I got onto Reddit about ten years ago and only after I had heard about the site from multiple sources frequently. I’m technically minded and I know how to use a computer and navigate social media but even then, I was hesitant about using Reddit. Even once I got on, I had to stumble around, get into chat fights with people because I wasn’t posting or commenting properly or in the wrong place in the wrong way and with the wrong group. As a new user without any guidance or help, I had to go wandering around on my own to figure things out but eventually I did. I even got it to the point of moderating a couple of my own subreddits. It took me a while to get used to it before I bailed on that site with the first Rexit in 2023.

I think most people migrating to the fediverse will be the same way. They’ll be curious, they’ll log on, they’ll hate it, they’ll find it difficult, they’ll mess up and eventually they’ll figure it out on their own because they want to. And through all those headaches of getting started in the fediverse, they’ll be more likely to stay long term because they had to really work at building a space for themselves here.

People are always going to complain about stuff

I cannot emphasise this enough - yes, there are real problems, too. But our senses might be overtuned to find reasons of “why don’t people join.” One big part of the reality is - most people don’t like unfamiliar things and will rationalise their intuitive disliking with any arguments, often even ones they haven’t experienced themselves, but heard about.

Again - not saying there aren’t problems that need addressing, but there’s a real risk of needlessly internalising every bad thing said about Lemmy, when it may sometimes just be unfounded, intuitive dislike instead of proper thought out critique.