I just don't understand how it's more "techy" than Reddit. I just want our user count to keep going up.

I think we should focus less on hyping federation/decentralization and more on how there are no ads and the content is really coming from actual users (and maybe a leftist bias).

I got a few friends on here by explaining that choosing a server is no different from choosing an email provider. Everyone understands email, that you can communicate with most other email users no matter what their provider is.

Me being like "what does it mean to boot from a USB 👁️👄👁️"

Fr though, the account thing is not too far off. When I made my first account (when the Reddit thing happened, it was on lemm.ee) I absolutely didn't understand jack shit and what I was doing. I was very ready to throw in the towel. I didn't understand how to add communities, how to search for communities, anything. I still have problems grasping the whole server thing. (Or what a server is.)

So a lot of times I feel excluded here, or at least like an unallowed invader, or a feral maniac just running around, throwing stuff at a wall and looking for what sticks. But that's ok. I'm happy I'm still here and one day I might even know what a command line is.

The average person probably couldn't figure it out because they don't care to. If you tell someone "Make a Lemmy account"ntheyll be confused. If you tell someone "Make an account at https://lemmy.world/" they'll figure it out. It's like if you give someone a puzzle but it's boring and they don't care to solve it, they're probably not gonna take the time to solve it.

You are completely correct and their comments prove it. The bubble is strong here. But it’s a pretty nice bubble

I am not tech literate like most programmers or coders, but I can look up things and read. Usually covers most of my needs overall, so it's better than nothing. Where I work I am seen as on par with any IT person but I just literally read instructions and follow them. Tried to explain it, but they treat it like I was blessed by the tech gods or something.

The reason I am still with .world is because I cant be arsed to figure out how to kove instance or remember hownI set it up.

I can copy command line prompts from forums and chatgpt to my newly linted linux pc...that I dont really use because I cant figure shit out.

*with strong beliefs on random topics

Where's the meme of the wojack at the party standing in the corner saying "They don't even know how to boot from USB"

not sure how most do anything. echo? most need a button says 'click here'. can drag a horse to water...

since the front page consists of linux and survillance hate

I don't know how to code, but I know my way around computers.

I'm currently trying to usb boot an old Motherboard from 2011 that has a very early version of UEFI. Modern disk imagers do fancy partitions that aren't recognized by this ancient artifact. Just saying it can be challenging.

It's been like this in some online communities since mIRC was popular. mIRC was not user friendly and people had to know how to access it, change servers, use commands. This seemed simple to me back then but most of my friends could not be bothered.

With Meta's slop, TikTok, and Reddit being so easy people rarely step outside those bubbles anymore.

It totally is. That's why I'm here. Depending on the server, you also get a side of non-authoritarianism and strong privacy beliefs.

About the time they get a list of services to pick for sign up, they lose interest or freeze, exhibiting decision paralysis. That one time they installed ImagineDragns.exe and the computer had to be taken to be cleaned, set them down a path of I don't know what this is, I won't touch it that keep us employed.

This used to be what people said about digg and then about reddit

My own experience, as someone who is not necessarily tech illiterate, but also not an expert either:

I decided to check out some basic Linux stuff, and found a post directing newcomers to a website that was supposed to be a top-notch beginner's guide. This guide started with a history of Linux, written in the style of an early 2000s GameFAQs guide. It then jumped immediately into selecting a distro, and started describing each option with terms like "lightweight"and "robust" without explaining what those terms meant in that context - or even defining what a distro was in the first place.

As someone who has used Windows for around 3 decades, I could make some inferences to fill in the gaps. But I imagine someone with less experience with PCs would get completely lost.

Now on the flip side, I've also shared in another thread the story of how I lost interest in programming partway through my introductory university course, and mostly received positive feedback. The folks in that thread seemed happy to hear the perspective of an outsider.

Very much so, when I brought up that I am a software developer who just loves using their Macbook, because it just works, I was told I stupid because I am now locked in and what if I want to compile my own flavor of window manager, like with no sense of fucking irony.

Well that sometimes keeps the conversation clean though. Most computer people seem to be a little more intelligent than the average person.

I use Linux because I’m too tech illiterate for Windows, I needed something that just worked out of the box

Most internet forums are this way. Reddit users are also on average more technically literate than average. In fact I'd say it's the more purely social media platforms where it gets back to close to normal. Twitter/Instagram/Facebook/etc etc.

I can live with that.