I get “Instance is not registered” when trying to look up a local community here:
Is there a reason that slrpnk.net is not listed?
Yes, we discussed this a while ago when lemmy-federate first came up and decided this is a bad tool for smaller instances as it makes the “All” feed worthless for thematic discovery and also puts additional strain on the server resources for posts and comments no one on our instance is actually interested in.
It is a less clear proposition for one-way participation (outgoing only), which AFAIK was added later, but I personally remain skeptical that this is a tool that is healthy for the overall Lemmy federation.
It is a less clear proposition for one-way participation (outgoing only)
Could you explain? This would help communities on SLRPNK get discovered on other instances but not flood the “All” feed with any and all communities on Lemmy Federate, right? Would there be any reason not to do so other than for the benefit of those on other instances who are not interested in Solarpunk-related communities?
Yes more or less.
Thanks for clearing that up.
Perhaps it should be more obviously noted somewhere how the “All” feed is populated. For someone who thinks that what they see there is quite literally ALL of Lemmy, other communities may as well not exist. Of course, that is not a SLRPNK issue but part of how Lemmy works.
I think it is a mistake to think of Lemmy as “Lemmy” in singular. Lemmy is just one of the software options that can be used to run independent websites that can optionally interact with each other via the ActvityPub protocol. The “All” feed is quite literally all that people on the same website have subscribed to, which is not a bad thing at all if you chose an instance with like minded people. Just think of it as crowdsourcing the discovery of interesting communities.
…And I just saw another instance providing a basic explanation in the sidebar. baraza.africa has a “What is where?” section. Something like that on slrpnk.net that includes this explanation or links to your comment here would probably help the newbs.
This is precisely what I mean. You and I know that, but the average user might not, and so they would be less likely to discover similar/interesting communities on other instances, especially if they have their account on a relatively small instance, and would not even know to look for them elsewhere. Your explanation here, exactly as you’ve written it, would be helpful to people new to the Fediverse. If slrpnk.net won’t use Lemmy Federate, then perhaps posting this explanation somewhere would let people know that “this is not all that there is” available to them.
Maybe it would be a good thing to add a first time login guide or so to the UI, but I don’t think these minute details will matter much to first time users.
I can’t really say for sure what first-time users would find useful, but having the explanation couldn’t hurt. People who don’t care won’t read it anyway.
