I don't really think it's 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 they're over it.

[–] Sarsaparilla@kbin.social 33 points 1 year ago (2 children)

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 "just start using it and you'll work it out." And that's 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.

[–] Greenskye@lemmy.world 8 points 1 year ago

Same. I signed up for the first instance someone mentioned positively. Seems fine, only about 5 minutes of research invested

[–] Nepenthe@kbin.social 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Honestly, you're right, and I think the analysis paralysis that the fediverse immediately presents isn't really helped by the fact I'm 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 I'll never be able to figure out how buttons work.

[–] Sarsaparilla@kbin.social 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Don't worry, I hear ya! I'm 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 ... but I don't wanna miss any narrative or clues! haha!

I joined Mastadon in December and that's when I first tried to understand it all. I researched a server to join and it was right confusing ... what if I picked the wrong one? Then I pretty much abandoned the account because I didn't understand how to stay on my own server while browsing around (also didn't help that I'd never used Twitter either, so I didn't 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 "skip the tutorial" 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!

[–] Nepenthe@kbin.social 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Oh, I never realized the storylines in Detroit were that short. I'm exactly like you, and I've also found that the more games I play at once, the less I enjoy any of them. So my hands are a bit tied in terms of backlog and that one's been on the backburner for...years, now that I think of it. But That bumps it up my list considerably if I can 100% it in like 3 days.

I was very close to giving the fuck up initially, though. You know what the biggest encouragement was when I was signing up? When I was looking through the comments on kbin, someone said all the hoops would keep the idiots out, and I will put in a _lot _ more energy if it means both showing off and being where the idiots aren't. I'd say having a barrier there really has done some good for the overall quality (for now), but the people claiming it's good to make sign-ups as hard as possible are sometimes the same people claiming there isn't a barrier at all, and it comes off as very strange elitism.

Reading the explanations and advice people were giving to each other made a whole lot more sense than anything the internet was handing me, but even some of that could be head-scratching, and hands-on is probably the best way to go. Not without its dangers. I still think I got incredibly lucky to end up on an instance I like this much. Imagine having admiration for the dev for once.

[–] Sarsaparilla@kbin.social 1 points 1 year ago

I never realized the storylines in Detroit were that short.

quick Google search tells me average play-thru time is 12hrs and completionist is 32hrs, so I dunno what I was looking at. I'm 5hours in, so it remains to be seen whether it's gonna take me 32hours or 64hours minimum. 🤣 You'll have to forgive me, it's the steam sale so I've been looking at lots of games. Not that I need any more because I've probably only ever touched a quarter of my library, if that!

someone said all the hoops would keep the idiots out,

Yeah I liked that take as well. That layer of jargon really is a fantastic filter.

[–] BraBraBra@lemmy.world 21 points 1 year ago (2 children)

There was no learning curve for me. I randomly picked an instance LMFAO!

[–] valek879@lemmy.world 11 points 1 year ago

It was a case of: Lemmy.ml isn't accepting new users atm BeeHaw requires me to tell them why I'm a good user So does this other instance... Why do I have to justify myself!? Hey, Lemmy.world let's me just sign up! Perfect!

And that was how I chose an instance. Thank you for joining story got with Valek

[–] MsPenguinette@lemmy.world 9 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Decision paralysis is real even for stupid things. Like, “what are the implications if I pick the wrong instance?” Was something that made me put off finishing signing up for mastodon and I’m not embarrassed to admit it. Acting like it’s trivial isn’t helpful to anyone even if it was trivial or you

[–] marx2k@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

Same here. I had no idea what picking an insurance meant in terms of the amount of people, communities, level of engagement, etc.

I could have picked one of the more toxic communities that have been defederated and my experience of lemmy would have been much worse

[–] Trainguyrom@reddthat.com 1 points 1 year ago

Yeah decision paralysis definitely delayed my joining any ActivityPub based sites, but really most of what it affects is stuff that wont matter until you've spent enough time on the platform to understand the difference to begin with

[–] sotolf@kbin.social 0 points 1 year ago

I've been on mastodon for years so I knew :p