I don’t agree that Lemmy is 90% politics. But it is pretty political especially since the US election and Elon Musk becoming quasi president means that there is a huge amount of politically related posts about tech. One of the most active topics on Lemmy.

For the most part I have effectively culled most of the politics I don’t want to see out of my feed but it wasn’t automatic which makes it a hurdle for people who aren’t invested in giving the fediverse a shot beyond the first impression.

You will be hit with a deluge of leftist thought when first on-boarding to the fediverse. Offering starter packs for new people on-boarding with a no/low politics pack that…

automatically filters certain politically charged keywords
blocks certain communities and instances
includes some of the more popular lighthearted communities

…would do a lot to improve the experience of people new to Lemmy that are looking for a more casual experience. At least in my opinion I think it would

[–] Blaze@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

!home@lemmy.zip latest announcement included default blocking of politics in All

[–] TORFdot0@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago

I really like the way they handle onboarding and wished that kind of tooling was baked in as the default experience for all Lemmy instances

[–] PlzGivHugs@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I think this would go a long way to helping. It won't necessary hold users, but will at least keep them from bouncing off of it so violently as this Reddit user did. Imo, its a combination of this with the lack of other content that prevents more significant growth on Lemmy. The rough, often politically focused onboarding, scares people, and then when they go to try and find their favorite communities, they see no activity, leaving the impression that the site is nothing but politics.

[–] Blaze@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 1 week ago

!communitypromo@lemmy.ca has a pinned post trying to address that too