Unpopular opinion: the fact that Mastodon needs some explaining for new users to understand it is actually great and should not be "fixed".
It's a free and easy subject to engage a conversation between strangers, and a good way to demonstrate Mastodon greatest power: shout into the void asking for help, there's a good chance someone will actually answer.
@lertsenem I... kinda don't disagree? That's somewhat problematic on an accessibility level, but I see your point.
For me would be lovely if there was a simple analogy for the federation aspect, and how identity spans different instances. Still don't quite get it!
@ennispea @lertsenem maybe there are different definitions but to me "accessibility" means being able to use the service UI if your hearing/eyesight/mobility isn't good or if you are older, which to be fair lots of people are slowly improving.
But its actually easier for older people who grew up with analogue telephones and radio communications to grasp the idea of federation, it is just like the telephone network or (more accurately) how SELCALL systems on radio networks operate.
You might actually find that this opinion is quite popular.
@Algot It looks like it, but I saw many people wondering how to make newcomers understand federation naturally.
@lertsenem There are a lot of people who can't or won't be able to ask for help. Those people deserve good experiences, too. :(
@lertsenem don't think it's unpopular, usually with every wave of New users I've seen a bunch of info dump toots about.
most people who have been here seem to want the best for the fediverse
@Sailorplutoid Oh, seasoned users are generally willful to explain how things work! But they also often wonder (or at least I often read some of them wondering) how to make the newcomers understand the federation naturally, just by using the software.
@lertsenem
I love being able to shout into the void when it's needed.
@Monknot Being able to shout into the void is easy, but only here will the void shout back at you to ask if you want to be friend. :]
@lertsenem
I'm still waiting for that to happen :)
@lertsenem Mastodon is easy to explain. It's like email, but for social media. I think I might make a video on this
@lertsenem it’s a compelling argument but I really want a critical mass to move here to provide competitive pressure to bird site
@lertsenem as someone who didnt need help understand federations i can say that signup process still required some amount of shouting into void? Still gotta find people to talk to somehow
@Satsuma Hmm, my "shouting in the void" metaphor was about tooting with no followers and still getting response thanks to the federated and local timeline... So I don't understand what you mean: that's not something you can do if you're not signed up yet? Did you have troubles registering?
@lertsenem i was referring to my first couple interactions with the site as the signup process in a sort of over general way (is your account really real if you dont follow anyone?) So even without having to go ‘hey how do federations work, im new here’ i still had to post without having any followers, and I still got a response
@lertsenem basically i was arguing that even when you dont need help getting started you’re still likely to have that same initial positive experience that you were arguing was one of mastadons greatest strengths :)
@Satsuma Oh okay! Sorry for the misunderstanding, I thought you were saying you that you didn't get enough help at start. :]
@lertsenem hah no opposite! I think so long as you pick a good instance you’ll be pretty solid on that front
@lertsenem also seconding the ‘accessibility should be a key issue’ line of thinking, if we want to keep good communities they need to be welcoming to everyone (mastadon has already positively addressed some things, like content warnings, but one of my first thoughts about the website was ‘oh this must suck on screen reader’
@Satsuma For now, if that's an issue you have, maybe trying an app rather than the web UI would be better?
But I agree that accessibility should be a focus point for the main UI. The main problem is probably knowing how to present the interface to make it accessible to a screen reader, though. If you can help with that, maybe you could open an issue on Github to highlight the issue and give some pointers?
@lertsenem not an issue i have personally but i know a few people so ive gotten into the habit of thinking ‘what are the chances they could use this site?’ Will poke around on the guthub though, see what i can do
@lertsenem @Gargron Hard pass on the notion that it's acceptable for any software to shift the burden of explaining how it works onto its users. For "shouting into the void" to even work, a newcomer has to get past the hump of picking an instance to join. The "get started" experience on joinmastodon.org is still way too high-friction, and that DOES need to be fixed. A list of instances with a domain name search is not adequate "get started" guidance for layfolk.
@lertsenem they may not be accustomed to that.
@lertsenem quite true, sometimes people over-complicate the functions a social platform should bear. Conversation is about convenience, just like you don't need fancy tools while talking to people in real life:)
@lertsenem «Plaire à tout le monde, c'est plaire à n'importe-qui»