it that they don’t see any content that they like?

Thoughts?

  • Lemmy Reddit That@lemmy.worldEnglish
    10·
    1 year ago

    I would say picking a server. Regular users shouldn’t be bothered with that. I wouldn’t say multiple server choice is a bad thing, it’s actually great thing, but regular users shouldn’t be bothered with that. Maybe hide server selection behind advanced section or something like that, so regular users aren’t bothered with that, but more tech savy users can still find that option if they would like to. And default option for server can be lemmy.world for example (or any other server). If using lemmy is too dificult for regular users and learning curve is too big, they will not bother with that and they will just leave. I am using Connect for Lemmy now and I think lemmy.world is selected by default. I am just using it and I was never bothered with concept of multiple servers, and I really like that I don’t have to worry about that.

    • nitrolife@rekabu.ruEnglish
      6·
      1 year ago

      Unfortunately, everyone’s choice of one server will lead to centralization again. Therefore, it is much better to sort at least the top 5 servers and select them randomly in applications by default.

      UPD: In addition, it will distribute the load on several nodes, which will have a good effect on performance.

    • yetanotherusername@feddit.nlEnglish
      3·
      1 year ago

      There are nice lists of servers, like at join lemmy and awesome lemmy instances at github. Though I will agree that going through decision making at the very beginning of the dive into the lemmy might be detracting. Even as a rather tech savvy person I did use lemmy read-only for some time, as I could not make decision which instance to choose :)

      • isto2278@feddit.deEnglish
        6·
        1 year ago

        Just a sidenote, I think it’s funny that the topic of Lemmy mainly being used by tech nerds is partly explained with the barrier to entry of picking an instance, and you seem to suggest the barrier is lessened in any meaningful way by a list on Github of all things.

        • yetanotherusername@feddit.nlEnglish
          2·
          1 year ago

          Well, I wouldn’t say that the problem is lessened by a list on the Github, it was just me happy that it even exists. All because oftentimes there is simply no meaningful documentation behind some things I have to work with :)

          It will probably be easier if there was default “simple registration mode”, where it just guides you through registration on one of the static or random “general purpose multilingual instance”. And “advanced mode”, where you are supplied with lists and you are on your own.

      • Lemmy Reddit That@lemmy.worldEnglish
        3·
        1 year ago

        I am software developer and even I was confused with the choice of servers. At least at the beginning. Also, I dont think manuals (with explanations which server to choose) are great solution either. At least not when you start using it.

        • yetanotherusername@feddit.nlEnglish
          2·
          1 year ago

          As I understand there is currently no option to migrate your account between instances. Probably if this is implemented then the burden of the instance choice becomes light