In other places on around the web, (chiefly /r/RedditAlternatives) whenever Lemmy is brought up, invariably I see the exact same complaints from brand new accounts.

Lemmy is too complicated, it wont gain traction, can’t figure out how to use it, can’t log in, etc.

Now, I’m definitely more tech savvy than the average redditor, but I just don’t see the complaints. You can go to any Lemmy site, instantly start doomscrolling with a familiar UI, and sign up on all the instances I’ve tried has been frankly more simple than making a new reddit account. The only real complaint I have is the generally smaller volume of users and posts.

My only thought here is the words like federation and instances getting people hung up. Maybe join-lemmy.org being a highly ranked site is doing more harm than good by creating an additional barrier to the instances and content.

Ideally, the first link someone sees when googling Lemmy would be a global feed on a fairly generic instance, with a basic tagline akin to ‘front page of the internet.’ End users don’t need to care about the technical details, at least not until they’re interested in the platform.

So is this “Lemmy is too confusing” sentiment even real? And if not, what motive would there be to astroturf this?

If it is a real issue affecting would-be users, how can we address it?

  • barneypiccolo@lemm.eeEnglish
    5·
    6 hours ago

    I came to Lemmy after being permabanned on Reddit, and I didn’t have any problem signing up, logging in, or using it.

    I also miss the smaller crowds, but I don’t miss the pages of puns, shitposts, trolls, 4Chan refugees, contrarians, novelty accounts, bots, Russian Propaganda Farmers, etc. I do miss the active forums for some of my favorite subjects, like guitars. The few forums that exist are very quiet, with posts every few days, weeks or even months, instead of constantly, like Reddit.

    I find it much better for politics, if for no other reason that we can talk openly without getting suspended or banned.

    • overload@sopuli.xyz
      1·
      42 minutes ago

      For sure, people who play guitar (and my other big hobbyi trail riding) typically won’t be this privacy focussed, so I need to go back to Reddit if I want discussion on that outside of real life. There’s other website forums for those at least.