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Redundant communities across instances (lemmy.world)
submitted 3 years ago by to c/lemmyworld@lemmy.world
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As a new reddit exile, I may be misunderstanding this.

In theory something like a !gaming community could crop up on multiple large instances, especially during the mass exodus while instances are getting hammered with spikes in volume.

If that's the case, we'll have fragmented communities across instances. Is there any way besides subscribing to each of them to combine them into a sort of multi-reddit type aggregation? Or is this considered a temporary (albeit important to adoption) problem during the crazy stages?

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[โ€“] 4 points 3 years ago (10 children)

It's not pointless, it's just......not Reddit. Decentralization offers a different approach than they do. All the Reddit exiles come seeking a central authority but lemmy exists explicitly to remove that from the equation, that's the entire point of the project. There are people working on single server Reddit clone-ish alternatives that may be more your speed, and that's perfectly fine. Also, for the record, if you want ALL of the c/aww (or whatever) you can just follow every c/aww you come across from 6 different instances, you don't have to pick one and forsake all others.

In regards to your other point, It's also important to remember that the developers of Lemmy consider it to be in alpha IIRC, and the system is currently facing loads they wouldn't have dreamed of a few weeks ago. It's a learning curve for literally everyone involved but the smart techy people behind it all are working hard to flesh out a stable system for everybody to enjoy as they see fit with no central authority.

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  • [โ€“] 2 points 3 years ago* (last edited 3 years ago) (8 children)

    you can just follow every c/aww you come across from 6 different instances, you don't have to pick one and forsake all others.

    That's one of the cons of decentralization. You take the good and the bad.

    One of the pros, on that exact same hand, is if you don't like a particular c/aww on a particular instance, you can create your own c/aww on a separate instance and give it the rules you'd like to see in a community where people post cute pictures.

    I think the mistake a lot of other newbies are making is believing that this is going to be exactly like Reddit and nothing needs changing ever if we merely build it. No, it's like Reddit, but there are key differences. And you either live with those differences and stick it out until you figure out how it works, you go find another alternative, or you go back to Reddit.

    No choice is wrong. Do what works for you.

    Coming back to this to say one of the major pros of federation/decentralization is the redundancy will mean you can still get content on Lemmy, even if a particular server goes down. If Reddit goes down, you have to go outside and touch grass. If a Lemmy server goes down, the grass can remain untouched. You'll get content from other instances.

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  • [โ€“] 3 points 3 years ago (7 children)

    I think one point they're trying to make is that it would be nice to have "supercommunities", for example a kind of community that is the aggregated sum of all the individual communities it subscribes to, so for example super/aww that contains c/aww@1, c/aww@2, etc.

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  • [โ€“] 3 points 3 years ago* (last edited 3 years ago) (4 children)

    I can't reply to the other comment,(my first block maybe?) but I wouldn't hold out hope that Reddit exiles will force the devs to say fuck it and make Lemmy a Reddit clone.

    Those are in the works if you want to support those, that's not what Lemmy is for. Don't go to a decentralized platform and demand a central authority. ๐Ÿคท

    EDIT: Downvote harder Reddit stans lmao

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  • [โ€“] 3 points 3 years ago (3 children)

    It's not a reddit clone just because you can aggregate content, that seems like a rather narrow view. The instances could still host their own communities and the supercommunities could exist alongside one another and choose which communities would be part of them, it would just be a functionality that perhaps some users would find helpful. Wouldn't even have to be on Lemmy but for example on kbin or another alternative.

    Why is that necessarily a bad thing? Wouldn't it increase the usefulness of federation since it distributes the data but allows for the communities to remain connected to each other? Couldn't you just not partake of that feature if you're opposed to it?

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  • [โ€“] -1 points 3 years ago (2 children)

    Did you not read my comment at all? I'm saying it is NOT a Reddit clone, and shouldn't give into pressure to become one. The entire point of federation is that instances and communities exist independently of each other, but half of the comments and posts I've seen are just bitching there's no central authority running the show on the system that explicitly touts it's lack of central authority. It's going to KFC and throwing a bitch fit they won't serve you lasagna.

    Why is that necessarily a bad thing? Wouldn't it increase the usefulness of federation?

    It's a bad thing (and also not really possible) because it would require a central authority to organize that through. If you want to follow three communities........Just follow three communities. It's not that hard.

    You left Reddit because of the actions of a central authority, went to an alternative that advertises the lack thereof, then cried that there's no central authority. It's fine if you want that, but GO TO ONE OF THOSE OPTIONS instead of demanding devs toss their vision out the window for your comfort.

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  • [โ€“] 1 point 3 years ago (1 child)

    You should stop making statements about what other people want and what they think, it's usually just reductive and incorrect.

    The supercommunity would be a central authority in the same sense that a regular community is a central authority, in the same sense that an instance is a central authority. The supercommunity wouldn't own all the content, it wouldn't have to be an exclusive provider, I don't know what idea you have in your mind that you're raging against.

    Instead of having to follow fifteen /c/aww communities and scroll through all the other communities that you might want to subscribe to for the content you want, it could be nice to just have to subscribe to one that gathers the content of those fifteen communities and keeps it contained in one location for the end-user.

    What is your issue with that? That it's too "like reddit"? If that's the case, are you really promoting an idea or just a reactionary response?

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  • [โ€“] -2 points 3 years ago

    Then why don't you just.........subscribe to those communities instead of demanding it work like Reddit?

    You're attacking me for explaining how Lemmy works under the implication of "like Reddit or not" while in the same breath screeching that it isn't like Reddit. If you want a Reddit clone go to a Reddit clone, what's so hard about that? Giving up the chance to bitch about devs with stated goals contrary to yours not doing the things you want?

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  • [โ€“] 3 points 3 years ago

    A possible better solution might be to allow the user to create their own group (or super community if you prefer that name) where they can group multiple communities together in a way they see fit (not just necessarily clones of the same community. Examples could be a sports group that allows you to group together communities for all the teams you follow).

    This would be beneficial I feel for most users, doesn't affect decentralization, doesn't require a central authority and would be only relevant to each individual user and not applied to anyone else

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