• flashgnash@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    Seems pretty similar to Reddit to me, besides the whole decentralised nature which is a plus anyway

    What are people complaining about?

    • CannaVet@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Alongside that more reasonable point of individual features, alot of people are mad that the service is instance based and are angry that that there isn’t a single iteration of communities, IE only one /c/aww or /c/vets or whatever.

      Basically they fled a central organizational authority and got mad there’s no central organizational authority.

      • lightingnerd@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Yeah, I’m a Reddit refugee, and I heard a bunch of people complaining about there being no “centralized login”, and I’m like–bruh, that’s WHY WE MOVED HERE, lmao!

        • CannaVet@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          That’s why I’m so frustrated about it “WTF Why isn’t this Reddit”

          Bro there are Reddit clones if you want em YOU CAME HERE BECAUSE IT’S NOT THAT STOP DEMANDING THAT IT BE THAT

          • FarFarAway@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            I’m not sure there are reddit clones. (I could be wrong, but…)That’s why everyone settled here.

            I admit that I’m here from reddit. There was much discussion, and everyone came up with this site as the next closest thing.

            That being said, when traveling to a foreign place, you integrate into the existing society. Obviously, thats not a skill everyone was taught.

      • kilojoules@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        This is a steep learning curve and confusing. It would be helpful to get some orientation after landing

        • CannaVet@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Lemmy.world has a little guide. I totally understand there being a learning curve, I’m IT so don’t have much trouble but I get that people are flocking from “just works” land and most people have zero idea how any tech works.

          My problem isn’t people struggling to learn how this different system works, my problem is people who come HERE instead of one of the available more direct Reddit clones then refusing to learn how this system works, bitching that it isn’t Reddit, and start harping that the devs need to make it Reddit. If you just want New Reddit, that option is available. A couple, in fact. Lemmy got some buzz though and people want to be cool kids, instead of picking the more suitable option for them. Shit’s frustrating to me as a user, and I feel for the devs who have been working on this specific vision for this project then just wake up to 1,000 “MAKE IT REDDIT I WANT EVERYTHING ON ONE INSTANCE CAUSE I’M USED TO IT” posts.

          Rant aside, I’m no Lemmy expert but if you have questions about how things work, I’ll do my best to help.

          • Swoggles@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            I’m brand new and I have spent ~~almost a week ~~ a few days trying to log on for a second time (first time worked great, always timed out after that). But I’m here now!

            One thing that has been frustrating is that 90% of the time I’ve seen someone say that it’s confusing, people just say IT’S SO EASY, TRY LEARNING and then the learning materials describe the concept of the fediverse and Lemmy but not how to use it.

            I still don’t really understand. I’ve used a hundred different forums and forum-adjacent type services, and Lemmy seems to be similar enough to Reddit, except that each server is it’s own reddit, but if anyone on the server is connected to another server, it’ll pull in communities followed by anyone on the server?

            Again, I don’t really get it. I’m trying, but it’s a bit confusing. I get that it’s decentralized and all the servers are unique and it’s one login, but I don’t get how the communities fit together between servers, if they do at all. Would this mean that we can have duplicate communities on different servers?

          • Swoggles@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            I’m brand new and I have spent almost a week trying to log on for a second time (first time worked great, always timed out after that). But I’m here now!

            One thing that has been frustrating is that 90% of the time I’ve seen someone say that it’s confusing, people just say IT’S SO EASY, TRY LEARNING and then the learning materials describe the concept of the fediverse and Lemmy but not how to use it.

            I still don’t really understand. I’ve used a hundred different forums and forum-adjacent type services, and Lemmy seems to be similar enough to Reddit, except that each server is it’s own reddit, but if anyone on the server is connected to another server, it’ll pull in communities followed by anyone on the server?

            Again, I don’t really get it. I’m trying, but it’s a bit confusing. I get that it’s decentralized and all the servers are unique and it’s one login, but I don’t get how the communities fit together between servers, if they do at all. Would this mean that we can have duplicate communities on different servers?

            • CannaVet@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              I see alot of people using an email analogy that people don’t seem to follow, I saw another analogy so I’ll give it a go (and probably butcher it haha.)

              You have the planet, right? “Lemmy” as a concept, the “Fediverse” is the planet. Then, you have countries. Large, all encompassing central entities, each with it’s own ruling government and systems. What you can get away with in Ireland, might not be legal in Turkey. Instances (or servers) like lemmy.world, lemmy.ml, etc are the “countries.” Each can have it’s own standards, practices, rules, etc. Then the communities are like cities in those countries, beholden to the larger entity but otherwise allowed to run themselves and do what they do.

              For your last question, let’s look at those communities (cities, per our analogy.) Say I live in Franklin, Maine. Around town, if you’re talking about home you don’t say Franklin, Maine all the time do you? It’s just Franklin, because if you’re in Maine (or your home country if not US) it’s presumed you’re talking about the Franklin that you’re in (or the Franklin down the road if you live two cities over.)

              There’s still a Franklin in Alabama, Idaho, Illinois, Michigan, and like 40 other states. ^(Thanks wiki :P) So if I wanted to talk about or visit one of THOSE Franklins, I would specify Franklin, Idaho, or Franklin, Illinois. That’s the “Fediverse.”

              (Pretend for a minute we are in a community /c/puppies for this bit so it’s less confusing) This group, for us, is just /c/puppies because it’s our local /c/puppies, just as I from your perspective am just @CannaVet because we are both in our home “country” of lemmy.world (the instance/server.) If you look at one of the replies to the comment you replied to, you will see someone as @JakeBacon@lemm.ee. He is visiting our “country” of lemmy.world, from his home “country” of lemm.ee. Over in the “country” of lemm.ee, they may also have a community (city) of /c/puppies which is notated as such to HIM because it’s local to his home country just as ours is to us - but for us to visit would be “traveling” so we would visit /c/puppies@lemm.ee because we’re leaving home and visiting another country. For him to come here he has to come to /c/puppies@lemmy.world because HE would be the “traveler.”

              Same with users, I’m just @CannaVet and you’re just @Swoggles because we’re “at home” on lemmy.world, but if we click around and are perusing a community on lemmy.ml we would show as @CannaVet@lemmy.world and @Swoggles@lemmy.world because we’re “traveling.” There may be a @Cannavet@lemmy.ml, but on lemmy.ml they would just be @CannaVet and I would be @CannaVet@lemmy.world, because I’m visiting their “country.” If they come here I’m @CannaVet and they’re @CannaVet@lemmy.ml.

              We’re different users, with different accounts, on different servers, completely unrelated. Communities work the same way - I may run /c/stuff@lemmy.world however I want, but somebody might be running /c/stuff@lemmy.ml completely differently with completely different rules and content entirely over on that instance.

              As for exploring different instances, you can go most anywhere you want (mostly, my understanding is instances can block other instances from access, but I’m not super in the know about that.) Using the “all” button in search and browsing will open you up to other instance’s content vs the “local” button that keeps you in your “home country.”

              I don’t understand entirely how to link out to other instances, but if you click a link and end up logged out on a different server, you can manually visit by adding the community to the end of your URL like so-

              lemmy.world/c/technology@lemmy.ml

              This will keep you on lemmy.world and ensure you’re “just visiting” where you’re trying to go. Once everyone has a better grasp this shouldn’t be a problem but I’ve run into this issue a few times.

              Cliffs Notes-

              Instances (lemmy.ml, lemmy.ml, lemm.ee, etc) are top level “countries” and run things as they see fit

              Communities (/c/puppies, /c/lemmy.world, etc) are “cities” bound by instance administration and can exist on multiple instances completely independently of eachother, like how London, England exists independently of London, France.

              If you run into trouble visiting communities on other instances, manually navigate with lemmy.world/c/commname@instance.url (or lemmy.ml/c/commname.url if you’re registered on lemmy.ml, etc etc.)

              Sorry for the wall, hope it’s at all helpful lol.

              • Swoggles@lemmy.world
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                1 year ago

                Extremely helpful, thank you.

                So if I’m understanding correctly, each lemmy instance is effectively it’s own forum/reddit, and being part of a lemmy instance gives us a passport to visit and interact with other lemmy instances, yeah?

                And after us as individuals are more established and connected, we’ll naturally start to join and “import” communities within our home insurance and other Lemmy instances.

                So, one final question, won’t this model lead to like, heavy fragmentation of communities? There’s pros and cons to that, but if I’m a fan of d&d, there will be a d&d community on many lemmy instances, and each of those would only be connected by visiting lemmy users that join multiple instances of the d&d community on different lemmy instances, right?

                • CannaVet@lemmy.world
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                  1 year ago

                  Unless I’m mistaken, you’re overthinking the “import” concept. I do think that your home instance caches info from communities you visit (MAYBE that influences what you see in all but I don’t know really,) but otherwise there’s no “importing” of anything. Otherwise, yeah the passport analogy isn’t far off. You don’t have an account on lemmy.ml, but it recognizes you as a registered user of lemmy.world and you get to interact as normal, you get tagged as @Swoggles@lemmy.world just like your passport says you hail from insert home country here. (I assume lol)

                  If you visit /c/aww@lemmy.ml for example, you’re connecting to lemmy.ml as @Swoggles@lemmy.world. You’re not bringing that community into lemmy.world, you’re visiting it in lemmy.ml, as someone from lemmy.world (and as mentioned would appear if you comment as @Swoggles@lemmy.world. Because “visiting.”) /c/aww@lemmy.world is just /c/aww on lemmy.world. It has zero at all to do with /c/aww on lemmy.ml, and they have zero at all to do with /c/aww on lemm.ee. All completely independent communities existing on different instances. There’s no connections, no correlations, just somebody made /c/aww on lemmy.world, somebody also made /c/aww on lemmy.ml. They don’t connect or anything. London, France has nothing to do with London, England, and /c/aww@lemmy.world has nothing to do with /c/aww@lemmy.ml.

                  Won’t this model lead to like, heavy fragmentation of communities?

                  This is where people get lost coming from Reddit. Lemmy is not Reddit, and it isn’t designed to be Reddit. Lemmy is designed to be a decentralized alternative, which offers far greater control at the cost of UX (usability, cohesiveness, whatever.) There aren’t “single” communities, because that isn’t what this is for. Decentralization is the point. Being able to (as one user put it) “make my own /c/aww with blackjack and hookers” is the point. That I can spin up a Docker container on my pi and build my own single user Lemmy instance as a home base, is the point.

                  It isn’t meant or designed to provide a single central point of compilation, it’s existence is for the exact opposite - Nobody has ultimate control because any one instance owner’s power only extends so far as their server. The fragmentation everybody laments coming from Reddit actually provides redundancy, have you ever had a sub you like on Reddit get shut down for this that or the other reason? That’s it, it’s gone, sucks to suck. If you want more /c/aww, you CAN follow every /c/aww you can find - /c/aww@lemmy.world, /c/aww@lemmy.ml, /c/aww@lemm.ee, etc can ALL be in your sub feed. However, if @ruud (the owner of lemmy.world) decides he fucking hates adorable animals and nukes /c/aww@lemmy.world, you still have /c/aww on every other instance available.

                  This is the point that makes me mad about other Reddit exiles (not you.) They came to lemmy to leave a central authority, and got mad that there isn’t a central authority. I try to point out that more 1 for 1 Reddit clones exist, but they get mad because that’s “not what they want.” Control and ease of use(the smooth singular experience of Reddit, Google, etc) are diametrically opposed. Either everything “just works” because everything is owned by and exists on Reddit servers, or you have to put in a little leg work to have control over your data etc because having control means I can get mad at lemmy.ml and block my server from federating with them, or I can tinker with the code and someone else’s client doesn’t understand what it’s seeing, or any other number of things that can occur with the backend being in our hands vs a singular entity like a company. You just…can’t have both, but Reddit exiles are mad about that. They want total decentralization of infrastructure and ownership, but want centralization of content, which just isn’t possible without that single central pillar running the show (some people argue for communities that exist to scrape and clone every copy of a given /c/ across the fediverse to create a “supercommunity” but that just sounds like stealing with extra steps to me lol.)

          • JakeBacon@lemm.ee
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            1 year ago

            Out of curiosity. What are the other Reddit clones you’re talking about? I moved here because this is the reddit-like system I found first.

            • CannaVet@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              Tildes is the main one I’m aware of but I’ve read of a few others that I don’t recall the names of.

      • ephemerality@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        I think it’s likely people will flock to one server (I came to this one since it was fastest growing) but thanks to federation, popular communities on other servers could still be accessed – it’s awesome!

        • CannaVet@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          I think it’s just going to become Reddit because nobody will shut the fuck up about it not being Reddit, if it does I’ll just leave this too lmao. “We came here because there’s no singular central archive NOW MAKE EVERYTHING FEED A CENTRAL ARCHIVE”

    • Liz@midwest.social
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      1 year ago

      If you go to the areas where people are suggesting features, it’s almost 100% “please implement my personal favorite feature from my personalized Reddit experience.”

      Now, I’m going to say that wanting the features you found useful in your old social media is a perfectly reasonable desire, but it’s the Dev’s job to make sure all the feature and UI changes are self-consistent and not overload for the user. So, naturally a bunch of requests are going to have to be ignored, at least for the time being.

      • CaptainApathetic@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        If Lemmy continues to get more popular and more 3rd party reddit app devs make Lemmy apps like what RiF is doing that’ll probably have a lot of people satisfied. I like Jebroah but I’d definitely love to see Baconreader for Lemmy.

      • flashgnash@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        I’ve never contributed to open source projects before, is it open to community contributions? (as in could I go pick up a feature request and make a pull request for it?)

        • fangleone2526@lemmy.fmhy.ml
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          1 year ago

          Yes! The devs would have to accept your pull request for it to be merged into the main instance, but even if they don’t, you don’t have to use the main instance, you can spin up your own which you build out whatever features you want on.

          • lightingnerd@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            I love this thing that people forget about open source. Like the whole FreeCAD community, there’s a whole group of people who don’t even use the vanilla UI–because they don’t have to, haha! Of course, it does take skill, but if you’re skilled enough to make pull request…

            • Bonolio@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              I am a shitty programmer, and I would never want most of what I do to go anywhere near Main.
              But as you said, I have a few things that I run as forks, with my own little tweaks.

        • maiskanzler@feddit.de
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          1 year ago

          Yes! Many people are joining right now, you can too. Pick Lemmy itself or one of the apps! There is also Tafkars, they are trying to replicate the reddit api for Lemmy. The goal is to make 3rd party reddit apps compatible with lemmy.

    • Racle@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      besides the whole decentralised nature which is a plus anyway

      Fun until you realize that other instances can block other big instances from accessing them. Ex. Beehaw defederated lemmy.world: https://beehaw.org/post/567170

      And sadly for mainstream users, federation is too complicated compared to single instance :/

      • akaifox@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Wow I almost joined yeehaw instead of here… They seem too quick to block other instances

        It’s not a surprise people joined those instances – yeehaw required approval. To many people that means “wait 24 hours” so they went elsewhere

        • Aganim@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Not just that, but from what I saw they also require you to write a motivation explaining why you want to join. I always find it extremely hard to write down that kind of stuff in my native language, let alone English. Wouldn’t surprise me if a lot of people are put off by that as well.