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.
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
Oh youāre one of those just looking for a reason to be pissy. I wasnāt trying to be helpful to anyone, I was simply sharing my experience. Touch grass
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
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.
Donāt worry, I hear ya! Iām currently 4.9 hours in on my first run of the story game, Detroit. People in the reviews say it is a short game and they have less than 3 hours playtime ā¦ but I donāt wanna miss any narrative or clues! haha!
I joined Mastadon in December and thatās when I first tried to understand it all. I researched a server to join and it was right confusing ā¦ what if I picked the wrong one? Then I pretty much abandoned the account because I didnāt understand how to stay on my own server while browsing around (also didnāt help that Iād never used Twitter either, so I didnāt actually know what I sposed to be doing lol).
Then the whole reddit debacle happened and I signed up for a Lemmy & Kbin. And there was all the jargon again. But I think because I was actually jumping ship from reddit, this time I wanted my move to have staying power. So it was unusual for me to āskip the tutorialā but I was getting so frustrated with the jargon, while I could see others were already having conversations. And it was through the participation that the jargon finally defined itself. I even use my mastodon now, as well!
