We Should Focus On Building Kbin, Not Getting Back at Reddit. Here's How We Do It.

While most of the people here upset and rightfully so, we have got to move past the angst to actually build this place out.

We have to recreate the environment and communities we've created on on Reddit here, so that people don't feel like they're missing out being on kbin.

That way, the next time Spez goes full Elon, we already have everything in place to make the jump.

I help run r/MMA on Reddit. We aggregate news as well as bringing on MMA figures for AMAs.

We, like many other magazines here, will need a way to quickly aggregate breaking news onto our magazine, and the easiest way to do that is going to be through a bot that mirrors submissions to our subreddit.

At least for the mags that rely on breaking news, if we implement this at scale, the end user wont be missing much by migrating over here if they get all the same great breaking news.

Do we have any bot builders in the house who could take this on as a project?

We would be leveraging Reddit's own userbase at scale to better kbin, and eventually beat them in the long run. That's the biggest L we could ever deal them.

EDIT: WASN'T SURE THIS WAS GONNA BLOW UP. IVE MADE https://kbin.social/m/BotIt FOR DEVELOPMENT. IF YOU'RE INTERESTED AND CAN HELP OR JUST WANT TO FOLLOW THE PROJECT, COME ON OVER. THANKS.

JoeKrogan,
@JoeKrogan@lemmy.world avatar

The best thing we can do is be active here. Make the effort to get involved, post , report idiots and be civil. This goes beyond reddit, it is about getting out from under the thumb of corporate control. We can't have free expression if the narritive is being controlled.

JoeKrogan,
@JoeKrogan@lemmy.world avatar

Also we have networks here we can draw upon, devs , artists , folks who make videos, people who write, etc we can. Ask them for help to create videos and promotional material to quickly explain the fediverse in a simple and concise way.

tikitaki,
tikitaki avatar

100% agree

our social media sites need to be open source and decentralized. any other way will lead to the slow inevitable march of enshittification

lixus98,
lixus98 avatar

Devs (like me) can help, the main issue is hosting the bot somewhere and covering the costs, but I think is a good idea.

BasicallyClean,
BasicallyClean avatar

I made https://kbin.social/m/BotIt for us to congregate

BasicallyClean, (edited )
BasicallyClean avatar

Maybe create a magazine for it to get some additional support? I could edit the top post.

EDIT: https://kbin.social/m/BotIt

lixus98,
lixus98 avatar

I will take a look at the technical side, I want to know how easy it is to make something like this. I won't make promises but if manage to get something working I'll let you know.

ChemicalRascal,
ChemicalRascal avatar

I don't think basic scraping will be particularly difficult, especially if the rates are kept low. While I also don't think it's actually the right way forward, I'll happily help out.

lixus98,
lixus98 avatar

You think using the api is better? I'll take a look at it

ChemicalRascal,
ChemicalRascal avatar

No, no, I think it would ultimately be better to rely on people to post stuff. But scraping links would be better than using the API.

I_Miss_Daniel,
I_Miss_Daniel avatar

The API prices are high, but maybe it can be done with just one or two calls, which would make it almost nothing. Of course, the API might just disappear one day.

ChemicalRascal,
ChemicalRascal avatar

Nah, I mean more that I think relying on people to just post stuff themselves would be better for the community. But scraping would be the way forward, relying on the API would be prohibitively expensive IMO.

HaleyHalcyon,
HaleyHalcyon avatar

Fuck the API, scrape the HTML from old.reddit.com for free

BasicallyClean,
BasicallyClean avatar

https://kbin.social/m/BotIt if you would be willing to help

BasicallyClean,
BasicallyClean avatar

If Reddit has proven anything as of late, they're unreliable as a partner.

I'm clearly not a developer but would have reservations in relying on the API just for how erratic they are.

llama,
@llama@midwest.social avatar

Even if it was just the top upvoted link post per sub each day, that would give a lot of content here to get started and make communities (or magazines kbin parlance) look alive. Once people start posting on their own it won't be needed anymore.

TGRush,

Pro Tip:

instead of linking to magazines with their links, do it something like this:

@BotIt@kbin.social
@BotIt

This way no matter what server you're viewing from, you'll stay logged in.

aeternum,

You can get VPS's for like $30 a year these days.

Aeonx,
Aeonx avatar

I keep hearing this but all the VPS solutions I find cost an arm + leg. What VPS solutions cost $30/year?

topnomi,
topnomi avatar

Vultr has VPSs starting at $2.50/mo ($30/yr)

I also commonly find links to really cheap servers on nerdvittles.com

Example:
https://my.racknerd.com/cart.php?a=add&pid=735
$13/mo

Aeonx,
Aeonx avatar

What are the decentralized p2p storage options for hosting bots, would decentralized hosting and storage options be a viable solution?

abff08f4813c,
abff08f4813c avatar

I've built scrapping bots like this before. Would definitely be an interesting project.

BasicallyClean,
BasicallyClean avatar

https://kbin.social/m/BotIt lets do it!

MartianInAHumansBody,

Agreed about the mirror of posts. Even if the engagement isn't as high yet, if people at least feel they can get the rough news feed they are used to, they'll more likely jump over

ghariksforge,

The fiercest way to get back at Reddit and u/spez is to make the Fediverse succeed.

porquenolosdos,

You don't recreate the existing communities, you create a new, more compelling experience. If you do that the communities will come here all by themselves. Work on the software, let the user bases of the different instances build their own communities.

Faendol,

I'm a Lemmy user but I absolutely think the fediverse could be the real web 3.0. Corporations showed they can't be trusted to build sustainable products. I'd much prefer to build up the fediverse to a point where it is seriously competitive than to go back to reddit. Even if they roll back the changes now they've shown their hand. They are just going to keep finding more ways to squeeze users for profit.

jasonhaven,

Kbin needs quite a few UX improvements, speaking as a designer/photographer

I don't know anything about development though

yungsinatra,

Ah it seems I wasn't the only one who thought about this - https://kbin.social/m/RedditMigration/t/38958/Bot-that-will-repost-reddit-content-to-kbin-fediverse#entry-comment-159480 !!! Fully support this idea, will join the magazine and see how I can contribute to mirroring content from Reddit to Kbin.

BasicallyClean,
BasicallyClean avatar

Yep it was my 2nd ever post on here from a week ago: https://kbin.social/m/kbinMeta/t/10949/Could-Someone-Build-a-Bot-that-Mirrors-Subreddit-Submissions#comments

Glad this one took off and we can hopefully build this. Fingers crossed.

LostCause,

Agreed, I‘m actually on somewhat of an upvoting and commenting spree and creating accounts on all sorts of instances. I know I can move around too, but with defederating being a thing I prefer multiple accounts. Kbin so far visually is the nicest to me and it loads super fast!

LedgeDrop,

If I understand correctly: your suggesting to copy/mirror/link Reddit content to Lemmy.

As others have mentioned, this'll be difficult and also a legal grey area.

But why not flip it around? Try to encourage discussions on Lemmy and submit the links/crosspost to Reddit.

PabloDiscobar, (edited )
PabloDiscobar avatar

Do not make this place a mirror of reddit.

I'm not even talking about the legality of mirroring another site. You really want to give ammo to the CEO of reddit and allow him to claim that his competitors are attempting to mirror his content?? Can you imagine how he is going to use this if you do it?

Just post your own content, if you have a real interest into MMA then it should be easy.

We have to recreate the environment and communities we've created on on Reddit here, so that people don't feel like they're missing out being on kbin.

The "fear of missing out" is something you should not listen to. Do not replicate the content of reddit, why would you do that? Just create your own content. If it's news then read your sources and post the news.

We, like many other magazines here, will need a way to quickly aggregate breaking news onto our magazine

Well, post something if you find it interesting. And let other people post what they think is interesting. You don't need no machinery for that. We want quality content, not the quantity delivered by a spambot machine, which in the ends are adbots, posting advertised stuff like the endless NBA stuff. If you read nothing interesting in the news then post nothing in your subs.

We must not duplicate what reddit did wrong. And the 3rd party tool is not the only thing that reddit did wrong. What reddit did wrong is content for the sake of content, for the thumb constantly swiping down. This is not good for reddit and this is not good for kbin. This is good for no one.

The quality and content of reddit collapsed, do not duplicate it here.

We want the creators, not the followers. Do not listen to the followers who are addicted to new content. I don't want people just watching the endless ribbon of news, posting a "lol" or a one liner from time to time. Are you sure that you are not the one who fears of missing out? Are you dependent on popularity or somethin'? Because it surely looks like so.

What next? You want to mirror publicfreakout so we again watch american people fight into airplanes and governors banning books on the other side of the planet? Because this is what you're gonna get.

edit: And we didn't even talk about the COST of handling automated, mirrored content. If reddit cannot pay for it then neither can Ernest.

edit: If all of you who upvoted OP instead posted something they find interesting in the subs they follow then we would not have this discussion.

tikitaki,
tikitaki avatar

You want to mirror publicfreakout so we again watch american people fight into airplanes and governors banning books on the other side of the planet? Because this is what you're gonna get.

what is so wrong with this? the reason reddit is successful is because there are infinite genres of content. i think you make a strong argument that we shouldn't mirror reddit..

but people posting videos like /r/fightporn or /r/crazyfuckingvideos or whatever I think is perfectly fine and should be encouraged

PabloDiscobar,
PabloDiscobar avatar

what is so wrong with this?

What's wrong? There are people fighting around the world all the time. This is not content, this is distraction. And now there is distraction specially created FOR publicfreakout, with people picking fight just so they can have a video and post it to reddit. This is just an example of what is wrong. Do you want this "content" here? I don't.

If we mirror reddit: first we won't be able to pay the bill, this argument alone should discredit the mirror thing. Second, we will encounter the same deadweight problem that redit encountered.

Please post content that matters to you, not to what you think the audience want.

nonfuinoncuro,

Please post content that matters to you, not to what you think the audience want.

This. I think the existence of karma and people's natural obsession for building a "brand" and profile with statistics you can watch increase as you satisfy your audience led to a performative aspect of posting and commenting which resulted in a hive mind mentality and degrading of quality to the lowest common denominator. You see this in popular music, airport books, mainstream media, Hollywood remakes and sequels, housing developments, cars and appliances, Amazon products, and plastic surgery recipients. I'm not sure what the solution is, up/down voting is a very good solution to the old school forums/BBSs that were cluttered with junk, but I think not having karma for posting or commenting on the fediverse is a good first step. I think having the freedom to jump federations and defederate is also key as well as the ability to aggregate/"view all" across all sites allows people to see everything all at once to avoid FOMO.

cowvin,

If you want an even dirtier approach, you'd make a browser extension that scrapes reddit as your browse it and forwards links you upvote to kbin / lemmy or whatever. This has the benefit of being indistinguishable from regular browser traffic as far as reddit is concerned so they won't notice.

tchambers,
tchambers avatar

Fully agree with every word.

oceaniceternity,
@oceaniceternity@sakurajima.moe avatar

@BasicallyClean It's an interesting take on how to accellerate a migration. And I hope to see it work and for kbin to grow.

BasicallyClean,
BasicallyClean avatar

Thank you!

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