this post was submitted on 01 Sep 2023
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Relaying of Mastodon hashtags to Lemmy instances (sopuli.xyz)
submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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Does something like this exist? As far as I can tell, setting something similar up would require:

  • A dedicated Lemmy instance for Mastodon tag-based crossposting (probably, since most existing instances probably don't want to clutter their instance with thousands of script-generated communities)
  • Some kind of form on a site where users who want to follow a Mastodon tag that is not already set up as a Lemmy community could submit the tag they want added, which would automatically set up:
  • A Lemmy community for that tag on the aforementioned instance, and
  • A Mastodon hashtag bot that automatically crossposts all posts with that tag to the linked community
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[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The kbin equivalent, which is baked in to the platform, is that communities would be able to define a set of hashtags that get cross posted into their community. So there wouldn’t need to be new communities.

The main issue though is how do you meaningfully cross post mastodon content to lemmy? Will we be able to see the replies from mastodon users? Will we be able to reply?

If lemmy users are happy to treat mastodon posts like any other external content, it could work well. But more than a bot would be necessary to fuse the two platforms.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

The main issue though is how do you meaningfully cross post mastodon content to lemmy? Will we be able to see the replies from mastodon users? Will we be able to reply?

If lemmy users are happy to treat mastodon posts like any other external content, it could work well. But more than a bot would be necessary to fuse the two platforms.

That already happens. Non-lemmy users can post to lemmy by making a normal post that @-mentions a community.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yes, but we’re talking about a bot doing this according to the hashtags in the post. The original post, having never been posted to a lemmy community as you describe, can never be interacted with by lemmy users even if a link or cross post is made.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Kbin has a separate tab within a community called “microblog” I think. Any hashtags set by the community are automatically followed in the “microblog” feed and can be fully interacted with.

This doesn’t bring threadiverse content into mastodon, but it does bring kbin users at least, into mastodon.

And with the @ing of lemmy communities, you can post from mastodon to lemmy. There’s some work to be done, for sure, but I think we’re close to a decent solution.

But also, 100% compatibility would be odd, wouldn’t you just switch platforms if you wanted the different functionality.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

But also, 100% compatibility would be odd, wouldn’t you just switch platforms if you wanted the different functionality.

I don’t think there’s much point to a fediverse if there isn’t decent compatibility between platforms, especially if they both comprise plain text posts and replies.

Beyond that, I agree, I don’t think these issues are hard. In more detail, a central issue is the simplicity with which microblogs format their feeds: everything is a post which are all assembled in a flat feed, with threading replies together being somewhat optional. There isn’t a sense of structure as lemmy/kbin have, with communities > posts > comments > replies. To me this is brutalist and unnecessary and limits the ability with which other platforms can be integrated. As mastodon completely dominated the fediverse, these limitations are actually somewhat severe, as a large part of the fediverse is constrained by this often without even knowing that there are other options.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'd see this to be implemented in Lemmy itself. Hashtags are a global thing, not instance-specific, and should already be available to Lemmy via AP.

Lemmy would "just" need the ability to display a hashtag as a "community" containing posts made under that hashtag. Question is what to do with replies but given Lemmys design, they could probably simply be left out because, if it's truly on-topic, the post will likely contain the hashtag too and therefore land in the hashtag "community".

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I don't see why lemmy should leave out replies to top-level tagged posts. A tagged post is essentially like any top level post in lemmy. They could be displayed like any other lemmy post, with replies displayed in thread below

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I was being a bit unclear here, what I meant was that replies mentioning a hashtag shouldn't show up as posts in its pseudo-community; only posts. Replies to a post with a hashtag would show up regardless of content.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

ah, I see. That makes sense, thanks

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I've been suggesting the use of tags to interoperate with the wider fediverse since lemmy started. The have reasons they don't like it but there seems to be some discussion moving forward on them in side channels. One of the devs asked for an RFC on a hashtag implementation and someone submitted one, though I haven't seen any feedback on it and it was not a solution I really liked.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

That's good news

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

I did make a GitHub issue a while ago

https://github.com/LemmyNet/lemmy/issues/3906

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (4 children)

I've always wondered how Lemmy and Mastodon can claim to be part of the same “fediverse” if they can't even share content.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

They aren't. They use the same protocol as a base, and you can have limited interaction, but that's it.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

Yep. It’s a problem. Some saw it coming. Some prefer to hype over the power of the protocol without acknowledging the importance of what’s built on top of the protocol while leaving is users in the lurch.

I suspect the solution lies in more advanced clients and giving up on wanting each platform to be able to do everything.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

@xigoi @Anbalsilfer Not everything is federated yet, but of course we are part of the same network (= #Fediverse ).
For example, I can reply here from Mastodon (from #Friendica #Pleroma etc. it also works) and also make posts in Lemmy communities (by tagging the community account).

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

@xigoi

eh? Mastodon here ...

@Anbalsilfer

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

If I open your profile here on Lemmy, I can't see any of your posts.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

It would need some filtering too that some hachtags are like banned