CynAq
CynAq avatar

CynAq

@CynAq@kbin.social

I put together a guide aimed at Redditors for Kbin and Lemmy! (beehaw.org)

I want to preface, if you see a mistake in the image or have something helpful to add, go right ahead! I still have the layered files for this, so edits can be made very quickly. I chose to handwrite the text to avoid font copyright infringement....

CynAq, (edited )
CynAq avatar

I don't agree with the "it doesn't matter which one you join" part because each instance offers a different user experience, even though technically they are interconnected, and depending on mostly the size of the instance someone chooses, their experience can make or break the usability of the fediverse in their eyes.

I think people should be directed to instances with already vibrant communities and then when they learn the ropes, they'll find their best fit anyway.

CynAq,
CynAq avatar

Holy moly, that's insane!

I do all of those things too because why wouldn't I?
Is there anything as to the outcome of the arrests? Also what was the reason in the first place for the police to be interested in these people?

CynAq,
CynAq avatar

I think you might have just sold me the game. Someone should pay you.

CynAq,
CynAq avatar

And this is why we shouldn't keep saying "it doesn't matter which instance you sign up on" to newcomers.

I think the best approach would be to make a list of the most vibrant and general purpose instances, at least a few of them, and direct people to those. Once they figure it out, they'll find their best fit anyway. If their initial experience is in a particularly slow or very niche instance, they might abandon the platform altogether due to the wrong impression they get.

That's exactly what happened to me with mastodon because the first instance I signed up for was too niche and too small. It just felt dead. It was the same three or four people posting disjointed stuff and never interacting with each other by the looks of things. I figured it out in time but that was a bad first impression nonetheless.

A small FAQ to hopefully help new users to kbin (kilioa.org)

I wanted to post this here since I want to help as much as I can in my own way to people coming here for the first time. I hope it is useful and helpful! I tried to assume low knowledge with the Fediverse in my responses which I collected here from a different post and assembled into a single article....

/kbin logotype
CynAq,
CynAq avatar

I think this does a good enough job as a clarification of concepts. Thanks for the time you put into it! Also I personally thought you were polite, and not at all condescending. Didn't even cross my mind.

CynAq,
CynAq avatar

I've been using mastodon for a few months even though not very actively, so when reddit shenanigans took a turn for the worse, I looked for an alternative and found out about kbin.

For me it was pretty straight forward. Following feeds from other instances is simple enough to do but the exact user experience varies depending on which service you're using.

Right now from kbin, I'm following my own mastodon account and a few communities from mastodon, a couple from lemmy and several from beehaw.

Personally, I'm hopeful. I think as more people figure things out and the culture of the system starts to spread more mainstream, it (the fediverse as a whole) will make a good platform for all sorts of social media needs from twitter-like microblogging to forum discussions.

CynAq,
CynAq avatar

I don't think they'll cave in, and honestly I don't care what they do.

People like us made reddit what it is, and we can make a home somewhere else one way or the other.

It's time we take the internet as a whole back from the billionaires and their soulless venture capital firms anyway.

Make internet nerdy again, I always say.

CynAq, (edited )
CynAq avatar

Haha, lol!

I nuked my twelve year old account yesterday and I'm literally not even sad. That joke of an AMA sealed the deal for me.
The best part for me personally is, I got an excuse to finally migrate to fediverse. I'm joining a discussion on lemmy from kbin while following stuff from mastodon and beehaw.

It's nerdy and fun. Also, interestingly, feels more reliable. You don't like the people running one service, did the owner turn out to be an utter sociopath? Go, make an account on somewhere better suited to your style and keep engaging with the same communities, maybe at the cost of a different UI experience. It's much preferable to losing an entire platform to the whims of a few at the top.

CynAq,
CynAq avatar

Good faith is the key here. I'm all for disagreements leading to lengthy discussions and even some controversy as long as everyone is arguing in good faith.

I can't stand trolling, outright bigotry, and the normalization of literal fascist opinions as a mere "disagreement". If a "disagreement" (you know which ones I mean) will lead to people dying if enabled, I'm pretty happy keeping those ideas out.

CynAq,
CynAq avatar

Did beehaw block lemmygrad?

As a reddit convert who just started on kbin, where can I read a bit about all this communists thing? I'm left leaning enough to call myself communist between friends and family so I'd like to observe where the political tendencies of these various instances lie. If it's too much of a hassle, never mind. I'll probably figure it out soon enough.

CynAq,
CynAq avatar

Ok, I see...

Thanks for the link. I'll try to read it through. I also completely agree with your stance on bonkers reactionary right wingers. I won't be too picky about a couple dozen tankies, thank you.

CynAq,
CynAq avatar

I heard Krystal Ball say it might be a move to somewhat reestablish the trust in the SC after the RvW decision demolished it. I guess both of these ideas make some sense.

gruber, to random
@gruber@mastodon.social avatar

Microsoft should create and launch a Reddit clone, keep the API completely open for client developers (but not data miners), pay top Reddit moderators to move their communities over, and use the project’s data for continuously training their own AI models.

CynAq,
CynAq avatar

@gruber

Great idea! The first sub they should set up as default is WCGW

CynAq,
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I thought adults knew what the hell they were talking about.

And I thought the weirdly anthropomorphic looking chimney of the building on the hill across from my house was a giant robot waiting to be activated in case aliens invaded.

CynAq,
CynAq avatar

Don't believe this person. You'll be out of hundreds of bucks if not thousands in no time. Plastic's expensive, and addictive. Don't ask how I know.

TIL The statue of young David was made from a flawed piece of marble that had been ruined by two artists, and no one was willing to work on it. Despite the flaws in the marble, Michelangelo accepted the challenge and created this masterpiece. (www.britannica.com)

Michelangelo turned an unfinished statue into an iconic piece of Renaissance art.

CynAq,
CynAq avatar

I would love if someone knowledgeable in sculpture can clarify the flaws in the marble.

The article mentions mediocre quality and says it was confirmed by modern analysis but doesn't get into what differentiates good quality marble from a bad one.

CynAq, to blender
CynAq avatar

@viciousflamingos (is this how we mention users?)

I gather the threads section of this magazine is intended for people to post blender creations, original work or otherwise, and the microblog is for general discussion. Am I correct?

/kbin quick update

As you noticed, I had to temporarily enable DDoS protection. Someone is trying quite effectively to distract me from my activities ;p Unfortunately, this may cause some issues with the federation. I will try to cut off the traffic as soon as possible and return to normal operation. Thank you for all your support and patience! :)

CynAq,
CynAq avatar

Yup. I'm loving it so far in terms of functionality.

General community experience is to be seen but I'm hopeful.

CynAq, (edited )
CynAq avatar

Edit: I visited beehaw.org, which seems to be a relatively large fediverse site (I'm new, don't judge), and their communities tab lists communities they host locally and others they are federated with. You can subscribe to any one of them through kbin by pasting the full address of the community (which looks like communityname@hosturl, usually listed on the right hand side column in the community) into kbin's search bar.

Also the notifications for comment replies are turned off by default on kbin. Actually, all notifications seem to be off. It detracts from the new user experience as people don't realize their comments have been replied to. Turn on your notifications in your settings!

I'm wondering this too. And if there's a good way to see what instances there are in the first place.

I'm quite sure I understand how the overall "fediverse" system works on a technical level, and I think most people are quite capable of understanding the architecture of the system.

What people are confused about when they ask how this works (and are answered with useless email analogies and metaphors as to how the architecture is set up) is the user experience of finding curated content similar to a way they are used to getting on centralized systems.

I don't think most people are confused about what federation is or how the underlying protocol works, nor do they need the details unless they are interested in creating and hosting their own instances. What people are wondering is how they can recreate a reddit-like (or twitter like, in the case of mastodon) experience, while the decentralized nature of the system seemingly makes it impossible.

CynAq,
CynAq avatar

Exactly, and this is fundamentally a User Experience question which should be answered with directives rather than explanations of how the protocol works.

At least on kbin, you can go to your notification settings and turn on comment and post reply notifications which are turned off by default for some reason.

CynAq,
CynAq avatar

I can see how that might result from the general style of the answers people are getting when they ask how to start using this system. Things like "it's like email" or "it doesn't matter which one you sign up on as every instance can see the other instances they are federated with" can very well lead to the impression that a single user account works on all instances sharing the protocol.

I still think the reason for this is people are actually asking about the user experience rather than the way the protocol works. When they are answered with the above, instead of "go to the largest instance you can sign up at and start asking questions" and "if you go to a small instance it'll be very quiet and you'll get the feeling that all of this is really hopeless".

First and foremost, and I know this freaks out the decentralization first users who value that above the lively environment, people should be directed to where everyone else is if we want any sort of widespread adoption. Even if people flock to one instance, the decentralized nature of the protocol will still act as a safeguard against monopolization because once people learn the ropes, it's trivial to migrate to another instance which doesn't have whatever that is you don't like about your first instance.

CynAq,
CynAq avatar

If you read all of my posts on this thread, I think I gathered some useful information for newcommers from reddit.

If you manage to find your way around after reading my comments, it might be very useful to make a post gathering everything you did until you landed on an acceptable user experience. I intend to do it myself but after flailing about for hours, I'm tired and hungry right now. Maybe we should both do it so more people have a chance to read them.

CynAq,
CynAq avatar

This place will need serious server upgrades soon by the looks of things.

CynAq,
CynAq avatar

The bane of my existence in any pvp game is crowd control mechanics.

In general, I hate every player skill in pvp games which take away the opponent's ability to play.

CynAq,
CynAq avatar

It's really shitty they are doing this. When desktops are providing way better price to performance ratio, they are trying to create the illusion that you can still get comparable performance with a slight increase in price, when in reality you are sacrificing a substantial amount of performance for mobility.

If they made this part clear, I don't think there would be any appreciable decrease in laptop sales too.

Do you think anyone opts to buy a laptop when they have no absolute need for mobility?

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