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Fediverse @lemmy.world gamer @lemm.ee

Does it feel like the fediverse is exclusively used by older tech nerds?

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?

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  • Picking a server/federation is too complicated. Don't need to look elsewhere. For most people, a federation is a kind of country.

    More importantly, there's not an easy way to get into this. You first need to learn what lemmy is, how it works (because nerds can't simply tell how you can do it, they need you to understand how it works first), and then where and how to register.

    What's lemmy is done ok: it's reddit, but better.

    How it works? People don't care. Most of you don't know quantum mechanics, yet that's what allows the cpu and gpu to work. You know how to plug it in a computer (maybe), and you know that hitting the power button starts the computer. That's what people need to know for lemmy. I'm not sure there's really an entry point for normal people with an adapted tutorial.

    Which lead to this point: honestly, lemmy is not ready for most people. Accessibility just isn't there yet. It's not so much that it's hard to do any of the actions required. It's more that it is a jungle. You first need to choose a federation. And for that you need to understand what it is, because people who run lemmy servers won't tell to go on a default server. This is the first problem. People need a way to know where to go to get an account. They also need an app for most, which is not completely obvious.

    I don't mean that things are badly made, just that the resources to enter lemmy are targeting a specific audience still.

    That all it would take: an easily accessible place where it tells you to go on any lemmy webpage on the list, register, and how to get started with the feeds. What is there is close, but not yet good enough.

    • I'll have you know I failed Quantum Mechanics 1 and can speak with authority and incorrect knowledge about how QM is related to CPU/GPUs, thank you very much.

    • I don’t mean that things are badly made, just that the resources to enter lemmy are targeting a specific audience still.

      You don't say. What a weirdly easy to fix problem that only requires the ability to add links and text to a webpage: that's a rare combination of skills indeed.

      You first need to learn what lemmy is, how it works (because nerds can’t simply tell how you can do it, they need you to understand how it works first), and then where and how to register.

      Bold choice: I can honestly say it never occurred to me to insist someone attend a mandatory lecture (is there a quiz afterward) to have the opportunity to join a server so they can post memes and find people who are into baking bread and Smurfs meta.

      Yes, I am being sarcastic--because everything you observed is alarmingly accurate to the point one might be forgiven for saying it's a pattern-- but I'm also beginning to wonder if I'm having a some kind of break with reality on how the joining a Federated server works.

      The process is as follows (I think):

      • 1.) Go to Join Lemmy. Click "Find a Server"
      • 2.) Make sure language is set to [your language]. Click on a cute animal icon; it genuinely does not matter which one. This is not a lifetime commitment; it's a first date.
      • 3.) Click on Sign Up on [Server Name].
      • 4.) Enter a username, email (maybe optional) your password twice, and do the Turing puzzle. [Optional: three to four short answer questions on your name, your interests, why you're here, and possible some recreational math] Check NSFW for porn as desired. Click the clearly marked button Sign Up.
      • 5.) You're a Lemmite now; go with God and experience the wonders of the Federation's shitposts and feelings about cats.

      I am genuinely wondering what it is I'm missing about the shortest, easiest social media sign up process I've done and my body count is greater than twenty at minimum and some places, I had multiple accounts [excluding: usenet, mailing lists, messageboards et al]; tumblr was like three pages of cross-examination and required me to expend effort to think up easy to remember lies to get through too many mandatory questions; Facebook wanted me to write a detailed autobiography with exact dates covering birth to present day in their multi-page questionnaire of my life and times and I did this while scanning for surprise privacy settings and feeling exposed.

      Non-sarcastically: reading this, it makes me wonder what would have happened if I'd asked someone what mastodon is and how it works instead of googling and excitedly jumping into something new to see what happened.

      If i had been told before I even googled the website that picking a server/federation is way too complicated for most people, that to sign up I needed to do my homework on the origins and history of the Federation so I'd be able to understand it, as the process to create an account is complicated and confusing. For most people, that is.

      I'm pretty sure I would have done it anyway, but I don't think I would have seen it as a brand new adventure, something new to learn about and explore and be part of and helped grow. I wonder if i would have posted an intro and started following people who were doing the things I went back to school to learn do and finally get my degree so I could learn from them. Or would I have read my feed wondering what to do; everyone here knew all about the Federation and I couldn't ask them because then they'd know I didn't belong; I was just a college dropout who learned to script and linux and design websites because it was fun and went back to school with some serious overconfidence in my skills. I wonder if I would ever have posted a single word before I finally realized this is not an after school special, I am not a tragic victim of mean people, so cheer the fuck up and do your homework already

      Or: if I'd just take my ritalin, because if I remember correctly, I was compiling my very first kernel, on my own, outside school lab conditions (Raspberry Pi 4 8GB, 64 bit: Eurydice) so yeah, I would have like an hour earlier, I would have immediately realized this person was telling me that this place is not for me and I did not belong. And I would have agreed; buddy, I've been condescended to by literal geniuses with PhDs in fields I can't spell. Whole servers of them exist? Christ. Thank God for the warning, I'm gonna dip. Not that I would have said that: depending on how the compile went, i would have either devoted a twitter thread to performing a melodramatic interpretation of it or forgot about it with a vague hostility toward Mastodon and that weird Federation thing.

      Talk about the road not taken.

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