New user with a few questions I guess?

  1. Still trying to wrap my head around exactly how the fediverse works. I understand it is decentralized. Are kbin and lemmy somehow intermingled? Meaning am I able to view lemmy content here on kbin and interact with it without having to create an account on beehaw or whatever?

  2. What exactly is the difference between the upvote (and downvote) button and boost? Is boost just upvote but moreso?

  3. Is there a "save" function like reddit had, where you can bookmark posts to your profile?

  4. Is there an android app(s) for kbin?

  5. What are tags and badges? I just left them blank for this post.

  6. Is there anything else that I'm not asking that I should know?

  7. Are the answers to any of this in the FAQ and am I fucking up by not reading it?

Thanks all.

themadcodger,
themadcodger avatar
  1. You have the right idea. A common misconception about the fediverse is "I have a Reddit account, so I should be able to log into everywhere with that." It's more the opposite. Your login only works on the instance you signed up on. But that same account can talk to other Reddits, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, etc. so you don't really need more than one account. Though I do have a kbin, Calckey (Twitter) and Pixelfed (IG) account.

One other thing about the fediverse is that new instances don't magically know all the other instances out there. Someone has to either specifically search for something from the instance or boost it from a different instance. Basically someone needs to be the first person to start the interaction.

And with the fediverse, bad actors get blocked or defederated at the server level. That means they have no way of interacting with you. It they're truly bad, and they do and have existed for a while in some form or another, they do eventually become an island no one will interact with besides other terrible people. So when you join an instance check their rules and make an informed decision.

  1. Upvotes and downvotes are meaningless beyond telling the author good job or fuck you. There's not much of an algorithm in the fediverse; you are the algorithm. Boosts are where that comes in. They bump the post to the top of Active and add points towards Hot. If you go to Mastodon or Calckey (Twitter) you'll see favorite and boost. Upvotes map to favorites and boost is the same. A common theme around the fediverse is to use favorite/upvotes liberally since they don't mean anything and we all like being acknowledged. Use boosts to mean "I think people need to see this"

  2. There's not a save yet, but anything you boost you can find listed in your profile. It's a workaround for the time being.

  3. You've seen by now one is in the works. In the meantime I'm using the mobile web page as a PWA and it works pretty well.

  4. Tags are one place that kbin has an advantage over Lemmy. They don't do much here, but it's an important way of finding things in Mastodon/Calckey. When you create a 'magazine' whatever tags you put there, they'll be pulled into the microblogging section of your magazine. That makes it easy for you to interact with people in the fediverse without leaving kbin.

I haven't figured out badges yet, but I also forget to look.

  1. Be excellent to each other. Seriously though, this is a new world for us, let's shape it into something we can so be proud of.

Also, this whole thing is being done by a guy by himself. There will be growing pains like there were when Twitter first started and when Digg migrated to Reddit. Be patient, he's doing a lot of great things with limited resources. But this is open source, so if you have the capabilities, you can always lend a hand.

Hope that solves some confusion.

themadcodger,
themadcodger avatar

More on the upvotes and boosts from the dev.

Chozo,
Chozo avatar

This was very insightful, thank you!

Kaldo,
Kaldo avatar

I am very confused about the mastodon integration tbh. Is every thread on kbin also shown as a post on mastodon? Is every comment? Are you supposed to tag threads or comments with hashtags?

Or in the "microblogs" section, I guess that is just normal mastodon posts... how do you subscribe to anything there or is it always specifically local mastodon posts for the current instance, or maybe even for a specific community? Are you supposed to tag stuff there or is it automatically tagged based on where you wrote them for?

Also, on a more abstract level, what is the purpose of microblogs? Is it supposed to be a twitter area where users post their daily experiences and personal stuff, or should it be always relevant to instance/community?

It's just such a weird amalgamate of social networks...

themadcodger,
themadcodger avatar

It's everything everywhere all at once! Though for real, all the information on the fediverse is always there available to everyone, but it's a pull method not a push, so you have to ask to see it, it's not forced on you.

This conversation we're having is visible to anyone on Mastodon/Calckey that is following either of us, or this post, or magazine. But chances are slim that anyone is. @ernest is the dev here and I follow him on Calckey so I see his posts there as well.

You can tag threads here with hashtags, but they're not super important unless you're trying to gain visibility on other corners of the fediverse. That said, feel free to tag away in general. It won't hurt anything, and might get more interaction if you do.

The microblog section is set by the mod that created the instance. They choose relevant hashtags and those get populated into the microblogging section. So you can go there and see relevant conversations happening outside of kbin/Lemmy that you can participate in.

As for the abstract level, yeah microblogging is Twitter like, so somewhat less permanent daily thoughts or whatever. From the kbin side it would make sense to keep it relevant to the topic of the magazine you're in.

It's not trying to be a mashup of all the social networks rather it's allowing you to interact with it they way you want. If the rest of the fediverse doesn't interest you, you can easily just stay in kbin. But if you want to comment on someone's video in Peertube or thought on Calckey, you can from here.

Kaldo,
Kaldo avatar

Ok that's pretty damn interesting and wild, I will have to wrap my head around it somehow. Thanks for an in-depth explanation!

themadcodger,
themadcodger avatar

Of course! We were all new once (I haven't been here that long myself) and just trying to pay it forward.

If you want to test it out, you can search for me @madcodger@calckey.social and then follow me here. I don't post much and you don't have to stay followed, but it would be a way to play with cross functionality.

Lohrun,
Lohrun avatar

I’d imagine there are other developers such as myself that are leaving Reddit and coming over to the fediverse. Do you know if the Kbin dev has open sourced the code and wants help?

themadcodger,
themadcodger avatar

https://codeberg.org/Kbin/kbin-core

He can correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe @ernest is open to collaborative efforts.

Kierunkowy74,

Badges should be equivalent of flairs (Reddit), but I don't know if they already work.

jmorlin,
jmorlin avatar

Thanks man, this is actually pretty helpful. Covers most of what I was asking for.

themadcodger,
themadcodger avatar

Glad it was helpful!

Thepinyaroma,

I'm new too, but to #1 - I saw this post on and am commenting from Lemmy! The Jerboa app in particular. It's not quite RIF but after messing with the settings it's fantastic.

The whole thing is still very confusing to me but I love how we can all interact.

NRVulture,
NRVulture avatar

I'm a bit confused with the "interconnected" aspect of the fediverse. I left a comment on a lemmy.world post through kbin.social (kbin.social/m/lemmyworld@lemmy.world/xxxxxx). I can see my comment on the post through kbin.social (kbin.social/m/lemmyworld@lemmy.world/xxxxxx) but not on lemmy.world (lemmy.world/post/xxxx). Am I doing something wrong?

fr0g,

am I able to view lemmy content here on kbin and interact with it without having to create an account on beehaw or whatever?

In the vast majority of cases, yes. Some servers might not decide to talk to each other, but that's not a kbin/lemmy thing, but a fediverse thing in general and not very prevalent.

What exactly is the difference between the upvote (and downvote) button and boost? Is boost just upvote but moreso?

Boosts are used to brodcast posts to your followers. The same as in mastodon or retweets on twitter.

Is there a "save" function like reddit had, where you can bookmark posts to your profile?

I don't think there's a specific feature for that yet. But if you look at your profile, you can see your own boosts. So you could ise it as a pseudo-bookmark in the meantime (although there's still a bug in that boost section of the profile which shoumd get sorted the next couple days)

Is there an android app(s) for kbin?

No, not yet. I think there are some plans for a progressive web app, but no mobile app proper is being developed yet as far as I know

Kaldo,
Kaldo avatar

No, not yet. I think there are some plans for a progressive web app, but no mobile app proper is being developed yet as far as I know

Is Jerboa ever meant to work with kbin? I kinda hoped it would since it's all a fediverse / activityPub based tech, are lemmy and kbin that different?

fr0g,

No, that's not gonna work. Just like you can't use your Mastodon app for Lemmy. But if you prefer the Jerboa UI, you can just sign-up for a lemmy server and still participate in all kbin discussions and vice versa, so you wouldn't be missing out on much on that sense

Alue42,

I'm a new user, too. Came over as soon as I saw r/kbinmigration was banned because I figured that must mean it's a big deal.

I had the same questions as you for 2 and 3. For 7: there's a FAQ? Where? That's probably helpful. Maybe.

But also, I figured out what a magazine is, but what's the difference between a thread, a post, and a microblog?

themadcodger,
themadcodger avatar

Posts are the top level, so "New user with a few questions I guess". We're in a thread right now by me responding to your comment. And microblogs are where it pulls in relevant hashtags from the rest of the fediverse outside of kbin/Lemmy that you can comment on from here in kbin. Each magazine owner sets the hashtags it follows.

justinionn,
justinionn avatar

I can't even work out how to subscribe to magazines. 😐

themadcodger,
themadcodger avatar

At the very bottom of the page there's a subscribe button for any magazine you're currently on.

justinionn,
justinionn avatar

Thanks so much. It's obvious when you know it's there. 😶

I was looking for some kind of side-menu (maybe with a "+" sign) around the top of my screen.

I've got it now. Thanks so much! ☺️

Wisely,

Is that the only way to subscribe? Seems there should be a way to subscribe at the top or at least fast scroll down to the subscribe button. Irritating for a new user but I guess it doesn't matter much once you are subscribed to your interests.

I also have a problem where the right of posts is cut off my screen in profile mode. Is this meant to only be viewed in landscape?

SamMitches,

I'm viewing from chrome in android, if you click the three lines in the top left, then magazines, you'll get a list of common magazines (maybe? maybe they're random?). I had to scroll the list to the left to find the buttons to subscribe, on mobile at least it doesn't display the entire table at once.

zeste,
zeste avatar

I'm on Firefox for android but if I click on a magazine link, and then the little hamburger lines at the top left of the screen it takes me to a sidebar where it has the title of the magazine and the icon and a subscribe button.

HeartyBeast,
HeartyBeast avatar

If you're on mobile scroll right down to the bottom of the post you are reading and you will see options to subscribe to the magazine. Hope that's useful

justinionn,
justinionn avatar

Very useful. Thanks! I'd have never have seen it!

sxt,
sxt avatar

For #4 at least I think kbin.pub shows there being an app being in progress. Not sure how close to release it is.

Early days for a lot of this stuff, but I'm pretty excited to see it all develop.

aroom,
aroom avatar

I found an iOS app in development (https://lemmy.ml/c/mlemapp), but unfortunately you can only log into a lemmy account. it's not compatible with kbin. this is kind of an issue, because we need to catch the momentum and third party app are allies.

mike1237,

Furthermore, how do upvotes appear to lemmy or mastodon users? And boosts?

fr0g,

Upvotes are upvotes on lemmy and likes on mastodon. Boosts are boosts on mastodon and don't exist on lemm afaik.

Nilesse,

For your question 1: I'm on Beehaw and was able to see your post :)

Wilshire,
@Wilshire@beehaw.org avatar

I don't know enough to comment about Kbin.

I use Lemmy with the Jerboa app on Android, and it has bookmarks.

I learned that you can search for more remote communities with "!communityname"

Toxinflora, (edited )
@Toxinflora@lemmy.ml avatar
  1. I am from a lemmy instance and yes it is intermingled. you can post on lemmy posts and view them from kbin and vice versa, depending on where your account is located and that is how the federation works
  4. I don't know about kbin but for lemmy it has jerboa as well as lemmur, but that one is broken
speck,

Can you speak to why/how content from will (or won't) show up here on kbin?

Xylia, (edited )

From what I’ve gathered, you can search and results from Lemmy instances will show up in the Kbin search.

You can also use a url scheme. For example, to connect to the steamdeck community at Lemmy.ml through Kbin, you can go to http://kbin.social/m/steamdeck@lemmy.ml

The UX isn’t perfect. I’d like more clear differentiation between communities and a better search/discovery for content within the fediverse.

EDIT: I found a comment from the admin explaining how to search for communities from specific instances

https://kbin.social/m/fediverse@lemmy.ml/t/9993/Difference-between-kbin-and-lemmy#entry-comment-42149

Lohrun,
Lohrun avatar

So I understand that to get content indexed from an instance someone has to search for that instance in a particular way.

I’m having the same problem I did on Reddit though. How am I supposed to find communities that I want to subscribe to? If they aren’t indexed then they won’t show up in all and I won’t have a clue to search for them to get them indexed. If they are indexed I might see them in all and can subscribe… for the most part though finding communities I’m interested in feels like random chance.

Like I said, I had the same issue finding subs on Reddit. It was a little easier with Reddit because of Google indexing posts and comments but I don’t know how much indexing Google is doing of fediverse stuff because everything is distributed.

loreasaurus,

That’s the issue I’m currently running into as well. Along with a lot of my communities probably not switching over because they’re very non-technical, haha.

jmorlin,
jmorlin avatar

Thanks for the reply man. Are there any restrictions on how a kbin user can interact with a lemmy post or visa versa?

Toxinflora,
@Toxinflora@lemmy.ml avatar

well since the two software have different features i assume there are some things that don't pass over to the other side like boosts, which i don't think exist in lemmy will not show up in lemmy

  • All
  • Subscribed
  • Moderated
  • Favorites
  • •
  • kbinMeta
  • ngwrru68w68
  • DreamBathrooms
  • thenastyranch
  • magazineikmin
  • InstantRegret
  • GTA5RPClips
  • Youngstown
  • everett
  • slotface
  • rosin
  • osvaldo12
  • mdbf
  • kavyap
  • cubers
  • megavids
  • modclub
  • normalnudes
  • tester
  • khanakhh
  • Durango
  • ethstaker
  • tacticalgear
  • Leos
  • provamag3
  • anitta
  • cisconetworking
  • JUstTest
  • lostlight
  • All magazines
    •