Bad UX is keeping the majority of people away from Lemmy

This reddit post likely has tens if not hundreds of thousands of views, look at the top comment.

Lemmy is losing so many potential new users because the UX sucks for the vast majority of people.

What can we do?

Fedibridge @lemmy.dbzer0.com

AnonomousWolf @lemm.ee

3mo ago

Bad UX is keeping the majority of people away from Lemmy

952 comments

The apps are kinda meh. I haven't found one that doesn't come with significant disadvantages yet, and I've tried FIVE.
There's no recommendations feed. You see what you're subscribed to, or everything. No in-between. You can't see what you've subscribed to, and a few posts that the algorithm thinks you might like. People like to complain about the algorithm, but one reason it's so addictive is that it's useful.
Notifications don't work in every app
Just having a feed that behaves normally seems to be really hard to do for apps. Stop slowing me posts I've already scrolled past, and when I click home/pull down to refresh, I want new posts, not the same thing again that I've already scrolled past and ignored. Some apps have settings (that are somehow not on by default) to hide read posts and mark posts read on scroll, but I haven't tried an app where that works every time.
There's no "main" app. Think about Reddit before the API fees. There used to be a default app. It had its issues, but most features worked out of the box, and most things were intuitive and normie-friendly. You could use that to get comfortable with the social network itself, and then eventually try other apps when something got too annoying. Compare that with Lemmy. You want to try it, and you already have to deal with choice paralysis. A ton of apps on the website, with utterly unhelpful descriptions ("an open-source Lemmy client developed by so-and-so"; wow, exactly zero of those words help me pick) and a random order that doesn't even let me default to one most popular one. Quite a few apps focus on niche UI features like swipe-based navigation while still not having the basics down right. I'm several months into having joined Lemmy and I still haven't found an app that feels somewhat right. That is a challenge not one of the other social networks has managed. Congrats, Lemmy. Impressive.
Picking a server and signing up in general is complicated. And it's an impactful decision that you have NO tools to make so early, unless you start researching like it's school homework. .world? That's popular but you'll be judged for having joined it, plus you lose access to the piracy community. .ml? Hope you like communists and DRAMA. And if you get it wrong, there's no intuitive and easy way to migrate. You clunkily export your settings and re-import them; the servers will NOT talk to each other. And even then you lose some stuff. This UX issue is tough. I don't have an easy solution. But I'm sure a UX expert could find one.
Manual validation of your sign-up by a human. What is this, a Facebook group? If you introduce a 24-hour delay so early in the process, of course people are going to fall off.
The mouse logo is kinda ugly, won't lie. I'm sure it's a more potent people repellent than you think.
There is a LOT of tribalism. On Reddit, there's r/Canada, that's full of convinced conservatives that won't hesitate to artificially skew the discourse. And there's r/OnGuardForThee, basically the same but with progressives angry at the conservatives. On Lemmy, that feels like the rule, not the exception. I just joined communities based on my interests, and my feed is full of communist vs communist vs non-communist drama. Can we frickin' chill? If I need to start filtering out whole fields of interest that were taken over, joining less popular community clones or literally defederating instances to get a good experience, we've got it wrong. Normal people don't wanna do that when they literally just got here. They'll just leave.
Somehow even more US-centric than Reddit. So... Much... American politics.
- If you are looking for an app, Voyager is the best in my opinion. It’s totally feature complete afaik
- I wish just like NSFW filter, posts can be marked as Political, and users have the option to block all of that.
  
  Piefed asks this during onboarding: https://piefed.social/comment/4664996
  They also have built-in keywords filter
  
  This is fantastic thank you, I've created an account. I like the onboarding
  
  Sadly there are some aspects that don't work well - like searching and notifications sometimes sends you to things that don't exist. This is MORE than made up for (imho at least, though I respect that it won't be everyone's) in having so many features that Lemmy still lacks.
  The onboarding process is one fantastic one, and you've barely begun to learn all that you can now do that you could not before. Categories of Communities, hashtags, notifications for every. single. thing. (whole entire communities? best used only for your favorites or low frequency ones - though a new custom Topics feature will make that process obsolete, whenever it comes out, I don't know the prioritization. Comment in !piefed_2025@piefed.social or !piefed_meta@piefed.social if you want to add new feature requests:-)
  I would keep your old account around though, for the handful of things that PieFed isn't fully ready to deliver yet.
  
  I think it will probably address a few of the issues you have with Lemmy, and then you will join the piefed enthusiasts like @OpenStars@piefed.social @OpenStars@discuss.online
  
  Absolutely. Case in point: I got a notification now when you tagged me, while a month or possibly even a week ago I would not have. There's new features weekly here!:-D
- About the lack of an algorithm: do we really want to recreate the addictiveness of for-profit platforms? Is that actually a healthy feature? Perhaps it's better for society if our social media isn't as addictive as possible.
  And on manual validation for sign-ups: before the mass migration from Reddit, most instances didn't seem to have validation, and then as it became popular, we got hit with trolls mass creating accounts posting CP and racist images, making it a game of whack-a-mole to stop it. As Lemmy is all volunteer run, we don't have paid content moderators always watching for that stuff, nor did they have an automated content filter. The main solution is to validate sign-ups so that the moderators and admins are not overwhelmed with spam and illegal content (which they could be legally liable for if not dealt with properly).
  
  Well, it's not because something has the potential to be addictive that it's necessarily bad. After all, a video game that isn't addictive at all could also be called boring.
  I think the line between an enjoyable experience and unhealthy addictive features is drawn in user choice and the absence of malicious intent.
  
  That's a fair point, actually. I suppose as long as an algorithm doesn't prioritize engagement at all costs, it could be a worthy addition.
  
  And on manual validation for sign-ups
  permissions/roles could improve this a lot https://github.com/LemmyNet/lemmy/issues/3375#issuecomment-2657753039
  Give thumbs up reactions on Github so the devs know what to prioritize
  
  Not a bad idea!
- you already have to deal with choice paralysis.
  "Lemmy has 47k monthly active users
  https://discuss.online/ if you want a server located in the USA (content is still accessible from any server, the most difference latency)
  https://sopuli.xyz/ if you want a server located in the EU
  https://vger.app/settings/install if you want an app
  Feel free if you have any questions"
  https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/37336391
- Addition to 10. And if a thread is not about america or politics, someone in the comments will still twist the subject to rant about it.
  And 11. Lemmy has a disproportionate cynical middle aged nerd population. Like the people on this post thinking 'old reddit-like ui' was a compliment. Seeing the 'I only use vim' guy once is amusing. Scrolling down and seeing a dozen more sends a distinct 'this place is not for you' vibe.
- There's no "main" app. Think about Reddit before the API fees. There used to be a default app.
  Which app was this? Reddit's 1st party app? I didn't think it was very popular until they did the API fees, I never used it and I don't know anyone who did. Lemmy's 1st party app is Jerboa.
  If you have ideas for how to fix these issues, you should file issues on Github for how to improve
  https://github.com/LemmyNet/lemmy-ui/issues (or report the issues to whatever app you're using)
  There’s no recommendations feed.
  Is https://quiblr.com/ like what you're talking about? https://quiblr.com/understanding_your_private_personalized_feed
- my feed is full of communist vs communist vs non-communist drama. Can we frickin’ chill?
  Block those communities?
  
  They're not communist fight communities explicitly though. I haven't joined any communist-themed communities. It's just content that kinda bubbles up left and right.
  I COULD start avoiding everything ".ml", but that sounds counter-productive.

952 comments