Don't tell people "it's easy", and six more things KBin, Lemmy, and the fediverse can learn from Mastodon
https://privacy.thenexus.today/kbin-lemmy-fediverse-learnings-from-mastodon/
Reddit's strategy of antagonizing app writters, moderators, and millions of redditors is good news for reddit alternatives like KBin and Lemmy. And not just them! The fediverse has always grown in waves and we're at the start of one.
Previous waves have led to innovation but also major challenges and limited growth. It's worth looking at what tactics worked well in the past, to use them again or adapt them and build on them. It's also valuable to look at what went wrong or didn't work out as well in the past, to see if there are ways to do better.
Here's the current table of contents:
* I'm flashing!!!!!
* But first, some background
- Don't tell people "it's easy"
- Improve the "getting-started experience"
- Keep scalability and sustainability in mind
- Prioritize accessibility
- Get ready for trolls, hate speech, harassment, spam, porn, and disinformation
- Invest in moderation tools
- Values matter
* This is a great opportunity – and it won't be the last great opportunity
https://privacy.thenexus.today/kbin-lemmy-fediverse-learnings-from-mastodon/
Thanks to everybody for the great feedback on the draft version of the post!
#kbin #lemmy #fediverse @fediversenews @fediverse@kbin.social @fediverse@lemmy.ml
I don't think its nearly that bad. It takes time to get setup the way you like it, but so does reddit. So does other social media platforms.
Having an easier search and community index system would be great though. I feel like that's one of the biggest barriers to entry currently.
Yes and no. In the article I say
| Still, despite the quirks, once you figure a few things out, both Kbin and Lemmy can give you a surprisingly good reddit-like experience, and some of the larger communities have over a thousand active users which isn't chopped liver.
That said ....
on lemmy.ml this post says it has 10 comments but only 8 are visible. Looking at it on blahaj.lemmy.zone it says 15 comments, also only 8 are visible.
Your comment showed up on Lemmy and (unlike other comments) didn't show up on @thenexusofprivacy@infosec.social's original post.
Even if you have a Mastodon account, if you click on that link it'll most likely take you to a tab where you're not logged in and can't interact with it unless you know the magic way of cut-and-pasting it to the search window in a tab where you're already logged in -- and your account's not on a site that's defederated from infosec.exchange
Most people (including me!) find stuff like that very confusing!
Yeah, so far it has been neither buggy nor confusing for me. It's taken a small amount of research and being willing to ask fellow Lemmings how things work. It's actually a much more fully fleshed out in many ways than a lot of other social media sites. I just learned how to do footnotes[^1], for example.
[^1]: Ooooh, fancy!