You don't have to. You can, if you want. You have options in your life. You could always just go plant tomatoes instead. 🍅
But then there would be my tomatoes and the ones at each of my local grocery stores. Am I supposed to go get some from everywhere to enjoy tomatoes?
It seems to me like there are 5 places the grocery store has tomatoes and and you need to check all 5 places before you know which place you should buy from. Then, maybe next time you're at the grocery store, a different spot will have the better tomatoes and there are also 3 other new tomato stands in the store.
I'm definitely grateful for lemmy or kbin or mastodon or wherever the fuck I am right now as a reddit replacement, but this shit is confusing and annoying
This is how the world works. On Reddit there were multiple subs that covered the same topics, but the mods developed different cultures and vibes through moderation tactics and sub policies.
If you want a car, there are different companies who all provide one but with different options. Same goes for ISPs, TV networks, restaurants, and schools.
It isn't at all a new concept and I'm not sure why people coming from reddit continue to get stuck on it. Subscribe to them all and as they mature unsub from the ones that develop into something you don't feel like you need.
Posting to all of them will be easier when cross posting is possible on Kbin (it is already possible on Lemmy) but developments like that often take time.
Adding an edit as I've thought a bit more: I think it's important, for those coming from reddit, to truly understand why the Fediverse exists. The intention is to be open source. To ensure that there is no single source of power. There are 'unlimited' options (instances, magazines, etc.) to ensure that it cannot be swayed, corrupted.
This is why people are coming from Reddit - you are seeing what happens when one corporation has the power and sets the terms.
I think it's lovely to dip your toes here, ask questions, and see if you'd like to stick around. But please do understand the intention is not to be Reddit 2.0. We should not try to turn it into that.
I think this answer is the most accurate. People get too hung up same names on different servers. There will always be multiple versions of a community whether they have the same name on different servers or whether one of them snagged the og name and others prefixed with Real_x / True_x. Imo I like it this way better because there's less favoritism to the one that comes first / people can't universally squat on a community name
I think the key for people who are confused about this is that it's necessary to consider the part after the "@" to be just as much a part of the community name as the part before it. There's no such thing as a community named "No Stupid Questions", with no @whatever after it, because all community names inherently include that portion.
As an alternative solution there are issues for "multireddit"-like features, this issue for Lemmy, and Kbin has one here.
It's a sticking point because it's new to people who only have experience with reddit after it became more mainstream. Lemmy, Kbin, Mastodon, etc. and how they all work together isn't a super simple concept. For all the shortfalls of a centralized social media website, the prevention of multiple separate communities having the exact same name is convenient and simple. It prevents duplicated posts. You want to capture all of the traffic in one place. That's why link aggregation sites and blogs exist, so in order to do that you have to subscribe to all of them. But then there's a pretty significant chance you'll see the exact same post cross-posted to the other 3 communities...which would annoyingly bloat your feed obviously.
the prevention of multiple separate communities having the exact same name is convenient and simple
Except for when those communities have names that aren't intuitive in any way, or the intuitively named communities are full of off-topic content.
I'm not going to say that reddit is the bastion of how to properly run a website. Clearly r/trees r/marijuana r/earthporn so on and so forth is super unintuitive, but until the concept of how the fediverse works becomes more common knowledge, we'll have to help new members along. It's taken me a little more than a week to even get remotely comfortable with how it works.
I only just learned today that I can't see content from users on instances like lemmygrad because the instance that I joined has it blocked. I didn't even really realize what I was doing at the time. Fortunately it's something I also would have done, but my point still stands that its not something that's immediately apparent or intuitive.
It isn’t at all a new concept and I’m not sure why people coming from reddit continue to get stuck on it.
Because having communities with an identical name on different instances will fracture the community. Given the hallmarks of the fediverse this is practically intended, to my understanding, but it is bad for initial growth and coherence of posts. This happened on Reddit as well, of course it did, but the way instances are completely separate and communities can have the exact same name compounds the issue.
Because having communities with an identical name on different instances will fracture the community.
They're different communities on different websites, though. Trying to force them all into one space is erasing all communities but one, just for the sake of having to see an @website.com address, or for pretending you're not missing out on something when you ignore 99.9% of posts and comments that end up in the space.
1 million users discussing a topic spread out across 1000 communities of 1000 active users leads to more vibrant and meaningful discussions on that topic than having 1 million of them all crammed into one place, shouting and competing for slivers of attention. And no one will miss anything of deep value in the 999 other communities, because people will cross-post the good bits anyway.
No, just subscribe to the most active one.
Or three Incase that one goes down
you fundamentally misunderstand lemmy. These are all independent communities, hosted by different admins.
It's fine.
As the philosopher Macho Man said "The cream rises to the top"
It'll take time but eventually everyone will merge into one major one unless some admin/mod shenanigans.
At least I think.
I actually think the fediverse is going to fracture very quickly. You're going to have instances that will defederate with anyone that permits the slightest bit of anti-trans commenting and you're going to have instances that will make 4chan look inclusive and will defederate from anyone posting "woke bullshit"
Ive posted on here before that its only a matter of time before someone like Volkswagen-Audi start their own instance so they can control the narrative and push their own content too.
And I can ABSOLUTELY see paid only instances for well moderated kid friendly content and also hardcore porn.
Yes, it will fracture, but hopefully at the fringes, as you mentioned. So thsie with extreme views find it difficult to get traction due to lack of users or lack of places to post.
It should mean that we don't get brigading from communities. You can just block them. It should.nean that there are safer communities but they miss out on some content.
At the moment, the only large communities are general. That may change over time. I do hope that companies start their own instances. Not to control the narrative, but to be their official communication. I don't want commercial users using the community instances.
Again, then, they can be blocked but also, they can be verified.
The issue as I see it is that once Meta or someone similar can start pointing to far right instances, child abuse materials or anything of the like and start painting Lemmy as a whole as the new 4chan "radicalising and grooming the children" only to release their "new app" which is just their instance then the "free fediverse" is going to BE the fringe.
Large companies will have no desire to be involved with "that place" because the sanitised, community guidelines having, data farming goliath will have 2 billion users. Why risk the bad pr?
Everyone's going to say No, and "just subscribe to the most active one", but if you're a 'Fediverse completionist' and want to ensure that there's not a single thing you miss anywhere at any time, then the answer is Yes.
It would be cool if from your subscribed communities, Lemmy would let you group the ones that are the same but are on different instances.
So if the same article is posted on two or more of the grouped communities, then it would merge the comment sections into one.
No. You don't have to. But if you want to throw a wide net and not just wind up with a singular place with a unified mentality, it's good to have multiple places focused on the same topic. For perspective.
If I send an email to support@microsoft.com, it should be copied to support@gmail.com because it is the same thing, right?
Lemmy isn’t Reddit. It has similar capabilities, but it is fundamentally different. Think email or web hosting, not one stop shop.
So? Reddit has about 10 sizeable Subs that are just a variation of "Ask Any and All Questions". That's not even counting speciality subs like "MedicalQuestions" or "ITQuestions" or "DermatologyQuestions" or "AskTrangender". Or the different language ones like "FragReddit" (German). In the end 1-3 will become the major ones, all will be a bit different and everyone will find the ones they like most.
Ask yourself if you subscribed to /r/tech or /r/technology or both or neither (or /r/pics, /r/pic etc., whatever you jam is) and you will have your answer.
A community name is just an address, both on Lemmy and on Reddit. It never mean that that address had the exclusive rights to a topic.
No offense, but you're argument reveals that you're thinking of all this fedi stuff as a service provided to you, like Facebook or reddit.
It is not. It is people like you and me creating and taking part in them.
These tools are BRAND NEW. It is likely the creators of one didn't know about the other(s) at that time. This is US doing all this for US not a corporation making tools to suck people in to advertise to.
Not gonna crit you further. You probably don't remember the internet before the corps ruined it.
Wait until they find out that there used to be hundreds of websites all talking about the same thing?
And it was magical.
Can you be any more condescending? Op has a point, it is not ideal to have the same community on different instances. There is no need to be a dick about it.
You have stepped through the Looking Glass, Alice. Welcome to the ~~Multi~~Fediverse.
I mean, are you really that concerned that you might miss some random question on one of the less popular ones?
You don't have to if you don't want to. Subscribe to the one you like best, and help grow that one.
Personally, I find myself only subscribing to and browsing communities on the local instance. The idea of the Fediverse is cool and all, but it's just way too much information for one person to process.
Some of these duplicate communities are just placeholders. But sometimes, the differences are obvious, where one community Is populated by jerks or modded by power-trippers.
Over time, the more popular community will become clear by the number of subscribers. (Or the real, topical one will give itself a different name to avoid confusion with the jerks).
Just subscribe to the most active one, just like with copycats on Reddit.
They don’t get the message that a similar community already exists because they are on separate instances. Due to defederation, it’s possible that not all of those communities will be visible from all other instances. This is one reason why it’s useful to have the same community across multiple instances.
There are 5 different forums on the internet about this topic.
You don't have to join all or any of them. But they are each available to you.
I think there will probably be a natural selection of which one prevails. But each instances may have different rules and different mods. So follow and unfollow the few that have what you like. It would be nice in the future though to ability to create aggregate subs or find aggregate subs like a multi-subreddit for a given topic.
For now yes, but over time probably no. Multiple communities around the same subject are created on different instances. They'll compete to become the most active one. Then everyone will subscribe to that one, and it will grow even more. However, if over time you don't like that one any more (e.g. don't agree with the mods) you can start a community with the same name somewhere else and compete again to become the most active one (or not, and stay small if that is preferred).
Should've missed the one in dbzer0. :D
No Stupid Questions
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