This post is inspired by a conversation I had with another user earlier that, after some reflection, raised an interesting point.
When telling a user about Lemmy, trying to bring them into the fold if you will, what would be the best go to link? Think of reddit.com/r/all, but for Lemmy.
In theory, any instance will work as long as it has a large enough user base to have people subscribed to other large isntances, but having a solid landing page to point new users towards definitely has some merit.
Thoughts?
I’d send them a link to the instance I’m hosting lol. If I weren’t, I’d probably direct them to join-lemmy.org with the explanation that any instance showcased there is probably good enough.
Well, since the benchmark is reddit, something like the below would likely be the best
Tell them to look at the communities tab 😉
Hey that’s my site 😁 I’m looking to add a “join a server” page and make it similar to the join Lemmy one with recommended servers
I’m now also thinking about making the communities list the default…
Hey thanks for the great website. Are you able to make it search on button click instead of after each character is typed? There is a large amount of lag for me on mobile while trying to type, leading to lots of typos.
Yeah absolutely this was on my mind last night! Another person created a Bug on my GitHub already https://github.com/tgxn/lemmy-explorer/issues/33
I’ll implement it soon :D
We probably need a basic politically correct, partisan explanation of differences between major instances on a main page. If hosts are willing, maybe even some basic details about their situation, experience, and intentions. With all the instances, it would be ideal if the potential new user could clearly see stuff like the host’s projected ability to scale. If you’ve got a home lab, scaling is very different than if you’re running the instance on Akamai. Maybe also note if the host has other federated services they host.
It’s not an instance, but what about https://join-lemmy.org/ ?
Personally I’d probably link people directly to their “Join a Server” page so they don’t get scared off by all the talk of hosting your own instance!
This is a very good idea, because new users will be very confused when picking an instance. Many people will fear picking the wrong instance (and some will stop and not pick an instance at all). Even though on Lemmy it really does not matter that much on what instance you are.
This is what I would do, unless your friend is already fediverse knowledgeable. If you have knowledge about what subreddit they enjoyed the most you can use the community browser to find what instance has the largest similar community and show them that. https://browse.feddit.de
100% agreed. as someone that has been meaning to jump into the fediverse since the Twitter debacle, I was paralyzed by choosing an initial Mastadon server. If you want lemmy/kbin to grow, just link them directly to the best matched instance you can find for them.
Something like this, perhaps?
https://lemmy.world/home/data_type/Post/listing_type/All/sort/Hot/page/1
It shows what’s hot across all communities on Lemmy.world, which is a pretty big instance, as far as I know. If they’re interested in joining a Lemmy server, they could probably join Lemmy.world, but they may wish to try a different one. In that case, the following is a good place to start.
https://join-lemmy.org/instances
Hope that helps.
kbin.social <- take the easy path. Fight me!
I would totally use and recommend kbin to everyone but only after a few days. The server still crashes a lot. The dev is doing their best though!
If you’re already in the fediverse then you already probably have an idea of which sites there are. So personally I’d keep a few instances handy in mind so I can bring one up and at least “distribute the load” so to speak.
I’ve just been telling them to go to Lemmy.world in their browser to check things out
It depends on who I’m talking to, some people I’d just link to https://join-lemmy.org/instances
But others I’d probably link to beehaw.org, lemme.world, sh.itjust.works if I think they’d prefer seeing something like “r/all”
I’ve sent a whole bunch of people to Lemmy.ca from local contacts. There’s enough hockey content that it works for anyone I know here.
this is probably the best idea, just link them to a local instance, something not too populated
