just so this doesn’t overwhelm our front page too much, i think now’s a good time to start consolidating discussions. existing threads will be kept up, but unless a big update comes let’s try to keep what’s happening in this thread instead of across 10.

developments to this point:

The Verge is on it as usual, also–here’s their latest coverage (h/t @dirtmayor@beehaw.org):

other media coverage:

  • setsneedtofeed@beehaw.org
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    2 years ago

    I don’t think of that as a negative. It’s a different structure than Reddit.

    Each instance would be a community in the cultural sense. All of the Lemmy communities within that instance would be a place for primarily the same instance users to gather. Each instance having its own cultural identity. Decentralized.

    • Pigeon@beehaw.org
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      2 years ago

      I agree. On reddit, there are a bazillion different “gaming” subreddits that are only named different because that’s the only way to have different communities around the same topic: r/gaming, r/games, r/truegaming, r/patientgamers, r/girlgamers, r/transgamers, r/gaymers, and so on.

      Each of those communities has a different feel and different moderation and different priorities, and no way no how would I want r/gaming posts mixed in if I’m trying to browse r/transgamers, for example.

      Similarly, I’m mostly sticking to Lemmy instances that disable the downvote button, because it makes for friendly places I think, and lowers the barrier to posting for socially anxious users.

      I like the idea of there being a way for users, or for similar groups of instances that agree to it (like if beehaw and an instance with similar rules/community feel wanted to collaborate a bit), to set up a multi-lemmy ‘all’ community thing that shows posts across similar communities, but it should still be optional.

      • setsneedtofeed@beehaw.org
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        2 years ago

        I figure that a multi-Lemmy could be something set up by a user in an app, which would give maximum flexibility to individual users and reduce headaches of mods trying to set up shared spaces.

    • SeeJayEmm@lemmy.one
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      2 years ago

      There’s pros and cons to both centralization and decentralization. I like the idea and the goal of decentralization and federation but you run into issues like this, that are counter-intuitive and will be a road block to broader acceptance. Especially with smaller communities.

      I think having the option to aggregate those communities into one view could bridge that gap. Have it be optional. Heck, even allow users/servers to block specific communities if they want.

      I like the idea of Lemmy but I don’t like the idea of having to subscribe to 7,10,15 different versions of a topic of interest spread across 25 different servers. Let me sub to “Technology” and have a toggle to display “all Technology communities across federated servers”.

      • setsneedtofeed@beehaw.org
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        2 years ago

        I’m of no doubt that apps will eventually allow users to manually create multi-Lemmys.

        I just think we should kind of chill on trying to 1-for-1 replicate Reddit, or ask for all the features straight off. Reddit has been around for over a decade and the apps and ecosystem have matured a lot. Some of that takes time to happen, since internet communities drive sites so I’d rather give it a bit before making changes.

        • SeeJayEmm@lemmy.one
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          2 years ago

          I just think we should kind of chill on trying to 1-for-1 replicate Reddit

          I don’t think I want (or was asked for) a 1-to-1 replica of Reddit. Like I said, I get the pros of open source and federation. I’m just pointing out an immediately apparent pain point that I’d like to see be addressed at some point.

    • DJDarren@beehaw.org
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      2 years ago

      Yeah, this.

      And the beauty of this approach is that the community of users is necessarily smaller, so more likely to actually be a community.

    • ritswd@beehaw.org
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      2 years ago

      Agreed. The same thing needed some getting used to when I moved to Mastodon earlier this year, but eventually, you start thinking in “instances” without realizing. I don’t know if the general public will go through the same transition of getting used to the fediverse, but if they will (and I think it’d be a good thing if they do), then this kind of instance-based UX won’t be an intriguing novelty anymore.

      • Pigeon@beehaw.org
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        2 years ago

        Somebody pointed out that it’s not dissimilar from the way email works, where someone with a gmail account can easily email someone with a yahoo account, and that everyone understands that well enough. It’s presented a lot differently, so that regular users don’t even have to think about it - if anything, they can just think of the snail mail metaphor to understand it - but maybe there’s a way to simplify Lemmy onboarding too.

      • setsneedtofeed@beehaw.org
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        2 years ago

        I hope other instances give themselves mascots as Beehaw has done, and foster an internal sense of being a member of an instance rather than a generic Lemmy member. That is a future that seems promising.