I found a super simple way to refer people to Lemmy.
One simple message:
Try out the Reddit alternative called Lemmy https://vger.app/
It also has a mobile app: https://vger.app/settings/install
This way a user can just click, start seeing content and what Lemmy is about, and if they want to comment etc. they will be asked to create an account with lemm.ee selected as a default.
This should fix most of the onboarding UX issues, and eliminate the decision fatigue of trying to figure out which instance is best.
I mean, select “Join a Server”, select “General”, then select “English”. Explore one instance that is listed.
The newbies should at least know what a instance is, don’t you agree?
People tend to scroll, missing the Join button, and then get stuck towards the bottom of the page (that’s what happened to me)
If you click join, you end up with a long list of servers, and decision fatigue kicks in.
I feel it’s better to show users content first, or immediately try to get them to login.
Then with the parameters already set: https://join-lemmy.org/instances?topic=all_topics&language=en&scroll=true
The thing is, they most likely will register at that instance you give them. So the burden of changing the instance once it gets too big is yours. Let’s say sopuli.xyz becomes too big at some point, you’d have to manually change all your recommendations to sopuli.xyz or have the admins there disable registrations, and at that point the user most likely won’t care and go back. The official join lemmy website is the better option in the long run.
I think the best solution for this is a website that helps you pick a good instance for you, not like join lemmy just throwing an entire list of instances at you (hat categories but imo that’s not enough).
If I ever get off my ass I’ll do it lol.
Basically the join-lemmy.org list but it selects one instance randomly depending on user’s input/preferences?
Close, but it would be exclusively for picking an instance and’d have more questions, to more specifically narrow down a good instance for them.
Well, what can you even ask other than what join-lemmy.org already asks?
Honestly it doesn’t recommend many good things from what i’ve seen. I think it’d work to add more topics (countries too) and maybe adding a small question like server size. Also improve the actual selection, because uh…
You can change the instance topics in this file, pull requests welcome!
https://github.com/LemmyNet/joinlemmy-site/blob/main/src/shared/components/instances-definitions.ts#L103
I mean, we all know how the lemmy devs are. So yeah, not surprised. We might need an alternative after all.