I don't like the email analogy, because people don't think about email like that, they are not really familiar with how email works. I like to summarize that differently: they only have to register on one instance and they can see every post in every other instances from that account, that's all. I read from people who thought they have to register on each instances separately, or they can login on a different instance with the same credentials. (Like you can login in the outlook app with your gmail and yahoo account, see the email analogy doesn't even true)

Don't recommend lemmy.ml to newcomers. Some instances already defederate from them, and they don't defederate lemmygrad and hexbear. Just pick any other general instance instead, lemmy.zip, sopuli, lemmy.ca etc is much better experience for new users.

This post also has some really good points for a general tips writeup like this: https://lemmy.zip/post/31641809

[–] JayGray91@piefed.social 3 points 4 days ago

they can login on a different instance with the same credentials.

Hey that's me. for a long time I thought I could do that, and when I found out I couldn't, I thought that meant I have to register to instances I want to interact with.

I think the biggest hurdle to overcome with threadiverse / forumverse is staying in your instance view/reader to continue interacting. There are Apps and front ends that help with that, but on web browsers but that's yet another layer of quirks added onto new users to wrap their mind around

[–] PirateFrog@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 4 days ago (1 children)

(Like you can login in the outlook app with your gmail and yahoo account, see the email analogy doesn’t even true)

Outlook is an interface for email, so it kinda does hold true in that Outlook is an analog to using a lemmy mobile app, which allows you to log into any instance (not with the same credentials, though).

[–] infeeeee@lemmy.zip 3 points 4 days ago (1 children)

I know this, but a lot of people don't understand this difference. The point was comparing lemmy to email doesn't necessarily help regular folks, who has no idea how email work.

[–] PirateFrog@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Fair enough. It's wild to me people don't understand email since they have to remember the @something.bleh, but I guess for them it just 'is' like that, and they don't understand the why.

[–] infeeeee@lemmy.zip 2 points 4 days ago

I've heard people saying they don't switch to Firefox from Chrome because they use Gmail and other google services. I've seen people who had multiple email apps on their phones for different email addresses, and they were shocked when I told them they could use a single one.

We live in a very tech related bubble here on lemmy, a lot of people just wants to get the job done, and don't care about how things work under the hood.