When people are told about Lemmy and look for it in a search engine, join-lemmy.org is one of the first pages that comes up. Here they should be able to find out what Lemmy is, and be able to register an account to start posting.

At the moment this still seems too complicated, so I’m looking for your suggestions to improve it:

  • On the main page, is the text relevant and up to date or should anything be changed?
  • How about the instance selection wizard (click “join a server” on the homepage), which lets you select topics and languages to select instances. Do the current options make sense?
  • The instance list itself, is there any information missing, or potential design improvements?
  • And the list of apps, what can be done here? For one thing the data is rarely updated, so we would appreciate pull requests.
  • Any other suggestions you may have.

Since yesterday I already made a couple of improvements:

Edit: Here is a draft for some changes to the frontpage: https://github.com/LemmyNet/joinlemmy-site/pull/524

  • Nutomic@lemmy.ml
    OPMEnglish
    41·
    1 day ago

    The term Link Aggregator has got to go. Call it a forum and call it a day

    Its not the same, as forums dont use scores and have less focus on external links. The text already mentions forums, by removing link aggregator it would also be too short here.

    See all servers button at the top as well

    That is what “Join” does, but the text is probably not clear. “See all servers” is a bit long, would “Instances” be clear enough?

    There needs to be more “general” servers. Lemmy.world was the most popular choice because people want to check out Lemmy and just click on “general”. Not sure if .ml still has the commie paste prompt.

    There are a few like lemmy.zip, lemmy.wtf or reddthat. We could also consider showing lemmy.world again, but with the current sorting it is always shown at the top because it is so much larger than other instances. lemmy.ml still has the commie paste prompt.

    If possible let their first server be a general one without email verification so they can quickly join

    From what I can see, all the general instances do require email verification.

    Images of Lemmy at the bottom are a bit confusing maybe? undecided on that

    You mean those grayscale images by the features? Those are just general placeholders to avoid having all text. There arent really any images which are relevant to show for a software project.

    Maybe that can be added as a filter. For now I added an icon to instances which require email to signup (#523).

    Language customization should be less emphasized, or should be put in the “interests” section based on their country IP while joining. On the internet imperialist English has been considered the default language. The join-Lemmy page is English to begin with.

    It uses the language configured in your browser. For me it shows in Spanish. We can also use browser language to filter the instance list without manual selection.

    Join Lemmy button is redundant. In fact I don’t think it should even exist. All the buttons have got to go and people should directly see the “what are your interests” selection menu. Donation button can be on top, but I don’t think it’s handy to have it at onboarding when people don’t know what Lemmy is

    Frontpage buttons and topic selection are definitely the trickiest part. I would consider removing the topic selection, because there are some which barely narrow it down (technology, general or politics each show a few dozen instances), or shows only a few instances which dont match well. Plus the topics are not actively maintained.

    I made a PR with some changes to the frontpage: https://github.com/LemmyNet/joinlemmy-site/pull/524

    • Die4Ever@retrolemmy.comEnglish
      4·
      1 day ago

      The term Link Aggregator has got to go. Call it a forum and call it a day

      Its not the same, as forums dont use scores and have less focus on external links. The text already mentions forums, by removing link aggregator it would also be too short here.

      I don’t think link aggregator is a good term at all. If I said that to my mom she would never imagine anything like Reddit, she’d probably think of Google instead. Forum would be much better. “Discussion forum” would fix the issue with it being too short.

      Or even “forum with voting and comment trees” lol IDK, I feel like anything is better than “link aggregator”.

    • geneva_convenience@lemmy.mlEnglish
      1·
      1 day ago

      We could also consider showing lemmy.world again

      Possibly. Dumping everyone at lemmy.zip is a possibility too. lemmy.wtf is is a bit too on the nose.

      I would avoid using instances without “lemmy” in the name like reddthat, it was very confusing to me when I started out.

      I would consider removing the topic selection, because there are some which barely narrow it down (technology, general or politics each show a few dozen instances)

      I think I agree with that, at least for now. The only topic instance with real specific activity in that list is probably blahaj for the LGBTQ.

      The new front page looks much better and cleaner. Not sure about the “Apps” though, people need to create an account first so. Maybe “Instance selector”? Also I’d call it “Mobile Apps” instead, “Apps” is a bit vague.

      I still plead for removing both buttons and directly showing the “instance selector” in the middle area, with the “See all instances” showing in the top bar only. Maybe slightly more prominently than the other top bar icons

      link aggregator rant

      The definition used by Reddit currently is also possible

      that would make Lemmy a “forum and (social) news aggregation” platform. “Link-aggregation” sounds much to vague to me, as if Lemmy is a link-scraping bot. But I’ve gone on that rant in the past.

      One of the buttons talks about “instances” and the other one about “servers in your new design”. Not sure what the difference there is

      • Nutomic@lemmy.ml
        OPMEnglish
        3·
        1 day ago

        Possibly. Dumping everyone at lemmy.zip is a possibility too. lemmy.wtf is is a bit too on the nose.

        I would avoid using instances without “lemmy” in the name like reddthat, it was very confusing to me when I started out.

        That makes sense. I went through the list and found these as reasonable defaults: https://lemmy.zip/, https://lemmy.today/, https://thelemmy.club/, https://lemmus.org/

        Then it would be one of the monthly tasks for @[email protected] and me to go through this list and keep it updated.

        The new front page looks much better and cleaner. Not sure about the “Apps” though, people need to create an account first so.

        At least some of the apps let you register directly, though I dont have an overview of that. Would be good to contact the app devs about adding a registration option where it is missing. They might have the same doubts which instances to use as defaults.

        Also I’d call it “Mobile Apps” instead, “Apps” is a bit vague.

        It also includes web apps and desktop apps…

        I still plead for removing both buttons and directly showing the “instance selector” in the middle area, with the “See all instances” showing in the top bar only. Maybe slightly more prominently than the other top bar icons

        Which instance selector do you mean?

        The definition used by Reddit currently is also possible

        “News aggregator” and “Link aggregator” is very similar, either one works for me.

        One of the buttons talks about “instances” and the other one about “servers in your new design”. Not sure what the difference there is

        No difference, its just that “Instances” may not be clear to new users. Should definitely be made consistent before merging.