#ActivityPub is super cool once you see it in action.
For instance, you can visit the new StarTrek lemmy server here: https://startrek.website/c/startrek. Looks like a reddit sub with posts, threaded comments, upvotes, &c.
OR you can follow the same server on Mastodon @startrek.
Every thread and comment shows up as a boosted post.
Cool, right? Now, say you find a comment that you want to reply to. Post through your favorite Mastodon app, and that feeds right back to the thread on the #Lemmy server! 🤯
I have high hopes for ActivityPub/the Fediverse, but it has some usability challenges. For instance finding this post on my server so I could comment took more than 20 minutes.
Took me a while, too. The federation concept is awesome, but I think there needs to be an easier way to discover what’s available.
@awilbert @davidpierce @startrek it is cool, but this is still terrible UX. Having to go search for the community from my logged-in lemmy instance is not the sort of thing that wins fans among normal people.
@startrek oh, neat. I’m posting this from Mastodon, and didn’t realize it would also START a thread on your lemmy server. Sorry Star Trek folks, just using you as a fun example! 😅
And also a little 😳
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I was initially skeptical but I really like this Federated business. One question I find myself asking when browsing is “where is this person from?”, following them back to their Lemmy or Mastodon and finding a whole bunch of cool posts there!
It’s pretty neat being able to do that.
Personally, I decided to stick with a native Lemmy UI experience instead of following communities from my Mastodon account.
@leopardboy Same. While the content transfers across, the presentation does not. The benefit of #lemmy is the upvoting, sorting, and threading, which gets lost in translation.
Indeed. Consuming Lemmy content via a timeline interface isn’t necessarily my cup of tea, at least not at this stage.
@smolwaffle
@awilbert @startrek @kat I use it that way (I am actually now writing this message on fedilab) . and it works OK here
@arthurwyatt @startrek It does!
What mastodon apps are you using? I use Mac and Apple ecosystem normally and looking for something native.
I just got Ivory and will check it out!
Mona looks interesting. Ivory seems complicated, but then again so it Mastodon in general.
@astromd Ivory, like most things Mastodon, seems complicated on the surface.
In Truth, Mona is a little more complex because it’s just so customizable, Ivory is more ready for almost anyone to use it
What mastodon apps are you using? I use Mac and Apple ecosystem normally and looking for something native.
keep in mind: Apple actively censors fediverse apps. You are getting an intentionally crippled experience. Like everything else in the apple ecosystem, the fediverse clients are #defectivebydesign
Could you please explain? Thanks.
There’s been many instances of fediverse applications that have tried to get into the apple ecosystem, but have been denied because they won’t censor apple’s political opposition. Generally: the apple ecosystem is a system of oppression, built on intentionally defective by design hardware. Many features are not just missing, but missing because the people who control your device don’t want you to have them, not because of some kind of technical constraint.
Uh…how? I have not seen any evidence of that. Can you offer a link or a source to this claim? And what is “actively censors” supposed to mean? All apps go through the approval process.
Then you haven’t been around the fedi long enough. I do not have the threads where this has happened, but the precedent was set around the time mastodon started in 2016. I might have talked about it in my podcast I can’t remember
And what is “actively censors” supposed to mean?
As in, if you have things that apple does not approve it will not get approved. This includes censorship of their political opponents.
All apps go through the approval process.
Indeed, that’s the problem. Don’t let apple decide what software you run - use alternative platforms that don’t treat you like some kind of prisoner instead.
So with the Federated business… Can a community be ‘hosted’ on multiple servers? I’ve seen some communities with the same name on different hosts, but completely different posts and moderation rules.
It probably /could/ be duplicated across servers, but I don’t see the benefit.
Email is the federated service everybody’s familiar with. lxskllr@gmail.com, lxskllr@yahoo.com, and lxskllr@mailo.com can all exist simultaneously, have different users and content, but still communicate with one another.
It probably /could/ be duplicated across servers, but I don’t see the benefit.
I would think what this reddit api fiasco proves is that its ultimately necessary. What’s to stop an individual host from going the same way as reddit? What is to stop the host from running out of money to host the community? Lastly, would be nice to provide load balancing for high volume communities.
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They’re probably unrelated communities that happened to choose the same name, especially if it’s something generic like “politics” or whatever. Best to assume there’s no affiliation unless they specifically say otherwise.
Yeah they DEFINITELY aren’t the same communities. For lemmy and kbin instances (the two reddit-like softwares on the fediverse) communities are like subreddits but they are subreddits specific to that particular website/instance (startrek.website, lemmy.wordl). Many different lemmy instances/websites (and kbin instances/websites for that matter too) can have their own /c/politics, they are entirely separate entities that just happen to share a name.
A bit confusing, not gonna lie lol, but I think it ultimately makes sense as a way to structure things.
Also kbin calls subreddits “magazines” and an example of a subreddit on a kbin instance is https://kbin.social/m/gaming
startrek.website runs on lemmy, a reddit-like software on the fediverse (it uses the ActivityPub protocol).
lemmy.world and beehaw.org are examples of lemmy instances.
kbin is another (newer) reddit-like software that runs on the fediverse too.
kbin.social or fedia.io are examples of kbin instances.
lemmy and kbin differ in the details, they are totally different softwares written from the ground up to be like reddit but they are generally pretty similar in practice. Users on lemmy and kbin can follow, post and interact with each other as well as with users on mastodon etc… that’s what makes it federated!. Your login will only work with the website you made it at (here, at startrek.website) in the same way that your email login will only work at the website you have it setup at (i.e. gmail login won’t work for yahoo email).
Also, just to clarify, a particular website/community on the fediverse is referred to as an instance. startrek.website is a lemmy instance. Bit of a weird phrasing, but there are many different websites running lemmy software so a word had to be invented to refer to the various different websites running one version of a fediverse software (lemmy, mastodon, kbin etc…).
Sorry if that was too much of an explanation, I just figured there are probably a lot of new people here who might not quite understand how everything fits together!
