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15 days agoSomething like many Reddit subs do with the snoo, where they took a common, recognizable icon and customized it for their instance would have worked well if there was a similar icon for instances to latch onto, but we’re past that point now.
It does, though, because not every instance federates with every other instance. If someone is coming from Reddit, and they interact with a set of specific subs there, and they want to interact with the analogue communities here, they don’t want to join an instance like, for example Beehaw, that has very strict federation policies, or (probably) .ml or lemmygrad, where they’ll be exposed to stigma they weren’t aware of going in and which might not apply to them.
A list of servers with very open federation could solve this problem in theory, assuming new users knew to reference it, but that might not be what they want, either.
The invite code idea is actually solid, I think, assuming they’re handed out to people who have things in common with the target userbase of the instance, and not arbitrarily.
There’s also some instances that hold united views on specific topics, for example blahaj with trans rights, and someone arbitrarily choosing that instance that doesn’t hold those same views might feel that they don’t fit in.
Obviously anyone can just choose a new instance and move, but for a new user coming in, that’s a ‘quit moment’ in many cases. Giving an invite code to someone that leads them to an instance that at least broadly fits what they’re interested in could help solve for this.
Edit: I think having more instances that have specific themes and topics, like slrpnk or programming.dev (or pawb, for that matter) would help, too. Someone looking in from the outside might not understand federation, but if they see an instance geared towards a topic they’re interested in, they might be inclined to join it even if they incorrectly think that’s all they’ll be able to interact with.