Lemmy

Hey everyone! After my first week of settling in here, I think what would give my lemmy experience the biggest boost of any single added feature would be Multilemmys (or Multicommunities), so we can see the combined feeds of multiple communities in a single streamlined feed. I guess the purpose of this post is to spread awareness of this as a concept and point to the ongoing discussion on Github:

Support for grouping communities / multi-communities #818

Cross-instance 'multireddits', that are also automatic and topic-based #1113

Community Grouping #3071

I have seen users post that this was how they initially thought the fediverse would work when it was explained to them. I thought this would be the case as well when I joined.

(Edit to add: an older post with discussion on this idea including devs' thoughts at that time which shed light on why it does not work this way.)

Although I am new to this world, I feel this is one of the most intuitive abilities associated with the concept of the fediverse and that it MUST eventually be possible, the sooner the better.

This is similar to "multireddits", and the equivalent way to use them would be to combine feeds from different communities that are on the same instance, so for example I have one multilemmy to combine the feeds from /c/politics, /c/news, /c/worldnews, /c/worldpolitics (all on lemmy.ml).

Then additionally with Lemmy we have equivalent communities hosted across various instances, and it would be a new and different kind of ability to be able to combine these into a single multilemmy, so for example I have a multilemmy combining lemmy.ml/c/politics, lemmy.world/c/politics, beehaw.org/c/politics, etc.

I found this idea mentioned a few times around lemmy, where @deadcyclo@lemmy.world and @communist@beehaw.org pointed out the above open github tickets for these ideas.

Those github discussions were a fascinating read for me! Its clear that the boffins have already put a fair amount of thought into these possibilities, and identified questions that will need to be answered such as

• how to deal with communities that have the same/different name but are or are not actually the same subject
• duplicate posts and/or cross posts
• whether to cause automatic/default links or not
• how to implement this in a way that is of most benefit to the health of the lemmy ecosystem
• there seem to be two separate use-cases also: one being communities intentionally linking to share content and the other being a user creating their own custom combinations, either for personal or public use.
• how to handle subscriptions

Discussion continues even this week! After reading through all the ideas, I don't have any specific preference but I am excited to see what they eventually decide to implement as I'm sure it will be rewarding. Personally I think getting some cross-instance version of this should become a priority as soon as they feel they've adequately responded to the reddit migration, which I imagine would be a month or two down the road.

I gotta end by saying how happy I am to be here after leaving Reddit, this really feels like the start of something incredible. Cheers!

A user checking out one of these URLs does not want to filter only local post on that instance.

On all instances, this url should mean "show me all /c/piracy on all federated instances"

If you really mean /c/piracy only on that instance, then add something to the url.

The current convention breaks the most important aspect of federation and makes its vestigial appendage.

The current way has user asking question /c/piracy, but on which instance ?

So now they'll all join the same instance . You wouldn't post anywhere else since no one would every see it.

It's a recipe for centralization.

I think this is obvious to most users, were deal with "voat with extra steps" here

Is it just me?

My hot it full of months, or even years old posts that have almost no upvotes or comments. Why are they there?

And unlike actually "hot" posts they don't seem to want to go away. Is this a bug? I'm not seen any discussion on it, not even on github.

The screenshot shows the recommendations from https://join-lemmy.org/.

Still being federated with exploding-heads does not mean the instance supports them. But it means that shit-heads are allowed to take part in the discussions on their communities. They do intoxicate the discussions we will have. They will attack minorities. Maybe you will not be harassed by them, more vulnerable people will be. They are allowed to moderate communities on these instances. Exploding-heads members actively guide young and unknowing people to their hateful instance.

They try to start discussions about the holocaust https://sh.itjust.works/post/227268. They create communities only to crosspost exploding-heads content https://lemmy.world/c/pharma They take over discussions against them https://exploding-heads.com/comment/132189 "WHY are vulnerable people joining a decentralized system? Isnt this why you want a closed, not for public eyes community?"

This was a link to exploding-heads, because when someone copies a permalink of a comment from them on another instance, it will be a link to their instance.

Are we building a place where vulnerable people are welcome and safe or are we building a place where nazis are welcome and safe?

They want you to block them, they comment that everywhere. They block people who are in favor of defederating them https://sh.itjust.works/post/225714 When their opponents won't see them anymore, they can harass and recruit without being noticed.

Blocking will not solve the problem. They will spread even when you close your eyes.

~~Maybe this was not done intentionally, but now~~ there is a post with a list of 'health communities on Lemmy' with the first entry guiding to exploding heads. https://lemmy.world/post/396561

It is still possible that some of the mentioned instances do support them. The owner of sh.itjust.works says that because of “free speech” all other instances would be allowed. It is suspicious to me that his line is drawn only for lemmygrad https://sh.itjust.works/comment/130474

The decision to block the Lemmygrad instance was less a question of censorship, and more an issue of personal conviction. As a volunteer dedicating my personal resources and time to facilitating a space for users to create, discover, and discuss - not just on this instance, but across the Fediverse - I admit that this choice was made alone, selfishly, without the consent or thoroughly considering the collective opinion of the community. With the above said, sh.itjust.works has had the lemmygrad instance blocked from its first day.

I’d like to also point out that the lemmygrad instance has far more blocked instances than what is currently blocked here. Maybe you can create a post on that instance to see what that’s all about and report back?

At the same time they seem to ignore the call and vote to defederate with exploding-heads https://sh.itjust.works/post/433483.

They rejected to delete The_Donald from sh.itjust.works until they feared to get isolated from the other instances: https://lemmy.ml/post/1467310. They where aware of The_Donald and ignored early warnings. (https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/comment/266248). TD was more important to them than keeping the only mod of their 4th biggest community c/patientgamers (https://sh.itjust.works/post/291747, https://sh.itjust.works/post/388922)

Since The_Donald was removed, I did not find more racist content on the mentioned servers. That is part their tactics. They act harmless but recruit to their instance, attract likeminded people and chase others away. Discussions on sh.itjust.works about such topics are very toxic already, soon they might be able to do more harm.

(My research is very limited, as i could not search for all exploding-heads member content on other instances by entering their domain. I know there are nice communities on sh.itjust.works.)

What can be done? On joinmastodon.org there is a Mastodon Server Covenant with very few useful rules, one of them is "Active moderation against racism, sexism, homophobia and transphobia". https://joinmastodon.org/covenant It would be a first step to implement these rules for join-lemmy.org. At least instances that want to be recommended on there should have to agree to that rule.

More actions should be taken now. Please make suggestions. Things will only become more complicated. The next reddit wave is incoming.

For those who did not already know:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradox_of_tolerance

https://www.upworthy.com/bartender-explains-why-he-swiftly-kicks-nazis-out-of-his-punk-bar-even-if-theyre-not-bothering-anyone

This is not the first time new platforms face these problems, do we really have to repeat the same mistakes?

-Share/crosspost

-Contact admins

update: lemmy.word defederated eh

Memmy is an early fave (posting from it now) but it reminds me so much of the Dec-Feb app development days for Mastodon. So many fun options to try out!

Please. Captcha by default. Email domain filters. Auto-block federation from servers that don't respect. By default. Urgent.

And yes, to refute some comments, this publication is being upvoted by bots. A single computer was needed, not "thousands of dollars" spent.

Today, a bunch of new instances appeared in the top of the user count list. It appears that these instances are all being bombarded by bot sign-ups.

For now, it seems that the bots are especially targeting instances that have:

• Open sign-ups
• No captcha
• No e-mail verification

I have put together a spreadsheet of some of the most suspicious cases here.

If this is affecting you, I would highly recommend considering one of the following options:

1. Close sign-ups entirely
2. Only allow sign-ups with applications
3. Enable e-mail verification + captcha for sign-ups

Additionally, I would recommend pre-emptively banning as many bot accounts as possible, before they start posting spam!

Please comment below if you have any questions or anything useful to add.

Update: on lemm.ee, I have defederated the most suspicious spambot-infested instances.

To clarify: this means small instances with an unnaturally fast explosion in user counts over the past day and very little organic activity. I plan to federate again if any of these instances get cleaned up. I have heard that other instances are planning (or already doing) this as well.

It's not a decision I took lightly, but I think protecting users from spam is a very important task for admins. Full info here: https://lemm.ee/post/197715

If you're an admin of an instance that's defederated from lemm.ee but wish to DM me, you can find me on Matrix: @sunaurus:matrix.org

We can currently filter communities in our feed by 'Subscribed', 'Local' and 'All', but I'd really love a way to add communities to custom groupings, and have additional filter options based on those groupings. For example, a 'News' group that I could add all of the News-related communities to, and be able to click a filter button and see only those... or maybe the use case most people would likely use: creating groups to isolate SFW and NSFW content.

If there's a way to do this that I'm unaware of, I'd love to hear about it.

Hello fellow Lemmings! the first version of the haiku-bot is out! anyone can add or remove it in any community by simply mentioning him and asking to subscribe:
!Haiku-bot SUBSCRIBE
when added to a community, it will read every comment (not posts currently) and if he detects the 5-7-5 syllable pattern typical of haikus will reply formatting it in a nice way! If it becomes too spammy you can remove it by just commenting:
!haiku-bot UNSUBSCRIBE
currently it can be subscribed and unsubscribed by anyone, but if this will result in a problem please let me know and I'll allow only mods to do this! any problem, bug, suggestion, insult, anything you wish is welcome!

hope you'll enjoy it!

I am a software developer by craft and a linux system admin by hobby. I cannot commit to moderating and managing my own instance, but I would be glad to help someone with the technical aspects.

The most common complaint I saw in Reddit and here about switching to Lemmy is the difficulty of setting it up, so I thought I would help bridge this gap.

While I have never hosted my own instance before, I already checked the setup guide and it looks pretty simple to me, so I am confident I can do it. Please feel free to comment or DM.

It would be great if you can comment general questions. I can then respond to you here and maybe others will see it and know how to host their own instances too.

I suggest Lemmiwinks.

Right now the user count Lemmys is comparatively tiny when held up against reddit - but the user count isn't the thing that makes a social media site, it's the engagement

So even if you're used to lurking, try to get a little more active! Post memes, vote on posts, talk in the comments, whatever!

If people come here and see activity, content, and discussions, they're more likely to stay and contribute their own - if they come and see a ghost town, they'll just go back to reddit

It seems the devs wont be joining, but many instance admins are present.

Matrix join link: https://matrix.to/#/#xmpp_lemmy_muc.xmpp.fi:matrix.org

The instance list has a couple of recommended sites at the top. They are defined in this file and seperated by language. For most languages there is only one recommendation or none at all, so you can simply add yours by making a pull request.

In case of English, the situation is a bit different. The current recommended instances (beehaw.org and sopuli.xyz) are already quite large and would be shown near the top of the list anyway. So it makes sense to recommend smaller instances instead.

To be recommended, an instance should meet these requirements:

• It should be a general purpose instance
• At least one member of the admin team needs to be in the Instance admin chat to coordinate with other admins
• The admin team needs to be prepared for a large influx of users, both in terms of hardware and moderation

We can use this thread to discuss which instances should be recommended. There is no maximum number of recommendations, but it should be an even number to work with the desktop layout.

On a side note, the instance list itself could use many improvements such as showing more details about instances or using different sorting methods. If you are a programmer or web designer, you can contribute to improve the website.

Edit: If you are a Lemmy admin and want your instance to be recommended, go ahead and open a pull request for this file. Developers can also contribute in the same repo to improve join-lemmy.org.

(These instructions are for using Lemmy in a browser. If you are using an app, some steps may differ.)

How to Join Lemmy

To use Lemmy, you need to be a member of one instance from the list at https://join-lemmy.org/instances. You will still be able to see content from anywhere, but the instance you choose will determine:

• What URL you use to log in to Lemmy,
• What content shows on the homepage when you select "Local" or "All",
• Who moderates your instance, and
• What rules you agree to when you sign up.

Choose an instance that matches your interests, language, and region. (If you want more information about an instance, you can tap its "Join" button, which will show you its current homepage in the main view and its description in the sidebar. You can also check the tables here and here.) Please avoid joining instances that are already crowded (1K+ users/month). If an instance gets overcrowded, it can start running slowly or experiencing downtime, so choosing an uncrowded instance will give both you and others a better Lemmy experience.

Once you have decided on an instance, tap its "Join" button to open it and then tap "Sign Up" in the upper-right corner. Fill out the form and wait for your account to be approved.

When your account is approved, log in and customize your profile and settings. If you change your language settings, select "Undetermined" in addition to any languages you speak so that you can still see posts and comments that are not tagged as being in any particular language.

How to Find and Subscribe to Communities

There are four ways to find communities through Lemmy:

1. To browse communities that others in your instance are already subscribed to, tap the "Communities" tab at the top of the page and choose the "All" scope. Tapping on a community name will open it through your instance.

2. To browse communities across all instances, visit https://browse.feddit.de/. Tapping on the community's name will open it, but probably not through your instance (in which case the page will say that you are not logged in). Instead, follow these steps:

   a. Copy the community's URL or remote name. You can use the copy button next to the community name, you can open the community outside your instance and copy the URL from your address bar, or you can open the community outside your instance and copy the remote name (which will look like [!community@instance.tld](/c/community@instance.tld)) from the sidebar.

   b. In your instance, tap on the "🔍 Search" button in the upper toolbar.

   c. Make sure that you have chosen "All" for each of the four filters: "Type", "Scope", "Community", and "Creator".

   d. Paste the community's URL or remote name into the search field and tap "Search".

   e. One of the results should be the community shown as an icon, a name, and a subscriber count. If you do not see it, or it is buried too deep in the search results, try changing "Scope" to "Local". If that does not work, you may need to wait a bit and try again.

   f. Tap on the community in the search results to open it in your instance.

3. If you want an experience similar to Reddit's r/all, visit https://lemmy.directory/home/data_type/Post/listing_type/All/sort/Hot/page/1, which aggregates from these communities as described here. As in Option 2, you can copy and search for a community's URL to open it in your instance and subscribe to it.

4. If you don't see a community by browsing, subscribe to https://lemmy.ml/c/findacommunity and make a post about what you're looking for.

Once a community is open in your instance, subscribe to it by tapping on the "Subscribe" button at the top of the sidebar. It will then appear in the "Subscribed" section of your "Communities" tab, and its posts will show on your home feeds.

Can't find a community you're looking for? If your instance allows it, you can create the community yourself by tapping "Create Community" in the upper toolbar.

You can deselect lemmy.ml from the list of instances

I'm browsing this community from my own instance (Lemmy.studio) using Jerboa. I can see the posts, but they all have zero comments... But if I go to the community directly I can see the contents.

Is there a way to make the comments show up when I'm browsing the posts on my own instance?

can this be a setting in our profiles? I hate leaving and having to come back. if for no other reason than it might lower page loads a little bit

I just hope that all this migration is for something good and different, or at least something better, and not just the same people joining another "Social Network".

time will tell.

Hey guys, just curious, can we have multiple nodes for the same lemmy instance? If not, is this something that's on the radar?

This would really help alleviate the load on a single server and make things much more stable and help with availability. I'm not sure if this functionality exists or if it is planned. Can anyone shed some light on this?

Thanks!

In the absence of relays it should be trivial for instance admins to follow each other's "discovery" community.

Only admins would be allowed to post to that community and they should publish a post on a weekly basis so that new servers who've just subscribed to their discovery community can fetch the post and show it to their users.

The post itself would contain an updated list of that instance's communities so that users from remote instances can click on them and subscribe to them. If an instance is very large, the weekly post could contain only the recommended communities and maybe some interesting instance stats or information.

Edit: to give some context, due to the way federation works communities of instance A are only visible to users of instance B if at least one person from instance B has already subscribed to that community.

Mastodon has relays to solve the kick-starting problem. But in the absence of relays it should be fairly easy to have a single specific community that's highly discoverable and from where users select other communities that they could be interested in and thus become the first user that makes those communities visible to other users of their instance.

First off, I apologize if I'm asking something that has been talked about over and over, but I didn't find much relevant information so far (aside from what I will discuss below).

From what I understand, post tags/flairs are a requested feature, but from @dessalines@lemmy.ml's comment here, tags are already a thing?

Or does his answer mean that people can use a special syntax (like [foo] or ::bar::) in post titles, which can then be searched like any other token?

Either way, I think it makes sense to allow tags in posts, like mastodon allows #hashtags, if only for the purpose of classification and moderation.

Indeed, I was looking at an eventual way to link https://lemmy.ml/c/Jerboa to the Jerboa issues on GitHub using GitHub actions and this action, and the main problem I can see with this is the lack of machine-readable marker to differentiate bug reports and issues from the rest of the conversation on the community.

Do Lemmy mods have the permissions to edit a post's title? In which case they could indeed prefix bug reports and issues with [bug] or [issue].

It would be September 1, 2017 over again 🤭

With forewarning about a huge influx of users, you know Lemmy.ml will go down. Even if people go to https://join-lemmy.org/instances and disperse among the great instances there, the servers will go down.

Ruqqus had this issue too. Every time there was a mass exodus from Reddit, Ruqqus would go down, and hardly reap the rewards.

Even if it's not sustainable, just for one month, I'd like to see Lemmy.ml drastically boost their server power. If we can raise money as a community, what kind of server could we get for 100$? 500$? 1,000$?