I think the real “problem” the fediverse has isn’t that it’s hard to use, it’s that it doesn’t fit the pattern. It’s like if someone asks “what grocery do you order from?” and you respond “My building’s co-op, I get meals & fresh food delivered from participating farms & cooks— I do solar panel maintenance and run the website in return— plus goodie fees”
“goodie fees? … um … so is that like UberEats then?”
And what’s worse is it sounds more complex because it’s atypical— but really it’s easier
@futurebird I saw a take recently that part of the problem is that, to some extent, folks on Fedi are self-selected as somewhat techie, and we collectively are doing a bad job of explaining to less-techie folks by explaining TOO MUCH.
If we would just all say "hey friend, join the Fediverse, here's an invite link" and leave out the "on my server, you can choose another if you want, etc, etc", and let them figure it out from there, would it work better?
@futurebird for the record, here's the toot in question (thank goodness for starring, my memory couldn't handle the lookup):
https://cutie.city/@reina/110534523068583694
Kudos to @reina for the original post and @denebeim for drawing the connection to Mastodon/Fediverse.
If you want to recommend someone join Matrix, here are some tips based on my experience. Most people don't understand what federation is and it's not essential for them to understand it to join Matrix. Don't explain it before they join, they're more likely to be confused and drop out before even trying and that's a fail. Basically, if it challenges them, you've likely already lost them. This means you should also not explain that it's E2EE unless you're talking to someone who already know what that means. Being E2EE benefits people but it's also kinda supposed to be an invisible protection. There are a lot of different Matrix clients and servers. This confuses newcomers who are used to centralised platforms with highly controlled environments. Don't give them multiple clients to pick from unless you're sharing a join link. Tell them which one to use based on their needs. Let them switch later. So what should you say? You should say that Matrix is a secure and private chatting app. That it respects your privacy by making it impossible for anyone but the people you talk to to read your messages. You should say that it works and feels similar to Discord, Slack, Teams, and TeamSpeak. Then you should send a direct link to your own profile that should look something like this: https://matrix.to/#/@reinacchan:matrix.org The goal is to get them to make an account in the first place. The biggest barrier is the barrier to entry. Once they're in, you can start explaining the more complex stuff, because then they have a point of reference. It's no longer completely unfamiliar. Don't over-explain it, under-explain it. #Matrix #Discord
myrmepropagandist
Tim W RESISTS