Itās concerning just how many people canāt be bothered to spend 5 minutes to pick an instanceā¦ Keeps it nicer for us though
I donāt really think itās fair to pretend that, before two weeks ago, anyone under god had any idea what an instance was unless they were already heavily tech-oriented.
It took me hours of trying to read through not-my-kind-of-jargon to understand what the hell I was looking at and what kind of consequences that unexplained choice would have, and it really seems like a good number of users that initially struggled forget the learning curve extremely quickly the moment theyāre over it.
It took me hours of trying to read through not-my-kind-of-jargon to understand
I started off going down that road of trying to understand it, but my laziness and impatience got in the way and said ājust start using it and youāll work it out.ā And thatās exactly what happened for me. In a way, the explanations made it all sound much more confusing than it really is. Sometimes you just gotta take a deep breath and dive in.
Honestly, youāre right, and I think the analysis paralysis that the fediverse immediately presents isnāt really helped by the fact Iām just generally a neurotic person. Wanting/NEEDING to understand how every aspect of something works and why lends itself really well to things like linguistics and biology, but I feel bothered when I skip the tutorial in a game I already know. What if I missed something and Iāll never be able to figure out how buttons work.
It was a case of: Lemmy.ml isnāt accepting new users atm BeeHaw requires me to tell them why Iām a good user So does this other instanceā¦ Why do I have to justify myself!? Hey, Lemmy.world letās me just sign up! Perfect!
And that was how I chose an instance. Thank you for joining story got with Valek
Decision paralysis is real even for stupid things. Like, āwhat are the implications if I pick the wrong instance?ā Was something that made me put off finishing signing up for mastodon and Iām not embarrassed to admit it. Acting like itās trivial isnāt helpful to anyone even if it was trivial or you
Iāve been explaining it like email. Thereās no email webpage you go to to create an account. Itās just a protocall a bunch of people have agreed to use, so you go to one of them and you create an address. I also think your username in the fediverse should be called an address too, but I donāt think thatāll catch on. It makes it a lot easier to explain, because everyone can use email, even the most tech illiterate people.
Iāve been explaining it like email
Maybe Iām setting the bar too low but a lot of people have no clue if their emailing, texting or messaging. They just know that their phone pings and they can either reply or not. I learned this when I worked support for a smartphone manufacturer