With previous Rexit's like the API debarcle etc. many users were left looking for an alternative, but with decision fatigue and bad UX etc. most did not find the Fediverse a viable option.

What needs to still improve, how can we be ready this time?

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[–] OpenStars@piefed.social 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

There is. Someone told me that it recommends lemmy.ml roughly half the time. I tried it personally and it first recommended hexbear.net, so I tried it again and then it recommended lemmy.ml. If I was an American-based centrist Reddit user, being sent to either of those places who literally celebrate and call for my literal and actual irl murder (not joking), I would nope out and never visit the Threadiverse again.

So yes, it is a very bad idea if the goal is to entice people to join from any Western civilization.

[–] Die4Ever@retrolemmy.com 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

you mean https://join-lemmy.org/ ? they've removed those recommendations actually

[–] OpenStars@piefed.social 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Nope, I still see both of them, very high up in the list too - despite it being sorted by "random", which would make a kind of sense if it would weight more highly active instances higher, so not true random but with a random component. However, every time I refresh the page both lemmy.ml and hexbear.net consistently appeared in the top 5 instances every single time. So most definitely biased towards them, whatever the underlying reasoning may be.

There was something that removed lemmy.ml long ago, but apparently it is not that one.

I don't want to send leftists to a conservative cesspit, and conversely I don't want to send USA centrists to a leftist ("tankie") version. Neither would feel terribly welcomed in those respective opposite spaces.

Instead, the list should be curated to show only "Newbie-friendly" instances by default, even while allowing those others to appear as opt-in alternatives. Which, surprise surprise, the PieFed instance picker does do exactly that - see one of those at e.g. https://feddit.online/auth/instance_chooser.

[–] Die4Ever@retrolemmy.com 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

mine just says to join thelemmy.club or lemmus.org as the default, it doesn't show a list by default

screenshot of default recommendation when you open the https://join-lemmy.org/ page:

[–] bdonvr@thelemmy.club 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Yep that was a change a while back. Choice makes some people think there's too much effort involved so the first recommendation is a random "general" server. You can still see the list if you want.

[–] OpenStars@piefed.social 1 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

It's not "random" though if it is always those two choices. And I also confirm that it is ALWAYS those 2 options - I've literally never seen a 3rd option offered that way. It's highly biased towards those two very tiny instances (of <200 people each)... as in exclusively so. Which could be fine, the issue I have here is in calling that as "random".

Also, if I were signing up that way, I would want to know the answer to questions such as: (1) are there multiple people on the instance admin team, (2) are they well-funded, since a negative answer to either of those might mean that the server disappears six months from now, which is a major inconvenience.

I can see why the instance picker might not choose to put that into front and center, but like... even with me having been on the Threadiverse since the Rexodus, I personally have no idea as to their answers. In contrast, something like PieFed.zip has an extremely established track record, with a very solid admin team. (To be clear, I am not saying that those other two instances do not, just that I do not know if they do or do not, and I didn't see an explanation on the instance picker page).

[–] bdonvr@thelemmy.club 2 points 16 hours ago* (last edited 15 hours ago) (1 children)

I believe it's three instances that were picked for the moment, including mine (I'm the admin) which has been going for nearly 3 years. I think their logic is to spread people out from the big instances.

I would want to know the answer to questions such as: (1) are there multiple people on the instance admin team, (2) are they well-funded, since a negative answer to either of those might mean that the server disappears six months from now, which is a major inconvenience.

I mean I think most people ending up on that page probably don't even know to ask. They may have no familiarity with fediverse software or what the hell an instance is. They just want to sign up to this reddit alternative they heard about.

It's a hard balance for sure.

[–] OpenStars@piefed.social 1 points 9 hours ago

If those are great instances, then it's good to be directing people there. On the other hand, there are just a ton of other instances (like Discuss.Online, leminalaspace, reddthat - although that one disables downvotes) that are likewise general purpose yet excluded for some reason(s) - that is "unfair" aka unequal treatment.

And more to the point, it's not "a random Lemmy instance" at all, to only pick from just those 2. Instead it's more "just come join my instance"... which I genuinely am actually totally fine with, I only am arguing against the usage of language that seems to misleadingly imply that it was instead a more equal distribution of picks among all (suitable by some criteria?) Lemmy instances.