A new onboarding experience on Mastodon
blog.joinmastodon.org
Today we’re making signing up on Mastodon easier than ever before. We understand that deciding which Mastodon service provider to kick off your experience with can be confusing. We know this is a completely new concept for many people, since traditionally the platform and the service provider are one and the same. This choice is what makes Mastodon different from existing social networks, but it also presents a unique onboarding challenge.

I’ve seen lots of discussion on reddit of users trying to get others to join Lemmy and the prevailing reply is that it is too difficult to navigate and comprehend. Having to answer multiple questions and wait for manual verification is combersome and is limiting growth at a time when nothing should be standing in Lemmy’s way. Combine this with server/instance selection analysis paralysis, and you get my point.

The linked mastodon blog post sums up my thoughts, but the TLDR is essentially this:

Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good. Don’t let dreams of decentralization interfere with the greater goal of achieving the network effect.

We should all be telling people to go to lemmy.ml and sign up. The devs should be too, and they should rethink/remove the questions and waiting period. Hell, just put a captcha. Discussions about servers and analogies to email as an example of federated service we all already use is a waste of breath. We shouldn’t have barriers to entry.

Thoughts?

EDIT: 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. Upside is the layout is nice and it acts as a Lemmy instance (threads) as well as a mastodon instance (microblogging). Only downside currently is that their android/iOS app is in development and isn’t ready yet, so desktop only.

https://github.com/ernestwisniewski/kbin

https://kbin.social/

I think this might be the better recommendation for newbies at the moment.

  • RoaringSilence@feddit.deEnglish
    15·
    1 year ago

    EDIT: 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. Upside is the layout is nice and it acts as a Lemmy instance (threads) as well as a mastodon instance (microblogging). Only downside currently is that their android/iOS app is in development and isn’t ready yet, so desktop only.

    It could be the fediverse thing we are waiting for, but to use it in the current state as a first entry point has some downsides.

    • it is early beta with a lot of features not implemented yet.

    • the website still works good, even on mobile.

    • in addition to the concept of groups, posts and comments you now have instances, threads, microblogs and magazines. That’s overwhelming and drives people off. The masses don’t care how it is technically implemented as long as it’s easy to handle.

    • Edit: as a benefit to be an active part of all those integrated fediverse parts you have to set up several accounts for each part, not only for kbin don’t have to set up an extra account in lemmy or mastodon. You can post from within kbin.

    Don’t get me wrong, as already mentioned I would love to see a fediverse browser collecting everything together. But for now that’s future talk.

    • Kierunkowy74@kbin.social
      8·
      1 year ago

      to be an active part of all those integrated fediverse parts you have to set up several accounts for each part, not only for kbin.

      Actually, /kbin is explicitly made to make you able to actively interact both with Mastodon (and other microblogs) and Lemmy.

    • Kierunkowy74@kbin.social
      21·
      1 year ago

      in addition to the concept of groups, posts and comments you now have instances, threads, microblogs and magazines. That’s overwhelming and drives people off. The masses don’t care how it is technically implemented as long as it’s easy to handle.

      The only new concepts on /kbin, compared to reddit are: instances and microblogs.
      Multiple instances (servers) are the essence of fediverse. Microblogs exist only on /kbin, because Mastodon (as it is much bigger than Lemmy right now).
      Groups are subreddits are communities (Lemmy) are magazines (/kbin).
      Threads is your regular reddit-style posts and comments. Lemmy is nothing but threads. Same for reddit, innit?

      • RoaringSilence@feddit.de
        5·
        1 year ago

        I understand the concept and also the meaning and consequences behind the different types.

        Most of the new users will come from a centralized system with mostly posts, threads and comments.

        We should keep it simple and self explanatory as possible, or we accept the niche position. I won’t have a problem with that but the chance is here to bring fediverse out of the corner.

        A goid on boarding would help a lot and lower the hurdles.