imho (50+ years old dude that is not much of a geek and understand not much either), the main issue and one that is shared by most if not all social media but is more annoying on Lemmy, is the fact that by default a new or a potential user is supposed to be reading the full flow of content. And then we’re surprised most run away screaming in disgust?

It’s a bit like entering a restaurant and being expected by the owner to take a bite or two of every single plate on the menu, and dessert, before being asked what it is we wanted to order.

Be it Reddit, or Twitter, or Lemmy if the default content is of extremely low value and often extremely low effort, qnd when it’s not it’s still content most people just won’t be interested in. So, why force it under everyone’s eyes?

The default/new user access to content could have been made opt-in, instead of op-out. Instantly muting most of the noise, trash, and low value content.

Imagine the home page empty of any content by default, save a selection of the most ‘popular’ tags or community names, say with a description, that the user is still expected to select from before the timeline starts showing them any related content, and then an option to search for more (more specific) communities.

I know a few people my age that have tried Lemmy but could not stand being asked to swallow the constant flow of politics, or memes, or anger, or whatever. Those are legit content to anyone interested in them, just having them the default experience for everybody may not the best idea?

Once again, it’s the same on reddit. But reddit had two advantages for people like me: we already had an account and we knew how it worked, so it was obvious how to escape the numerous type of content we did not want to see. It’s much less obvious on Lemmy, and even less so if one has not yet created an account… which is the most likely.