This is solved by Piefed.
Still relevant, hasnt changed much after 2 years
Submitted 23 hours ago by doenerpate@feddit.org to fediverse@lemmy.world
https://popcar.bearblog.dev/lemmy-needs-to-fix-its-community-separation-problem/
Comments
Rekall_Incorporated@piefed.social 23 hours ago
doenerpate@feddit.org 23 hours ago
how exactly? isn’t piefed “just” another instance in the fediverse?
Rekall_Incorporated@piefed.social 23 hours ago
You have comments from different communities under the same URL post. “Multicommunities” but without user intervention.
It does have some drawbacks. For example, under this post, I can see comments from an earlier post (referring to the same URL) from over a year ago.
Piefed is also a platform, in addition to Piefed servers being instances and clients.
flamingos@feddit.uk 23 hours ago
Solution 2 in the post, multicommunities. I’m not sure it actually solves the problem though, as you still have to go to the actual community to post and I imagine multicomms add an extra layer of confusion to that.
Blaze@piefed.zip 21 hours ago
Crosspost comments consolidation example: https://piefed.zip/c/fedibridge/p/794856/r-buyfromeu-asking-for-a-reddit-alternative#post_replies
snooggums@piefed.world 20 hours ago
“Separate conversations are splintering discourse, we should all just shout over each other in one massive wall of text!”
The separate communities across instances is a benefit of federation just like separate posts are a benefit over a single thread for everythjngs. Yes, features that allow them to be combined for those that want that way of interacting is great, but we don’t need a single news community between all instances when there are can be massive differences between instances.
Ludicrous0251@piefed.zip 2 hours ago
Proposed solution 3: Communities following communities
The ability for communities to “subscribe” to other communities is an idea that comes from this Github comment. This is, in my opinion, the best proposed solution by far. Community a can follow community b, making posts from b also appear on a.
What this means is that community moderators can choose to have posts from other communities to show up on theirs. That means if all the pancake communities are following each other, I can post on pancake@a.com and it would show up on the other pancake communities as well, and the comments would simply be grouped into just one post!
The main proposed solution doesn’t force merging on anyone. Mods can decide whether or not they want content from other communities to show up in their space. No two news instances have to merge if they serve different audiences.
It isn’t explicitly called out in the proposal but I could easily see there being an option for mods to unlink individual posts from other communities if they get too spicy.
SorteKanin@feddit.dk 2 hours ago
Exactly. This is a non issue and actually a feature.
doenerpate@feddit.org 20 hours ago
you’re right, definitely something I hadn’t really thought about. I just don’t get the sense that some communities are intentionally spread across different instances. Like there are two Plex communities on two separate instances that basically talk about the same stuff. I guess it’s just part of getting used to things, and it throws me off a bit since I’m still new to the fediverse.
kubofhromoslav@lemmy.world 6 minutes ago
In fact, there is a problem of asymmetry of difficulty. It is much easier to start a new community, that dealing with existence of several separated communities. Especially as social solutions (eg in case that the communities are really about the same thing in the same way, asking all members to switch, so for newcomers it is easy to know which one is active and maintained).
irelephant@lemmy.dbzer0.com 16 hours ago
Piefed merges comments sections on cross posts.
doenerpate@feddit.org 15 hours ago
do you know any client that supports this?
Ludicrous0251@piefed.zip 2 hours ago
Wait, so am I reading correctly from the wiki page the only app that supports merging crosspost comments is Interstellar, which also doesn’t support crossposting?
nimpnin@sopuli.xyz 23 hours ago
IMO, a more opionate search would fix this. Just recommend the most active community and show the others in gray.
lambalicious@lemmy.sdf.org 21 hours ago
No thanks. This is a dark pattern towards centralization. Just go back to reddit.
nimpnin@sopuli.xyz 19 hours ago
I’m not sure if the centralization is worse than the large portion of users on the large servers who joining copies of established communities on their own instances. Also, from my other reply:
It would force you to write a more descriptive name. Maybe we want to hide by community title and not the handle though.
Say you want to have a community for memes. It is terrible UX if you just see seven different “memes@domainname.ending” in the result. So with an opinionated search, you instead name your community Sopuli Memes, Solarpunk Memes, Programming Memes etc., or just Funny Memes Archive, and they would not be hidden.
Lumidaub@feddit.org 23 hours ago
That kills the less active ones and achieves the opposite of what Lemmy wants to do.
Alphane_Moon@lemmy.world 21 hours ago
A lot of the “less active ones” are completely dead. Many mid-tier topics (not niche, but not “meme shitpost”) have a sea of dead communities and 1-2 active ones and it’s difficult to find them without actually clicking through the full list of results.
nimpnin@sopuli.xyz 19 hours ago
It would force you to write a more descriptive name. Maybe we want to hide by community title and not the handle though.
Say you want to have a community for memes. It is terrible UX if you just see seven different “memes@domainname.ending” in the result. So with an opinionated search, you instead name your community Sopuli Memes, Solarpunk Memes, Programming Memes etc., or just Funny Memes Archive, and they would not be hidden.
Derpenheim@lemmy.zip 19 hours ago
Maybe I am misunderstanding something. I am on lemmy.zip, but I see communities from many different instances. How is it segregated?
doenerpate@feddit.org 18 hours ago
For example, lemmy.world/c/technology, lemmy.zip/c/technology, and piefed.social/c/technology coexist. Thats what the author meant with “community separation”.
Derpenheim@lemmy.zip 18 hours ago
Oh, okay. Im not super familiar with how all this works. Thanks
widowdoll@ttrpg.network 16 hours ago
There has never been a good blog post.
SorteKanin@feddit.dk 2 hours ago
This is a non issue. Different communities and instances have different rules, norms, cultures etc. There’s no need to smash everyone together in a monoculture.
kubofhromoslav@lemmy.world 13 minutes ago
Technically, I agree.
Practically, I myself have experienced several fragmented communities about the same topic with similar ethos. This was not a healthy separation based on different norms. It was simple, ineffective fragmentation. Or, at least the ethos and norms differences wasn’t clear.