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  • Reddit has the benefit of being closed source and therefore having secret anti spam filters. We don't have that benefit and therefore the new user registrations need to be rigorous. "frictionless registrations" also means thousands of spam bots. Reddit doesn't require any but the downside is that they ban your account at the drop of a hat if they as much as suspect you're a spammer or bot. However it does leave their registration appearing "simple".

    • Reddit has the benefit of being closed source and therefore having secret anti spam filters. We don’t have that benefit and therefore the new user registrations need to be rigorous.

      This is a bs argument considering that instances can and indeed a few already do maintain similar automated anti-spam and auto-moderation tools. The droves of instances that choose to function as clubs with application process aren't doing it that way because it's the only way, they're doing it because they want to or don't understand how to set up automoderation tools.

      Reddit doesn’t require any but the downside is that they ban your account at the drop of a hat if they as much as suspect you’re a spammer or bot. However it does leave their registration appearing “simple”.

      That is true, and it does seem to be a problem on instances that use aggressive automod like sh.itjust.works, though it does streamline the process by going from preemptively trying to deem people unworthy to punishing and cleaning out the ones who cause trouble (give or take a few false positives). People don't have to be worried they won't be rejected if all they want to do is look at memes, upvote, and laugh (we shouldn't expect more from them on a Reddit alternative).

      • The droves of instances that choose to function as clubs with application process aren't doing it that way because it's the only way, they're doing it because they want to or don't understand how to set up automoderation tools.

        Pray tell, what experience do you have hosting lemmy instances or even social media websites to speak with such authority?

        People don't have to be worried they won't be rejected if all they want to do is look at memes, upvote, and laugh

        People can get banned for the wrong types of memes and for bad voting patterns in lemmy

      • This is a bs argument considering that instances can and indeed a few already do maintain similar automated anti-spam and auto-moderation tools.

        Seems weird to say this to the creator of https://gui.fediseer.com/

  • Mlem dev here. Mlem shows this warning for instances that require registration applications to be approved first (which, these days, is all instances).

    The aim here was to make it clear to users that they won't be able to use their account immediately after signing up - otherwise, users may be confused that they can't log in. I do agree that it's a little scary though... we'll think about some ways to tone it down. I'm open to suggestions for better wording.

    I wasn't aware that lemmy.world automated their process. It's possible that we could provide a different UI for certain instances that use similar systems, but we'd have to hard-code each case which isn't ideal.

    The ability to sign up in Mlem was only added a month ago - before that, we directed users to the web browser to sign up. Our current implementation leaves much to be desired, but is more user-friendly than requiring the user to visit a website. I'm planning to make some improvements to the system in future. I was reading this Lemmy post the other day, which I think has some good ideas.

    Here's an overview of our current sign-up flow, fyi:

  • Tbh I kinda agree with this comment:

    I've said it before, we need the lowest possible barrier to entry possible if we are to be successful at attracting users in greater numbers, especially casual ones (which are desperately needed here).

    • I was surprised by the comment about contrast, knowing that the /r/blind community switched to Lemmy.

      Just had a look at what https://rblind.com/ looks like. Hm, yeah, definitely different.

      About the double input for password, Google still uses it, so it seems to still be an industry standard

      • Confirm password fields reduces conversion rates. Google has such a chokehold on the market that I doubt they care about that and might be more interested in potentially reducing password reset traffic after miss typed password inputs. Though in fairness I think it's doubtful if there is even a benefit in that area from having confirm password fields. At least if you have a proper unmasking or "show password" option while registering.

    • I have always done copy/paste for password confirmations. "Yes" and "confirm" is new for me, I haven't heard of such inputs. 🤣🥃

  • There's no way to revert the warning, at least without forking the app. Also, I'd expect most people to accept the idea applications once you tell the purpose (to fight bots).

    • Also, I’d expect most people to accept the idea applications once you tell the purpose (to fight bots).

      I'm not going to tell them that because it's not really true, we currently have automated solutions for bot detection and banning that are way more user-friendly as they eliminate that process of being slowly, manually deemed worthy. They're just unfortunately slightly more effort to set up. I'll just recommend people join the few servers that use them and allow open sign-ups without having to justify why you want to join lemmy.

    • I see. @flamingos@feddit.uk, do you think it would be possible to change the message to make it less "scary" to potential new joiners?

43 comments