Also the moderation tools could’ve been Java and connect to the Lemmy API (maybe with some pull requests to add to Lemmy’s API), which to me sounds a lot better than saying fuck it and rewriting everything
Comment on Regarding sublinks and feeling concerned about what is going on with it
9point6@lemmy.world 7 months ago
Can someone explain to me why sublinks was started as a project? If the main difference is improvements to the moderation tools, it feels like it could have just been a PR to lemmy.
I’m trying my hardest to not assume it’s the classic “Java engineers are scared of other languages” meme
Die4Ever@programming.dev 7 months ago
jgrim@discuss.online 7 months ago
I tried that the but API lacked a lot of features that they were too busy to add, like proper pagination to find the latest changes, etc. I started a project like that first called socialcare.cloud but have since shut it down in favor of Sublinks.
Die4Ever@programming.dev 7 months ago
I still feel like adding those API routes and making PRs is easier than a full rewrite
jgrim@discuss.online 7 months ago
Easier but not what I thought was needed. We need more choice!
GlitterInfection@lemmy.world 7 months ago
I like lemmy but also I’ve been following the drama from the sidelines, so I think the focus on Rust vs Java has nothing to do with the choice to create a lemmy alternative.
The reason sublinks exists is that the lemmy devs have made some large technical and PR mistakes that have led to multiple larger instance admins losing faith in them.
There was the Beehaw debacle where nutomic told the Beehaw admins that they should go to a different platform and take their “entitled” “demands” with them. It’s not surprising to see various alternatives to lemmy springing up as a result of the devs telling people to do so.
There was the illegal content spam incident which required instance admins to interact directly with the image database in complex ways for each image to remove the content from their servers, and I believe lemmy.world disabled submitting images if you are using a VPN or the tor network as a result. The lemmy devs have made some bafflingly derisive comments about that incident.
And then there’s the recent update that has broken federation of bigger instances, which is an ongoing issue. Communities are having to move instances to help with this bug which should have been caught in testing the update.
So sublinks seems to be some folks deciding that they can do it better.
Choosing Java is one way that they think they can do better. The argument goes, significantly more people know Java than Rust. Lemmy has had some problem getting extra help as a result of this limit, so hopefully sublinks will have a much larger pool of talented devs who will step up and submit code.
Sublinks isn’t the only one, too. Piefed is the python Lemmy alternative that’s cropped up recently and I believe there are some others in other languages.
Blaze@dormi.zone 7 months ago
Thank you for your valuable comment.
There is Mbin in PHP!
nickwitha_k@lemmy.sdf.org 7 months ago
They were kinda acting entitled to not just free labor, but to have their issues prioritized over others.
I mean, Lemmy was explicitly written in Rust because the creators of Lemmy wanted to do a project in Rust. The complaints that I’ve seen about the language choice are just bizzare with that context. I’m quite happy with others hoping in and making their own compatible things in different languages because that makes the world more interesting and gives more people something that they might want to contribute to.
GlitterInfection@lemmy.world 7 months ago
Beehaw was acting like a customer, which they kind of were and sort of weren’t at the same time. Customers act entitled, but they didn’t seem to be any worse than most. Lemmy’s devs are right in that they don’t owe them anything, really, but the way they voiced that was bad PR, IMO.
It sucks having to care about message when all you want to do is make something you like, so I get it, buy I don’t think it looked great from the outside.
I don’t think choosing Rust was inherently a bad move. I think it makes sense that if you are going to try to make a competing platform to NOT choose Rust, and instead pick something that a lot of people can contribute to.
But yeah, complaining about their initial choice doesn’t make sense, and neither does the “why don’t they just learn Rust” sentiment given the context of all this other stuff.