Heather Buchel

Related to this (and considering the language we use to "explain" Mastodon) https://hachyderm.io/@hbuchel/110731743039964815

One issue that I'm not sure what the solution is: Most of my friends probably wouldn't have a server in mind to join. I can direct them to mastodon.social. But switching instances isn't straight forward. And once you acknowledge to them that instances have their own maintainers, that becomes a point of hesitation. (What if it goes away?)

Heather Buchel (@[email protected])

I feel like if you ever sat through a usability session (where a complete stranger tries to accomplish a task in your software, usually without someone telling them exactly how to do it) you probably wouldn't be surprised that so many people were turned off from Mastodon because it didn't immediately make sense to them.

Hachyderm.io
Jul 17, 2023 at 10:56pmWeb
Show thread0xC0DEC0DE07EAJul 17, 2023
@hbuchel this instance had a bit of an admin change, and their stance on defense rating Threads is too fair to Meta in my opinion. But where do I go if I’m not staying here?
Show threadHeather BuchelJul 18, 2023
@c0dec0dec0de TBH no idea. I think a lot of instances are going the "wait and see" route.
Show threadSeanJul 18, 2023

@hbuchel mastodon.social or some other equally big server as the onboarding point to the fediverse seems like the best move in the current state of the software. People will be able to see and interact with a large amount of posts without having that friction of having to copy/paste a link from one website to another. And hopefully the large size of the instance minimizes the chance it will go away?

Yes, anyone motivated enough can figure it out but the one thing I learned in IT/tech is that any amount of effort above instantly knowing what to do is too much friction.

Migrating is another tough bridge to follow, but I frame it as at least the possibility exists as opposed to going to threads or bluesky and not being able to at all.

As a front end engineer, what do your UX senses tell you is the best path?

Show threadHeather BuchelJul 18, 2023
@squizzleflip I'd echo a lot of what you already said. I saw people upset at one point about joinmastodon funneling people to mastodon.social; but for a lot of people that's really the best thing. I've been framing it to my "not at all interested in decentralization nor do they know what that is" friends as "It's like Twitter, but there are more moderation options. Here is my profile; technically we're on different servers but it doesn't matter. You can still follow people on other servers."
Show threadBen BlissJul 18, 2023
@hbuchel One thing that confused me with the vanilla iOS app was not being able to see feeds for other specific communities. I know the vanilla app is meant to be simple, but the lack of visibility made me think at first that maybe I needed to be on hachyderm to be able to browse hachyderm posts etc. I agree that if it’s even slightly confusing to nerds, normies are going to be lost.
Show threadPaul RohrJul 18, 2023

@hbuchel We should be able to do better than just dump everyone in a single huge pond + expect them to tread water.

What people want to do is join a suitable community of folks they identify with, right? (By now, we also know that unless the community they land in has empathetic moderators to welcome them, they're less likely to stick around.)

So what if onboarding asked a faceting question or two about how they self-identify to steer them towards a few great choices?

https://hachyderm.io/@pevohr/110652349486133912

Paul Rohr (@[email protected])

@[email protected] I love the idea of steering people towards the "perfect mastodon community" for them, but faceting on aspects like scale or longevity seems rather indirect + impersonal. Shouldn't the goal instead be to match folks up with a home community (+ thus suitable moderation policies) based on however they happen to primarily identify? 1. marginalized 2. interests 3. place-based 4. general https://hachyderm.io/@pevohr/110565823315812312

Hachyderm.io
Show threadMax Leibman has moved!Jul 18, 2023

@hbuchel Switching instances isn’t just not straightforward—it’s also not really a thing, the way most people think of it. Sure, you can take your social graph (usually, anyhow, when everything goes right), but your content and all of your interactions stay behind.

Some people, obviously, are fine with that. Many (hi 🙋‍♂️) are not.

We hand-wave the choosing-a-server ritual as not that big a deal due to the ability to move, but moving is itself a big deal, and destructive.