I think it’s much less intimidating to new users now compared to when I joined last year. The barrier to entry has been reduced significantly.
There are tons of active communities now, mobile apps that work great (this is a big one), and many more tools to block content that you don’t want to see.
It’s also worth noting I’ve recently been seeing a lot of Linux posts from people who just switched, this was somewhat of a trend on Reddit as well but imo the Linux posting has gotten noticeably less toxic toward newer users and a lot more understanding of the “using Linux without wanting to spend hours configuring everything” perspective.
Side point that’s somewhat related to that: I wonder how the growth of other platforms FOSS platforms like Lemmy, Mastodon, Matrix, etc. has impacted Linux project development. Not sure if it’s just me but it seems like it’s helped a lot with making Linux communities more accessible.
Anyway to make the all page more diverse? I feel like it’s just 10 communities that appear there and it’s basically broken down to tech, memes and politics. I’m on lemmy.world and ysint voyager. Every once in a while I see stuff from sh.itjust.works.
I know when I used to use kbin, you first had to let your device sync with other instances before they started populating onto your feed.
It’s like how there’s loads of different email providers but they can all still email each other.
Just like Gmail can send mail to Outlook and any other @EmailProvider.com, lemmy.world can populate it’s feed/comments from lemm.ee and any other @LemmyInstance.com
I still have no clue how instances work but whatever I’m doing has been working fine for nearly a year
You have a user account “Got_Bent”, on an instance (you can think of this as a “server”), lemmy.world. That’s your home instance. Thus, you are @Got_Bent@lemmy.world.
You can view communities on that instance. This post, in fact, is on a community on the lemmy.world instance, !fediverse@lemmy.world.
You can also view communities on any other other instances that lemmy.world is federated with (which is most of them). For example, !unitedkingdom@feddit.uk. By-and-large, you can use them the same way you can communities on your home instance.
Reddit is pretty similar, just that with Reddit, there’s only one “instance”, Reddit.
Instances might go down (so users with that instance as their home instance can’t log in and communities on that instance aren’t accessible. Some have certain rules about what users who use that instance as their home instance can do. Others have certain rules about what communities on their instance are allowed to do. For example, my home instance, lemmy.today, wants to avoid defederating with other instances (which means that people with that home instance can see all other content). Some instances, like beehaw.org, want to keep some content that might be objectionable to their users out, and will tend to defederate with other instances if they consider them to be problematic. Some instances allow hosting communities that have pornography (like lemmynsfw.com) and some do not (like sh.itjust.works). Same thing for communities dealing with religion or extreme political views, and so on.
In general, it’s helpful to have a home instance in the same rough part of the world as you, as it’ll make things more-responsive.
From an end user perspective there’s not that much to think about, thankfully.
Basically, it’s like having two websites that mirror each other’s content. You can sign up for Forum A and be able to read and write posts that users on Forum B can also see. People’s names are tagged with the name of the forum they are registered at, but otherwise everything you do and see happens on your own site of choice and there’s no difference where it comes from.
If Forum A doesn’t like Forum C, but Forum B doesn’t mind, Forum A can choose to disconnect from Forum C and hide their users and posts, while Forum B can still see both. It only gets tricky when someone from Forum B makes a post that people from both Forums A and C are in, but all of the posts from C users are invisible to A users.
I think it’s much less intimidating to new users now compared to when I joined last year. The barrier to entry has been reduced significantly.
There are tons of active communities now, mobile apps that work great (this is a big one), and many more tools to block content that you don’t want to see.
there is also more diverse content than the crap that was on here six months ago.
when 50% of the frontpage is linux memes… you’re not going to gain the interest of most new users. now it seems to be down to about 20%
Do I hear you say there’s not enough linux memes? Let’s fix that!
And cause of windows 11, those 20% are more relevant than ever.
It’s also worth noting I’ve recently been seeing a lot of Linux posts from people who just switched, this was somewhat of a trend on Reddit as well but imo the Linux posting has gotten noticeably less toxic toward newer users and a lot more understanding of the “using Linux without wanting to spend hours configuring everything” perspective.
Side point that’s somewhat related to that: I wonder how the growth of other platforms FOSS platforms like Lemmy, Mastodon, Matrix, etc. has impacted Linux project development. Not sure if it’s just me but it seems like it’s helped a lot with making Linux communities more accessible.
Anyway to make the all page more diverse? I feel like it’s just 10 communities that appear there and it’s basically broken down to tech, memes and politics. I’m on lemmy.world and ysint voyager. Every once in a while I see stuff from sh.itjust.works.
I know when I used to use kbin, you first had to let your device sync with other instances before they started populating onto your feed.
From my side
And then a few specific
I still have no clue how instances work but whatever I’m doing has been working fine for nearly a year
It’s like how there’s loads of different email providers but they can all still email each other.
Just like Gmail can send mail to Outlook and any other @EmailProvider.com, lemmy.world can populate it’s feed/comments from lemm.ee and any other @LemmyInstance.com
You have a user account “Got_Bent”, on an instance (you can think of this as a “server”), lemmy.world. That’s your home instance. Thus, you are @Got_Bent@lemmy.world.
You can view communities on that instance. This post, in fact, is on a community on the lemmy.world instance, !fediverse@lemmy.world.
You can also view communities on any other other instances that lemmy.world is federated with (which is most of them). For example, !unitedkingdom@feddit.uk. By-and-large, you can use them the same way you can communities on your home instance.
Reddit is pretty similar, just that with Reddit, there’s only one “instance”, Reddit.
Instances might go down (so users with that instance as their home instance can’t log in and communities on that instance aren’t accessible. Some have certain rules about what users who use that instance as their home instance can do. Others have certain rules about what communities on their instance are allowed to do. For example, my home instance, lemmy.today, wants to avoid defederating with other instances (which means that people with that home instance can see all other content). Some instances, like beehaw.org, want to keep some content that might be objectionable to their users out, and will tend to defederate with other instances if they consider them to be problematic. Some instances allow hosting communities that have pornography (like lemmynsfw.com) and some do not (like sh.itjust.works). Same thing for communities dealing with religion or extreme political views, and so on.
In general, it’s helpful to have a home instance in the same rough part of the world as you, as it’ll make things more-responsive.
From an end user perspective there’s not that much to think about, thankfully.
Basically, it’s like having two websites that mirror each other’s content. You can sign up for Forum A and be able to read and write posts that users on Forum B can also see. People’s names are tagged with the name of the forum they are registered at, but otherwise everything you do and see happens on your own site of choice and there’s no difference where it comes from.
If Forum A doesn’t like Forum C, but Forum B doesn’t mind, Forum A can choose to disconnect from Forum C and hide their users and posts, while Forum B can still see both. It only gets tricky when someone from Forum B makes a post that people from both Forums A and C are in, but all of the posts from C users are invisible to A users.