My opinion on Beehaw registration process. What do you all think?

Honestly, if you aren't prepared to fill out a simple text box to join the instance, I'd prefer you went somewhere else.

I didn’t think it was too bad. Like others I wrote 3 sentences or so basically just answering the questions honestly. I was approved fairly quickly.

yeah I think a lot of people who haven't actually done it are misconstruing it as something far more than it was. I wrote 3 sentences for each but a commenter on another instance thought I needed to write "3 essays"

So many people are just looking for something to complain about with Beehaw. Just go to another instance. It's not that hard! That's the beauty of the Fediverse!

Beehaw's registration process is quite easy, asking you only to write a few words on why you want to join (which could just be "it seems like a nice instance"), in comparison to other registration processes I've seen and done.

I've been through registration process where to guarantee that you've read the rules and anything required would hide words in the post containing that essential content and then asked you questions of which the answers where those words. Sometimes with the addition on asking you why you wanted to join.

This (Beehaw's registration process) is nothing in comparison

I come from a different point-of-view that I support the question portion, but I did find it hindered me slightly. Only because of my own anxiety, not because it's a bad idea.

I mostly wanted to reply how the handling of my application was really personable, in case anyone else is lurking and finds it intimidating, like I did for a week or two. It's not a college thesis and I imagine those running beehaw want more people to make the place more bustling.

I think the little question bit being there will lead to a better environment overall. I'm outing myself, but back in my roleplay forum days the ones with a bit of an application process had better quality engagement. Ymmv, of course.

Honestly, I was more frustrated with the spinner of doom that kept me from actually submitting my registration for a few days. That meant re-writing my response to that application question until I decided to just save it in notepad until I was able to get a registration form actually submitted.

The "interview" process itself makes total sense, and I'm happy to have even something so simple that helps keep some of the low-effort riff-raff out.

Hot take: its a bigger impact on those with anxiety disorders or other tendencies to rewrite things a million times when they are "important". I find it easy to post online because its cheap, but writing my beehaw paragraph definitely stirred up some "eeeek, I gotta say this right!!!" fears in me.

I'm really glad they ask a screening question. It takes like max 30 seconds of your time to form coherent thoughts and add them to the form. I want to have discussions with folks who are capable of doing that.

Leaving Reddit made me realize that being a part of a truly affirming & thoughtful space is still possible. I'm so used to taking all the racism and classism and transphobia for granted - like "oh I'm on the internet, of course people are complete garbage." What if we all had a stake in making spaces that actually serve us? What if we were ALL a little more invested in contributing? Seeing all the folks coming from Reddit complaining about how the Fediverse is just infuriating & and impossible to understand kinda shook me, too. I was like that for the first like 3 hours of trying to figure out what the Fediverse is - "why isn't there just one fucking website and I can search all the fucking communities and see them all in one gd place holy shit I hate this, way to make it unnecessarily complicated" - and then I went and read about it and figured it out (somewhat). I put in a little effort. Realized, holy shit, I'm so fucking apathetic after years of companies spoon-feeding me shit in exchange for my personal data. Like "just make it easy whiiine yes accept all cookies yes you can read all my messages and contacts whatever just open the damn app" and it's like. Fuck it doesn't need to BE like this. We don't NEED to just put up with this shit.

Life is always kicking my ass and sometimes writing 3 coherent sentences after a week of working and not enough sleep is just too much. Like I'm constantly burnt out and sometimes, it really is too much. But if we all did even .5% more, if we thought about what we were doing and put even that .5% more effort, if we committed to thinking and contributing just .5% more, maybe we could really make shit happen. I think it's worth a try.

So yeah, I wrote a few lines on my application. Come on y'all, we can do this.

I think registration is a good litmus test for Beehaw overall. We want and encourage thoughtful comments. If someone finds the registration process too much to deal with, then Beehaw isn’t right for them anyway.

In my experience, a community with even the most basic and rudimentary filter to join has consistently higher quality people in the community. Kinder, more active, and better posts. A bigger community does NOT mean a better one, often the inverse has been true ime but blah blah analogies aren't evidence.

I like that the mods are prioritizing healthy growth over just growth. It's easy to look at number go up and get excited, then to open the flood gates. And whenever a community does that, a bunch of people whom are not wholly interested in the point of the community swoop in and push out the invested crowd.

The only downside would be wanting to answer something more personal, but making a throwaway account isn't exactly easy with this system. That's, really, the only downside I can immediately point to.

I don't get what all the fuss is about. I told them I don't like Nazis and was approved within minutes. It was not a complicated process.

@eclipse also as a new user coming from Reddit, I personally liked that they are screening new users. Super quick and easy to fill out.

The process to ask simple questions like these is not a barrier for users looking for honest conversation.

That is one of the facts I did choose Beehaw, because it shows the will for maintain a non-toxic community.

It's not like you have to write an essay. I just wrote a couple of sentences and was accepted almost immediately. Took me all of 1 minute total to apply and could post within the hour.

A lot of comments from people with social anxiety; as someone with social anxiety and aspergers, figured I may as well throw my thoughts into the ring.

I've been through the "approval process" dance a few times now, both for Mastodon and Lemmy and honestly, I don't really find it that bad. The secret is internalizing that mods have so many applications to get through, so they won't really scrutinize your language or overanalyze it to too much. I know easier said than done, but really, the fact that you're putting any amount of thought into it is probably more than most people.

Honestly, I think approvals is a good system and should be the norm for social media sites; it slows down trolls/bots ability to make accounts, and IMO is better than all the alternatives. Email is problematic, capchas aren't really accessible, and screw Instagram requiring you to take a photo of yourself when you sign up. One site I signed up for actually wanted you to ask another user to "vouch" for you as not a troll which means talking to scary strangers.

I think there is a "cultural" miscommunication though. A lot of us are deeply ingrained in "fediverse culture" where this sort of thing is the norm, and so we intuitively understand that it should only be a sentence or two.

However, if you look at where non-fediverse people have seen this type of requirement before? Job applications, university applications, that sort of thing. I think this is why people think that they need to write long, intricately detailed posts saying why they deserve to join what feels like an exclusive club.

I think Beehaw could make it clearer that they are only looking for about three sentences demonstrating that you've read the documents (actually, do you need to fully read the documents? It's a bit unclear), and that you aren't being "graded". Out of interest though, would "I just want to lurk and read posts" be acceptable as an answer to the third question?

It's good to ask users to write a bit about their thoughts to a) make it a bit harder to register bot armies, b) make users read the rules, and c) disincentivize unfriendly users from registering. Just the delay in registration is probably enough to make the majority of unwanted accounts seek out some other place.

The registration said registrations would usually be approved within day. Mine took a few dsys, which is very understandable, but unless I'm the exception the estimated time could be set to a bit longer to give mods time to approve people.

The registration process and their statement on wanting a community based on kindness, respect, etc is why I signed up on Beehaw in the first place. No trolls and such to deal with, dealt with that enough on R*ddit. So, I like it lol

I wrote like 6 sentences. Got accepted in like 16 hours. Just said I disliked the authoritarian left on the main instance and prefered the sense of community Beehaw provides.

I think it's good.

I wasnt expecting it. But it made me think about my motivation for joining above and beyond "an alternative to Reddit". It took a couple of minutes thought while standing in the post office queue! Instead of mindlessly auto completeing another registration page, I actually spent a fraction of my day thinking about why i was doing it. I found it quite fulfilling.

I just went through the registration process and I really liked it. It didn't go smoothly because of technical problems (the spinning wheel of doom), but this can be fixed.

The fact that users have to read, think and write about the beehaw philosophy makes it far easier to avoid trolls.

It was quick and easy. It also gave me a bit of comfort knowing that they're at least doing some vetting to ensure we aren't overwhelmed with bots, trolls, or other messed up individuals.

Vetting users with a questionnaire is a good idea, allows admins to see who they should let in. What and how a person answers the questions tells a lot about the applicant.

I do not like they have defederated from 2 of the larger instances. Not a fan of that at all. I do understand why they did it, just personally not a fan. I’m on kbin until they get that under control and re-federate the I’ll likely look into joining them.

I like the instance, like the sign up process, just don’t want to be defederated. Hopefully the modding tools get better soon.

Took me 5 minutes, was approved a couple hours later. just answer the questions honestly.

I do wonder how effective it will be at stopping trolls. If anything it may make Beehaw a troll target as Lemmy grows. Its easy enough to make an account and list some things from the Beehaw's principles.

I enjoyed it, I was able to share myself and what I expect of myself as a user. I do not get to be expressive very often being mostly a lurker.

Didn't felt like an interview at all, I don't think the "what do you want to contribute" question was there when I signed up 2 weeks ago, but I remember the other 2 and it took me 2 or 3 sentences it was literally just "I heard great things about beehaw, people seem great and the ones shitting on lemmy on reddit right now are sounding like the people I'll want nothing to do with in the future and they're making here soumd even cooler, so I want in."

It would take me zero effort to add how a sentence or so about how I like to help and see here grow and not devolve into a toxic mess.

Also, I know a lot of people don't use facebook these days, but many groups now have a vetting process like that now and the chillest ones will always, without fault, have something that with 3 questions and one that will just force you to read the rules to find a random word password in them. The ones that don't turn into a mess real fast. So that's not even a niche thing, the "normies" do it with no problem.

I was just accepted yesterday. I have social anxiety, so a younger, less self-aware version of myself would never have even submitted it. But thank goodness I've gotten better at this type of thing. Instead of over-analyzing and writing a huge essay, I timeboxed my response. Thankfully, it seems to have worked.

From what I can tell, I really do align with what the admins are after, here. I hope that it continues to work well.

I never read the policies before signing up. I just answered the question like a human being would and was accepted within the hour.

Frankly, I think there’s more effort required of the mods than is required of the registrant, but I do appreciate a community with an opinion.

Very sad, there's a Deltarune on that instance. i want to sub it but.... yeah...... 😔

I probably wrote "too much" as I was thrilled to find a place which is working towards kindness and community :)

My general rule of thumb is that things tend to go better if every owner, admin or mod team utilises the approaches which work best for them. If an instance is functioning well, I'm going to start from a place of trust that what they've made a good choice for themselves and the existing community. It's up to me to decide if it's also a reasonable choice for myself or if somewhere else would be a better match.

I personally don't find it a problem but I think it may lose a lot of users who are simply too impatient to fill out the questionnaire and then wait to see if they were approved.

In some sense the ends justify the means here, I think. There was no way of really knowing when they created this process whether it would work, but here we are. It seems to me the community is quite tolerant and generally on the same page, so I would say it works well enough.

It wasn’t bad, but in my opinion they need to figure out how to make the process a tad faster. Took them two days for mine. Granted, I know it’s a small operation so I get it, but based on their documentation I figured something went wrong and so I attempted to submit a second registration (which hopefully didn’t go through since I also had an issue where the submit button for both login and registration would spin endlessly).

Growing pains is all it probably is.

it didn’t bother me at all. The questions where simply, it took me maybe 2 minutes, and I was accepted pretty quickly.

I honestly have not tried to sign up for beehaw so I can't comment on the registration process itself in detail, but I do find that they're intentionally trying to be picky a little strange. It seems to me that beehaw is trying to build a community that isn't actually all that well suited for a federated setup. Which is fine but like, maybe they should just make a forum?

I like the registration process, it acts as a filter against unwanted users.

I think it’s a good idea. I have no problem doing this for these instances. It’s to protect the community. If it were Facebook, then I’d not do it because I know they are selling my information.

I only saw one question - guess I got lucky! I thought about providing a link to my reddit user page so they could verify that I wasn't generally a jerk, but then that would give reddit clicks. It also seemed like turning the application work around on the mods, which I assume they have too much of at the present time, so I didn't.

I applied, but not sure it went through, never got beyond the spinny-submit-button. Happened a few times then found another instance :)

*edit- But I did like that they were screening applicants.

They asked what I thought I could add to the community and I wrote something about sports and apparently they aren't interested in that so they denied me.

I've only had one text field / question, but they took over a week to come back to me for approval. Obviously made a kbin account in the meantime already and am happy with that. Maybe I'll use the account if I give Jerboa another try. The last time I tried the app it crashed 5 times just reading the Reddit refugee welcome message. Definitely not the best first impressions given.