Yay! More centralisation!

Honestly, if they're on reddit, they're probably libs and that's the closest to a default instamce. They complain enough about the leftist instances that the leftist adjecent folks will find their way eventually. It's fine.
- Idk, I'd consider myself a liberal and i find lemmy.world borderline insufferable a lot of the time

The cold truth is that to onboard people in greater numbers you need a default instance recommendation. You just do. You absolutely cannot ask potential new users (many of which will - hopefully - be casual and not so tech savvy) to sit down and undertake a multi hour research project into finding an appropriate small instance for them. You cannot reasonably expect people to look into uptime, funding and defederation lists to make an informed decision about where to register. You just need them through the door and posting and commenting and voting.
Making a new account somewhere else is super easy and painless once they're already here. We just need to get them here.
- I found it pretty easy: pick an instance of your country. Support local instances!!

I will never understand why people want to go from reddit to a place that's just as shitty as reddit in all the same ways
- No one on reddit likes reddit.com. The people there are there just for the userbase. The actual software is shit, lemmy.world has been more stable than reddit at times.

lemmy.world does not allow the use of vpn to post. vpn is basic internet hygiene. do not go to lemmy.world if you care about that, our you will not be able to post.
you can join any federated instance instead.
one day later edit: i took my information from this post of a lemmy.world admin: https://lemmy.world/comment/12079632
I was made aware that users are able to post on lemmy.world while using a vpn. maybe their stance has changed?
aside from that, try to avoid joining the biggest instance and join smaller, federated instances instead. this reduces load and avoids centralization.

I was forced to go to Lemmy after the post-inauguration bloodbath, but Ive liked it a lot, more than Reddit in many ways. I was getting really tired of the bots, puns, Russian Propganda, novelty accounts, TROLLS, etc.
OTOH, I feel like I can speak much more freely on Lemmy. Even before I got permabanned, Reddits Free Speech mission had become non-existent.
The downside of Lemmy is that some of my favorite subs don't have an equivalent on Lemmy. For instance, the Reddit guitar subs are very active, but the few Lemmy guitar forums are nearly empty, with posts that are days, weeks, months, and even years, apart. I tried Googling "Lemmy Guitar" for ideas, and literally every link was about Motorhead.
So I welcome more quality Reddit immigrants, as long as all the Trolls stay over there.

Part of the problem is that there isn't a really good onboarding process that doesn't involve getting people to join smaller instances.
Based on dev comments, they seem happy with Lemmy staying small, so there isn't an organization pushing for an equal distribution of new members.

First post on Lemmy! and oh my word… never seen such an eclectic mix of flavours of people, positions and politics in a long time.
This decentralised thing could actually be a good thing: pulls people away from bubbles and echo chambers!
Just remember to play nice :)
- Welcome!
- Welcome!