_finger_Jun 13, 2023

Are we using Lemmy correctly?

https://lemmy.world/post/94448

Are we using Lemmy correctly? - Lemmy.world

What I think could make Lemmy superior to Reddit is the ability to create themed-instances that are all linked together which feels like the entire point. I’ve noticed that a lot of instances are trying to be a catch-all Reddit replacement by imitating specific subs which is understandable given the circumstances but seems like it’s not taking advantage of the full power that Lemmy could have. Imagine for a moment that instances were more focus-based. Instead of having communities that are all mostly unrelated we had entire instances that are focused on one specific area of expertise or interest. Imagine a LOTR instance that had many sub-communities (in this case “communities” would be the wrong way to look at it, it would be more like categories) that dealt with different subjects in the LOTR universe: books, movies, lore, gaming, art, etc all in the same instance. Imagine the types of instances that could be created with more granular categories within to better guide conversations: Baseball, Cars, Comics, Movies, Tech etc. A tech instance could have dedicated communities for news, programming, dev, IT, Microsoft, Apple, iOS, linux. Or you could make it even more granular by having a dedicated instance for each of those because there’s so many categories that could be applied to each. What are your thoughts?

Show threadtwistedtxb

I think it will more of less follow that path naturally in the years to come, if it ever catches on. You can already see this happening with some instances (ie lemmy.ca mostly devoted to canadian topics, etc)

You have to remember that the amount of lemmy servers exploded in the past week or so. We're pretty much figuring this out collectively

Jun 13, 2023 at 1:24pmWeb
Show threadDocMcStuffinJun 13, 2023
I agree. I think it's going to be a bit of column A and a bit of column B. There will be the large general instances. Along with more regional and topical instances like feddit.de and programming.dev. Then a whole bunch of small instances that represent the long tail.
programming.dev - A collection of programming communities

I’ve been day dreaming about a social media platform built entirely on a peer-to-peer (P2P) model, leveraging the existing BitTorrent protocol. The idea is to decentralize content creation, distribution, and moderation, eliminating the need for centralized servers and control. Here’s the high-level vision: - Posts as Torrents: Every original post creates and seeds a torrent file on behalf of the OP. - Upvotes as Seeds: Upvoting a post downloads and seeds the post, reinforcing its availability. - Comments as Torrents: Each comment generates and seeds a torrent file somehow linked to the original post. - Comment Upvotes as Seeds: Upvoting a comment downloads and seeds the comment, amplifying engagement. - Text Only: to avoid exposing users to potentially graphic content (due to lack of centralized moderation) this platform would initially be limited to text content only. This would also drastically reduce the compute and bandwidth requirements of the seeder. - Custom BitTorrent Clients: Open-source Social Media BitTorrent clients would display the most popular social media content by day, week, month, or year. These clients would allow users to seed only the content they find valuable thus organically moderating the network of ideas. Relevant content continues to be seeded and shared, while outdated or unpopular content fades due to a lack of seeds. This setup seems like it could address key issues in traditional social media—privacy, censorship, and centralized control—while naturally prioritizing high-value content. Why hasn’t a system like this been widely adopted? Is it a matter of technical limitations, lack of a viable economic model, or something else? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Show threaddizzyJun 13, 2023
waveform.social is handling a lot of music-making topics. I think this is better than simply being region based. I understand the need for communities of different languages but I don’t really understand the need for ones specific to different english-speaking regions. Instances based on similar interests makes the most sense to me.
Show threadlinusbeeftipsJun 13, 2023
It may make a difference in speed if you are closer to the actually server (IE, it's in your country)
Show threadSpziJun 13, 2023

I don’t really understand the need for ones specific to different english-speaking regions

Makes perfect sense for regional events. This can be anything like weather, disasters, military excercises, cultural or sports events, regional politics, infrastructure projects, astronomy ...

On my local subreddit, I was able to check what that noise was that I just heard, where all the emergency vehicles are racing towards, or follow hilarious regional stories.

Of course, for non-regional topics like music (unless it's a regional event) I'd go to a non-regional sub or community.