@dessalines yesterday, I asked around about the desired improvements to Lemmy and @bmp replied that conversation flows could be improved. Threads or comments aren't always explicitly showed and makes the user unsure about how to actually interact in the conversation.

Also, what are your next points on the roadmap? (If you have one)

@VantaWhite @JohnDClay how did you start using Lemmy? Did someone introduced you to? How could you pick the instance where to register?

@pinkdrunkenelephants @dessalines That would be very useful. Mastodon has this feature and it comes in handy when I am tired of seeing random porn

Mmm, what do you mean with "instance-agnostic"?

@HKayn @HR_Pufnstuf A wizard that gives you a random choice based on your interests could be an interesting tool from a UX perspective. Questions to refine down the options could be based on language, specialized vs generalist, categories within specialized, number of users (S, M, L) age of the instance

@youronlyone @fediverse This is a great suggestion. So, as you correctly are saying, there must be a focus on the user and their needs. I think a wizard could be useful (but not like https://distrochooser.de , because options are limited, same results).
This hypothetical wizard should allow the user to choose between software and instances, based on a set of characteristics.
I think we lack something like this. Am I wrong?

@fediverse The point is that, given the current characteristics and limitations of the Fediverse at large, how should we recommend software to people interred in joining?
Should we aim to have them use only one software/instance given their interests? i.e. I'm interested in having the most similar experience to Instagram, so I should use ONLY Pixelfed? But what if, like me, I want to have an official presence online and still want to interact with other communities online that are thread-based?

@geoma @zzepposs There is some value in this. It is vital to understand real world needs and issues. Looking forward to follow the discussion

@h3ndrik @geoma There are other things to consider, like what kind of dependency you want to have to other organizations. You might be a network of small orgs ready to share resources for setting up a collective Mastodon instance. Similar approach with a big entity with enough resources (be those donations, own money, or whatever) to fund all of that. A different case would be just a small project/business that currently uses Instagram for PR purposes, but that wants something alternative

@ziby0405 @geoma Mmm so, you envision something that is on website as an "official presence online" and then also a separate account on Mastodon and things for social media purposes?
I mean, it makes sense. At the end of the day, even current mainstream businesses have a website and Instagram accounts for things, so yes.

@fediverse 2. In most of the cases I have experiences, Mastodon is the only one that has a good level of stability that allows for active consume of content present on other intances. "Content is almost instantly federated", and I guess this is because Mastodon has a lot of users and therefore a lot of instances federated. In my opinion, this gives more value to the local timeline, as it correctly reinforces the idea that instances should be the community of your own choosing.

@fediverse Mastodon is the level of UX other projects should aim to. Unfortunately, others like Pixelfed and Lemmy are still not as adopted, and profiles can not communicate that well. This makes the on-life experience of making a friend create a new account and adding you very painful, because different servers might not be synced and the content of your profile might not appear in their client. This makes people to join large instances so they can have everyone in their local timeline.

@fediverse So, these problems break the whole idea of having one profile for accessing all the available content on the Fediverse. In general, this can be described as one major problem: even if my chosen instance is federated with some other where the content I am interested in is available, I will still have some issues in accessing.

@fediverse Again, maybe I was only very unlucky with the instances I chose to let my friends sign up for the Fediverse, but we really need to think on how to make this as effortless as possible for new users. Changing paradigm is not easy, making everyone grasp the underlying concepts of the Fediverse is not easy, increasing adoption is not easy. We can not rely on another Xpocalypse.

I'm interested in discussing more about this.

@caos
One point on Lemmy. What software best federates with Lemmy? I'm posting this comment from a Mastodon account through Fedilabs. The Lemmy thread is understandable, more or less. Is this only a matter of client and UI?
@deadsuperhero

@HR_Pufnstuf @OtakuAltair can you give some more context?

@youronlyone @fediverse Thank you for pointing that out. You expressed it way better than me. I agree. That's why probably we need to recommend different software to different users.

@ShellMonkey To be honest, I totally agree. Again, it boils down to the type of needs you have as a user. I want to have a personal profile where I can post stuff I've written, doing campaigning, share stuff about events I've participated to, and so on. That would be a profile I hand out on business cards and such.

At the same time, I love content/link aggregators, as that is the way of interacting online I find most interesting.

TLDR; I'm still in the search of the best software for my needs.

@talou @caos @deadsuperhero whaaat :O screenshot please

@geoma @h3ndrik we get back to other issues/problems that are discussed somewhere here around on Lemmy. Striking the balance between autonomy and management costs is always hard. That's why probably there is the need to have a service that helps users get paired with the best software given their needs.

As others are saying, Firefish/Calckey might be interesting in that sense.

(gosh, even Friendica has a relevant concept there, but it is soooo unpolished and not appropriate for business.

@talou @caos @deadsuperhero A nice and good read in this regard comes from the ActivityPub academy: https://seb.jambor.dev/posts/understanding-activitypub-part-2-lemmy/
This explains it very well

@SomeoneSomewhere @geoma Probably it just means that people are on massive platforms like Instagram only because everybody else is there (?)

@fresh @geoma It looks interesting. Business benefits over hosting WordPress and federating it with some plugin?

@poVoq @geoma This looks interesting. Would you imagine the marketplace as paired to the local listings?

Given that one big problem of the fediverse for business applications so far is discoverability, I imagine to have a federated service that indexes all posts from accounts on that instance, and also has a marketplace. It basically is a federated Etsy? 😳

@rglullis @cabbage In a way, it's just like splitting utility bills with flatmates.

Many instances do the same. They require members to pay at least a (reasonable) minimum amount in a year. This is also well stated since day 0 in their registration form.

@root_beer @fediverse I understand the point, but what if there are different needs and use cases? Like a network of schools in a specific region that want to coordinate, interact and share events among them?

@VantaWhite so basically lemmy.world was the default instance for the app you registered your account on?

@stu @yogthos Can anybody point to research or literature about the development and survival of FOSS communities? I am only aware of Gabriella Coleman's studies on Debian and Raymond's "The Cathedral and the Bazaar"

@fediverse From my experience I am having two main issues when talking with people about the Fediverse:

@fediverse

1. People are interested in communities and content. The idea of using one single client and being able to access all types of content from any kind of instance sounds great, but it's still a dream. Let's say that I am interested in memes and the communities I know of are most active on lemmy.world. Realistically, with my Mastodon account I am not going to have the same experience that I would have with using Lemmy just for that. I need to register a new account on lemmy.world.