• [deleted]@piefed.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    17
    ·
    edit-2
    13 days 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.

    • dönerpate@feddit.orgOP
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      5
      ·
      13 days 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
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        13 days 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).

    • Ludicrous0251@piefed.zip
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      13 days 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
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    8
    ·
    13 days 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
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      13 days 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.

      • SorteKanin@feddit.dk
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        4
        ·
        13 days ago

        I feel like it is just a matter of time before either:

        1. The fragmented communities develop more and become distinct, so that they are more unique and shouldn’t merge.
        2. One of the communities becomes the more popular “default” option, and the other becomes less active as people gather in the more popular one.

        Even if that doesn’t happen, redundancy isn’t bad. We’ve seen how hard it is to migrate when there’s only 1 real option and that option disappears or goes bad for some reason (i.e. reddit). If there was another fairly active community with the same focus, that would make it easier to keep going. That’s part of why decentralization is good.

  • nimpnin@sopuli.xyz
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    3
    ·
    14 days ago

    IMO, a more opionate search would fix this. Just recommend the most active community and show the others in gray.

    • Lumidaub@feddit.org
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      8
      ·
      14 days ago

      That kills the less active ones and achieves the opposite of what Lemmy wants to do.

      • nimpnin@sopuli.xyz
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        13 days 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.

      • nimpnin@sopuli.xyz
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        4
        ·
        13 days 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.

    • kubofhromoslav@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      13 days ago

      Technically yes. The problem would be how to decide which community put in spotlight and which in grey (or any other meaningful distinction). Would it be automatic (if yes, how to decide the algorithm), or manual (if yes, how to decide how to left them). These things can be discussed out and solved, but we should be aware that these questions are here.

      And it would work only for real duplicates of communities, not healthy separated communities based on actual, conscious and cherished differences.

  • Derpenheim@lemmy.zip
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    2
    ·
    13 days ago

    Maybe I am misunderstanding something. I am on lemmy.zip, but I see communities from many different instances. How is it segregated?

  • kubofhromoslav@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    13 days ago

    Nice thing would be to have a structured way to clearly present differences between communities of same name. Eg. possibility to link (in machine readable way) in sidebar to other communities and mark them as pure duplicates, or state the actual difference. This information could show also in search and crosspoting dialog.