If I use the search option, what happens? Do the results of the search differ depending on which instance I am, which communities I join, and which app I run to view Lemmy? Are only community names searched, or also posts, comments or usernames?
I’m using Jerboa for Android and my instance is feddit.nl btw.
Jerboa doesn’t support searching posts yet I believe, just the communities across all instances
You can search by:
- Subscribed = only communities you’ve subscribed to
- Local = only the instance you’re a part of
- All = all instances that have been federated with your instance, including your own.
You can also filter by specific communities, creators, or by keyword(s).
If you want to add a community from another instance that you can’t find in search, you can either enter:
- !communityName@instance.name Or
- Paste the full url into your instance’s search bar. It may take some time to find, subscribe, and sync to it though.
You can search for more communities at browse.feddit.de. Also, it’s easier to just do this from a browser rather than the apps available.
As for apps- Jerboa for Android and Mlem for iOS.
folks talked about “you should be able to search by !communityname@instance.name” not working, even if the community /is/ already federated and sharing content (think !technology@beehaw.org) - so there’s definitely growing pains.
Definitely. I tried adding some communities from programming.dev and managed to find and sub to one by pasting the entire URL and searching for it a few times. When I tried another community, no dice.
From what I understand, it’s all based off of ActivityPub, so instances should all be able to communicate with one another unless your instance explicitly blocks another. It just needs the initial search to another instance’s community to recognize its existence and some time to sync. Lately, things need a bit more time since everything is growing exponentially.
Anyone feel free to correct me if I’m wrong so I can learn as well.
Are only community names searched, or also posts, comments or usernames?
You can search whatever you want. The app doesn’t matter, what matters is the instance, which brings me to this:
Do the results of the search differ depending on which instance I am
Yes, basically (for posts), each instance cache subLems that at least one user from said instance subscribed too. Then, when you search it searches all the subs that it cached. So, if one instance unnfederate another instance, you won’t see their subLems at the search.
IDK how it works with subLems searching, I think you can find subLems that no one from your instance sub to, so my guess is that it asks each instance it federate with to get a subLems list and show all those to you.
We can actually see your instance in your username, just like you can see mine in my username, it just shows blank when you’re on the same instance as someone.
The search results do differ based on what instance you’re on, however, you can force search for communities that aren’t specifically blocked by your instance by typing in the exact name of the community into the community search (not the general search)
I’m not sure what the general search does, but I hope that answers some of your confusion!
