Same boat. I think I’ll prefer Mlem in the long run but the Memmy dev is just cranking out updates like nobody’s business so it’s a lot more functional right now.

Another tip, browse All in your instance for a while, especially as new communities are popping up like crazy right now. Sub to them when you see them.

Once Apollo is gone for good, I’ll delete the app and that’ll be it. Reddit has too much useful info for me to block it entirely similar to Twitter. But also like Twitter, once the app is gone from my phone my usage pretty much drops to zero. I’ve already replaced Apollo with Mlem on my homepage, but I’m leaving Apollo installed until the end.

They have what you’re talking about, they’re called web forums. They have bad UX, high barrier to entry, and only contain nerds and enthusiasts that live and breathe that one thing.

That’s the opposite of what something like this is trying to be, which is building communities that can interact with each other. Scaring away users is antithetical to that goal.

This really comes off as elitist nonsense honestly. It’s like saying that anyone who can’t fix a car doesn’t deserve to drive one. People shouldn’t need to understand the inner workings of everything to be able to participate in it.

I think there is, and that is just do stuff! Upvote, comment, engage, submit posts. Obviously helping confused individuals directly if you see them also helps, but simply using the service and engaging with it will ensure that more people join, and stick around when they see something worth returning for.

Most of the tech users that ditched Twitter for Mastadon when 3rd party apps were killed actually stayed, and still engage with that service. The other communities I followed on Twitter didn’t, and that’s because they joined a ghost town when it came to their interests. Lemmy is far behind where Mastadon was then in terms of overall capability and client options, so this is a big hurdle to overcome. Everyone has a part to play :)