Jesus christ, dude. I'm here scrolling through posts at 2 AM in a dark room because I'm having trouble sleeping, and this picture scared the shit out of me. RIP my chances of going to sleep any time soon.

Yep. Certified non-tech nerd here. And not quite 30, either.

I was awfully close to not figuring out Lemmy enough to make an account and participate.

I still don't understand exactly what's going on, but I can confirm that my first time visiting was extremely confusing. So many terms I was completely unfamiliar with, and no clear way for me to jump in easily (like you were describing with having to make important decisions before signing up/understanding). Truly the only reason I ended up successfully making it here was that I saw a post on the instance I ended up joining, welcoming reddit refugees so I figured - well, I guess I could try this one. And that was after I had searched around online to figure out what the heck the fediverse, instances, etc, were.

The barrier to entry is really high for those of us with little to no tech knowledge. And I was really motivated, I reeeeally wanted to commit to leaving reddit. I imagine those who are considering joining but aren't quite as motivated just won't make it. :(

I have "Do Nothing" days. It's really the only way I survive, honestly.

During many parts of the year, my job and home lives are extremely hectic and stressful. Whenever I can, I designate a "do nothing" day, which helps my brain actually take advantage of resting that day without thinking "omg I need to do this, and this, and this", etc. Usually it ends up being a Saturday, and while I'd love for it to be weekly, I'd say I have them more like twice a month or so.

The rules for a Do Nothing day are that I Do Not Do Anything Important, I don't even leave the house - just chill, play video games, read, craft, garden, watch TV, sleep, etc. Whatever feels right. It makes picking back up with the stress the next day much easier to handle. Plus, I find it's really hard for me to ever relax even when I do have a moment to do so, so I would usually waste all that time anyway throughout the week just straight up worrying about what I should be doing. At least by doing this I combine all that time into one day, and I actually use it to relax!

I have summers off from work (am a teacher), which I COULD be using to get tons of errands done, renovating the house, working out, etcetc. However, I am currently spending it sleeping in, playing too many video games, staying up late, crafting, reading, etc, which is exactly what I did during summer as a kid as well. It's been nice :)

Imagine if other similar formats sued each other like this - one forum site suing another because they both use text-based forum communication. I'm so tired of facebook/meta/twitter/etc.

But, I think part of the issue is that communities that folks are interested in being a part of, about certain topics/etc, just aren't active enough here yet. I'm glad to see some are growing, and my personal experience is improving over time, but I keep finding communities that look like something I'd love but have zero activity ir content in them. So I do understand folks wanting to fill parts of this with content in general, even if it's content similar to what they would've gotten on Reddit, because content and activity is what will help build those cool communities over time.

I only wish I had interesting or important things to contribute to the communities I'm interested in, I never know what to say or do to help build a community that's nonexistent or essentially so. 😥 so far I've just been commenting wherever I can, for the most part, hoping that helps.

I can't see any reason for me to ever try it. I've got plenty of social media to deal with already, and this doesn't seem to be offering anything new or interesting for me. Plus the creepy permissions even keep me away from joining temporarily out of any curiosity I might have.

My biggest complaint is how it CONSTANTLY changes. I started playing back in season 2, and played pretty consistently for at least like 5 years or so. Then life got busier, and I would have to drop it occasionally for a few months. But then when I'd pick it back up, there were tons of new things to learn or find out no longer existed, every single time. It was exhausting to catch back up on to a point where the game was playable and fun again. I kept that up for a few years, but then spent just a little too long not playing one of those times and the barrier to re-entry was just too big, so now it's been like 2 years since I've played. And honestly, I don't miss it.

Oh shit no way, I didn't know that? Is that the case for most of the random reddit bots? For some reason hearing that the RemindMe bot is dead as well makes me extra sad 😥

To add to this, I think people often underestimate how "easy" it can be to function in society without being able to read well. I know that some folks who either don't read at all or read at a very low level have just gotten used to interpreting the world around them without the language part. For example, visually recognizing a username and password field on a website and knowing what they're for, or recognizing the symbols and colors used for certain objects or meanings, all without the actual words needing to mean anything to them for them to understand what it is and what to do with it. And for those who can read at a 5th or 4th grade level (and would thus be included in the stat mentioned in this post), they're likely then very capable of reading and understanding the majority of text they're going to come across in their day-to-day lives.

Of course, I don't want this to sound like I'm saying being illiterate is easy, I'm sure it creates MANY barriers and difficulties for the person, but I do think humans are also flexible and resilient, and are able to survive using other cues.

Thank you!!!! That makes sense - so just checking, Top X is like "Hot", but over a certain time period instead of "recent"? (In that it cares about rating instead of how many comments are being posted?)

Seems like bouncing between Active and Hot is still a good thing to do then maybe. To see whatever people are discussing as well as whatever the most upvoted stuff is.

Well huh. I did not in fact know this, and was wondering why there were so few subscribers to most communities or even zero sometimes. Feels like changing this to include all subscribers would be really helpful?