What resources, suggestions, and support can those of us who are already here provide to potential newcomers? And what can we do to prepare for – and encourage – a potential influx?

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[–] otter@lemmy.ca 9 points 1 week ago (3 children)

I would say the main thing is being nice and letting people explore, and providing spaces/communities for people to come back and ask questions when they have them. When people bring up issues or suggest things that they want to see, we shouldn't crap on what they prefer their online experience to be (ex. preferred algorithms, content they want to block, etc.)

Resources wise, we created this guide and I like to link these two particular pages for fediverse/lemmy. I feel that they help give a high level overview of how things work:

[–] Blaze@piefed.zip 5 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Those guides are quite helpful!

We started !newcomers@piefed.zip a few weeks ago but still have to add more content to it @skavau@piefed.social

[–] otter@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Oh on that note, would it be helpful to lock and redirect !newtopiefed@piefed.ca to that community?

[–] Blaze@piefed.zip 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

That would probably help. Do you want to become a mod on !newcomers@piefed.zip ? If yes, should I appoint @otter@piefed.ca ? Cross platform moderation can probably be a bit finicky

[–] otter@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I'm happy participating as a community member, and stepping up as a mod later on if the team could use some extra help. I don't mind either way :)

[–] Blaze@piefed.zip 3 points 1 week ago

Sounds good, we'll let you know if we need help at some point!

[–] thenexusofprivacy@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 1 week ago

good to know, I'll include i link to it!

[–] Sarah@piefed.social 2 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

As a digital comms and usability professional, I'd suggest you do some testing and refinement of these materials. I commend your efforts but these are not something I would ever hand out to a 50yr old volunteer if I want them to sign up to use a fedi community instead of FB

"When you want to send an email, you don't need to use the same email provider as the person you're sending it to." is not a helpful thing for a newbie (though I understand why you have included it)... This sort of content indicates the gulf between the (user's) mental model and the (system designer's) conceptual design is too great.

I have students who can help you with this stuff for free. If you're interested, DM me.

[–] Blaze@piefed.zip 1 points 1 week ago

Thank you for offering !

[–] thenexusofprivacy@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 1 week ago

Thanks -- those are useful guides, I'll include links to them.