Curious what you all thought for what things like Lemmy, Revolt, Mastodon, PeerTube, Bluesky, Flashes, etc would need to be able to grow fast and well to get many users joining up
Because it’s high time everyone drops all the way less than ideal platforms/apps/websites/news sources
I’ll add on too:
Content creators that are engaging, clear, & entertaining explaining things with great videos showing Fediverse, etc stuff will help in various ways
Three big issues.
Usability: A lot of these alternative platforms are incredibly confusing for people who aren’t tech-savvy. You can’t expect most folks to really understand the idea of Lemmy instances for example. Bsky kind of hit the sweetspot of being super easy to use, offers not just familiar features but better features than its competitor (blocklists), while also being an open protocol. Though they’re FAR from perfect (their team is extremely questionable to say the least), and it doesn’t seem like the protocol itself is gaining traction.
Population: This is a self-defeating prophecy. We saw it with twitter to bluesky, and we’re JUST starting to see it with reddit to lemmy. The vast majority of people just won’t shift to platforms where the people they want to interact with aren’t present. They won’t move until they feel like they absolutely have to. People put off moving from the Nazi bar formerly known as twitter for literally a year - the site’s been nothing but a cesspool for ages now, but the vast majority of users couldn’t be bothered to moved to an alternative site until bsky got lucky. Hell, even now, so many people still stick to it because they’re afraid of losing engagement or some bullshit.
Algorithms: I HATE algorithmic feed bullshit, give me chronological 100% of the time, but frankly the vast majority of people have been spoonfed algorithmic feeds for at least a decade now. Going back to bluesky as an example (since it’s probably the most successful example of an alternative platform at the moment), it prioritizes the chronological feed, sure, but I’m actually amazed (and appalled) at how many people apparently only use the Discover tab. It’s a necessary evil until we can wean the general populace off of their instant gratification and endless scrolls.
100% usability and algorithm. I still visit Reddit because r/all is perfectly entertaining rage bait.
Lemmy is fine usability-wise, but we’re short engaging content.
Mastodon’s lack of algorithm makes it a really hard long-term sell.
They don’t need to. Nowadays the recommendation to promote Lemmy is
https://old.reddit.com/r/BuyFromEU/comments/1j0xkqa/lemmy_as_an_alternative_to_reddit_using/
https://quiblr.com/ can help with that
You vastly overestimating the average person’s willingness to learn new things
It’s not about learning, it’s inertia.
Bluesky is easier to use than Mastodon, but still doesn’t have the same level of popularity as Twitter. Sports and entertainment for instance, are still mostly happening on Twitter.
need to make enough noise that even with reddit trying to supress it and deleting removing and shadown banning people still learn of the alternative.
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I say let them stay blissfully ignorant. They have the right to that choice. It’s the above average people that matter. The ones still capable of critically thinking, that do not rely on ‘one-line zingers’ (i.e. 69, nice; that’s what she said; and my axe; etc) and inside jokes for dopamine hits. Quality > quantity.
“the above average” lmao You’re not special because you use the leftist app.