Heather BuchelJul 17, 2023

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
Show threadPaul Rohr

@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
Jul 18, 2023 at 1:07amWeb