cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/24394554

Text for readability:

So far, Americans using RedNote have said they don’t care if China has access to their data. Viral videos on TikTok in recent days have shown Americans jokingly saying they will miss their personal “Chinese spy,” while others say they are purposefully giving RedNote access to their data in a show of protest against the wishes of the U.S. government.

“This also highlights the fact that people are thirsty for platforms that aren’t controlled by the same few oligarchs,” Quintin said. “People will happily jump to another platform even if it presents new, unknown risks.”

  • m_f@discuss.onlineEnglish
    2·
    3 days ago

    Was just talking with a friend that downloaded a Mastodon app a while back when Twitter was bought by Elon, encountered the “Choose a server” bit, and bailed after choice paralysis. They’re technical and have a doctorate in Computer Science so it’s not like they couldn’t figure it out, but there’s something in the human psyche where most people don’t want to make choices like that. They’re on Bluesky now and think its great.

    IMO sites like https://pixelfed.org/how-to-join and https://join-lemmy.org/ should just have a normal sign up flow, and load balance between all servers that opt in. Looks like that’s going to happen for Pixelfed:

    https://mastodon.social/@dansup/113830788279211715

    It’ll make some people unhappy, but that’s just how you get “normies” onto the Fediverse.

    • poVoq@slrpnk.netEnglish
      0·
      3 days ago

      If there were a good invite system you could have just shared that including a pre-selected instance for your friend. That’s way more effective than trying to explain federation to people not really that interested in the first place.

        • mke@programming.devEnglish
          0·
          3 days ago

          Server choice affects content discoverability, I don’t think omitting that helps in the long run.

          • Blaze (he/him)@feddit.orgEnglish
            0·
            2 days ago

            They’re going to be fine with those two. Mentioning federation issues from the get go is the best to get them uninterested in Lemmy immediately

            • mke@programming.devEnglish
              2·
              6 hours ago

              This feels like kicking the can down the road just to trip on it later, but I respect your effort and dedication, so do what you think is best, I wish you luck.

        • ᴇᴍᴘᴇʀᴏʀ 帝@feddit.ukMEnglish
          0·
          3 days ago

          It doesn’t ask where you are, just the language. As it’s for Lemmy only, it obviously doesn’t ask what service you are looking for too.

          Join the Fediverse needs something much more like that but with the extra options. As it stands you have to do way too much scrolling, reading and clicking.

          • fakeman_pretendname@feddit.ukEnglish
            1·
            3 days ago

            … and when it asks what language, it doesn’t differentiate between English and American Englishes, for example, and you have to scroll down quite a long way to get shown Feddit.uk.

            Sometimes you just want to know everyone’s on the same page when you talk about biscuits, pants and fannies.