Loomio
Thu 2 Oct 2014 10:37PM

Create an introductory video to diaspora* concepts and show it during registration process

S Shmerl Public Seen by 85

One of the problems that users face is that for many newcomers ideas of decentralization are novel in the context of social networks and they aren't right away grasping the fact of many pods working together as a connected net.

This leads to confusion, some barrier during registration when people have to figure out pods choosing and so on.

Making some clear simple video about all this can be very helpful. See an example of such idea here.

That video should be placed on https://diasporafoundation.org and potentially front page of every pod, especially ones which are closed for registration.

The video should take in account and briefly summarize the current design of diaspora* federation described here.

What do you think about it? Are there any animators interested in diaspora* which can make such a short introduction? If that requires funding, may be some crowdfunding campaign can help, it shouldn't need a lot of money.

S

StefOfficiel Thu 9 Oct 2014 10:05AM

  • generic details of a social network. Everyone already knows what sharing and comments and posts and hashtags are, etc. It’s a waste of the creator and viewers time to talk about all that stuff.

Not entirely, it also allows us to show that we are like everyone ;-)

  • general philosophical concepts of freedom, privacy, decentralization, open source. Either you’re preaching to the choir with this stuff or it just sounds like a bunch of political blah blah blah that doesn’t help anyone figure out how to actually get going with D*.

That's right.

This is not supposed to be a dissertation on the benefits of a free and open society, or a snazzy ad campaign for how awesome D* is.

Yes, and No !
We need the project to be a minimum seller. If it's too "classic" too "underground" it's not going to attract as many targeted people outside that promotes freedom Diaspora must be accessible to all. Unfortunately Apple and company, we simplified IT or rather, they have made User-Friendly death !!! Now we have to pick up the broken pieces, and it starts by simply bringing the user smoothly to the complexity.

Sorry for the comparison, but we do not do fistfucking without lubricant ... :-D

R

Rob Thu 9 Oct 2014 4:15PM

Perhaps we are talking about two different videos. Of course there is value in "marketing" material to woo new people to come check it out. You can never have too much marketing. But that's the not the video described by the OP. To my understanding, the video originally proposed in this thread -- and what I personally think would be very valuable -- is a brief and clear explanation for people who are already interested in signing up but can't figure out what to do because the registration process specifically is much different than other platforms.

I just talked to a guy who had signed up for one pod, and then he wanted to check another pod out, and was very confused as to why his existing username and password didn't work on the other pod. He was clicking "forgot my password" and everything... just didn't get it. These are the unique challenges of D*, and IMO they really deserve their own video (or picture series, or something!) without getting wrapped in a bunch of marketing.

But now I'm starting to repeat myself so I'll have to leave it at that.

S

StefOfficiel Thu 9 Oct 2014 6:42PM

@rob12

Yes, but it would not be possible to "centralize" registration?

Take for example all the social networks that exist, Facebook, Twitter etc ...
They all have a single page for all entries.

Here for Diaspora, as they are POD, is it not possible to keep it as "brochure site" http://diasporafundation.org (or other specially created for this).
Since this "showcase site" there would be a simple way to explain the PODs and a registration form.

form:

Select: POD
[Input: Mail]
[Input: Username]

[button: valid]

When you click on the valid form is submitted on the registration page of the POD.

No?

R

Rob Thu 9 Oct 2014 7:55PM

Well, yes, I do think the registration process itself could use some fixing up, and I've seen a few suggestions floating around for that. But that leads to other sticky questions outside the scope of this feature proposal. This feature proposal (as I understand it) assumes the registration process as it is, and provides information to help guide people through it. Even in your example you mention "a simple way to explain the PODs". That's what I picture this video as being.

So now we've got three different features on our hands:

  1. A snazzy marketing video to convince people to check out D*
  2. A concise explanatory video to help people understand the current registration concepts
  3. Overhaul the registration process to make it more intuitive

If we're actually going to tackle #3 soon then there might not be much point in doing #2. But I've been thinking about #3 ever since I joined D*, and there are some conundrums that could take a while to sort through. Meanwhile people are coming to check it out, getting confused, and leaving.

S

StefOfficiel Thu 9 Oct 2014 9:49PM

Yes, absolutely! And I am also convinced that the explanatory videos are a very good idea, it should be remembered that the average internet is pretending! Read the text? Nope it's too long! A one-minute video, # 1 it's class! # 2 It's fast! # 3 If the user does not understand, he re playing the video! # 4 It is modern!