Honestly, a lot of us are our own worst enemy when it comes to trying to bring users to this platform. We over-explain it, we want them to be excited about the de-centralized aspect of it. We extol all the virtues of the Fediverse that could bring social media into a new era of humanity.

And that completely shuts down the other person’s brain. Their eyes glaze over. They don’t have any concept of this whole thing, and the data dump is just too much. Even explaining it “like email” will get them confused.

The best thing we can do is, and I know people will hate this, but just GET THEM SOMEWHERE on the Fediverse and slowly introduce them to the idea of subscribing to communities. I’ve been introducing my wife to the Fediverse, and she’s been super excited about it, but even she is far more receptive to macro-concepts than your average person. Even still, I pointed her to Beehaw and slowly she’s understood that communities exist here but more specific communities exist elsewhere, once she found out how to search for them, it makes the concept much easier.

I know people will hate the idea of a “starter instance” but it might honestly be the way to go for your average person. Just get them SOMEWHERE and using it. I know for a fact the first time I saw Reddit (as a heavy forum user), I felt overwhelmed at just so many CHOICES of subreddits. That was a loooong time ago, but no doubt that feeling is even worse with communities existing in a Federated way.