It seems like it should be sort of a priority for the fediverse to create a high quality alternative to Facebook, which is one of the largest platforms out there, and probably what a lot of people think of when they think of “social media”, and yet, the marketing and overall adoption of Friendica is simply abysmal, to put it bluntly.

Issue 1: The super bland and basic on-boarding.

When you visit the main website for friendica, you are greeted with “friendica: a decentralized social media network” followed by a “try it” button. Then when you scroll down, there is basic black text on a white background, explaining things like decentralization, privacy, and interoperability. Do you think that this sort of intro is really going to draw people in? It gives off the vibe of “it is your birthday”, a la dwight from the office.

If you click on the “try it” button, you get scrolled to a part of the site that says “Try Friendica” with two sentences that basically say “this website is really complex overall, but don’t worry, you can click another button below to browse a list of servers (yes, servers, we are not explaining what that means, just click the button)”. The actual server list has a single filter option, language, and if you filter by english, the top server right now is a furry server. If any normie has somehow managed to get this far, they are sure to nope the fuck out at this point.

Assuming you do manage to get past this point, the actual sign up form has way too much information for the average person. The first field is “openID”. I’m sure that’s useful for those who use it, but why is it the first field? There is also a check box to be added to the public directory, which is checked no by default. What does this mean? It is certainly not explained here. You’re not asking for a password? Why not? Oh, because you are making a random password for me I have to copy and paste and then save or change. That’s not inconvenient at all. Yet another step of friction for me.

Compare this on-boarding process to other sites on the fediverse. Mastodon has a catchy and succinct explainer on why their site is worth joining followed by a “join mastodon.social” button, or a “pick another server” button. If you go to the servers button, you get several different filtering options, region, interest, sign up process, legal structure, and very notably, a disclaimer that all of these servers have signed a safety agreement. Upon signing up, you first agree to some terms of service, which is very reassuring for those looking for a safe and welcoming platform, followed by entering username, e-mail, password and date of birth. All very straight forward. Lemmy is similarly streamlined and polished, and you don’t even need an e-mail to sign up for some servers. Super easy and convenient.

Issue 2: Terrible mascot.

Mastodon has their mastodon carrying a knapsack. Lemmy has the lemming face. Pixelfed has a cute red panda. Friendica has…some kind of demented looking rabbit with bugged out eyes? Seriously, what the hell is this?

Issue 3: Super basic blog style website.

As alluded to in issue 1, the website is super basic, with almost no polish to it. It looks like someone made it on wordpress. The home page does have some clip art type images and background stuff thrown in here and there, but outside of that, it looks very unprofessional. Again, comparing to sites like Mastodon and Lemmy, which have much more polished and professional looking web design. The clearly put time into making sure new users get a good impression. Friendica puts almost no effort whatsoever.

So these three issues, just from an outsiders glance, are in my opinion some of the biggest things holding back what could potentially be one of the most used sites on the fediverse, at least on the marketing side of things. I do not know how the overall team behind the site is structured, but suffice to say, it needs work.