I’ve just subscribed to https://sopuli.xyz/c/y2k, and now refreshing its local representation here at https://lemmy.ml/community/18886, but still no content. Will continue refreshing and will update this post as soon as I see the content reached this instance, but anyway I’m curious how long it could usually take.

Update 1: more than 40 minutes has passed, I see a new post with a video appeared on the remote side, and almost instantly here on lemmy.ml. But the previous post still not here.

  • @nutomicA
    6•3 years ago

    It will fetch the first 20 posts when the community is first searched from your instance (but no votes, comments etc). Once any local user subscribes to the community, all new posts/comments/votes etc will be delivered to your instance. Old items will only be fetched on demand (eg if you search them, or if they are referenced by a new item).

    • Serge TarkovskiOP
      2•3 years ago

      Seems it’s not fetching 20 posts if I understand things correctly. I searched and then subscribed right away, if that was first search, does it mean I will see 20 posts before the moment I subscribed?

      • DessalinesMA
        2•3 years ago

        I’ve opened up an issue, I think its fetching the oldest posts currently (which isn’t correct). But also it doesn’t fetch complete history (in fact mastodon and most fediverse projects fetch no history iirc).

    • @support_throwaway393
      2•3 years ago

      I’m having similar issues with federation to Serge here. I created my own private Lemmy instance and am confused on what exactly I should expect. On my private instance, I searched for a community here on lemmy.ml and it pulled 20 posts from the community. Awesome! Unfortunately, it pulled the oldest posts. New posts do not show up as I would expect them to, and I cannot even browse the comments.

      Subscribing to the community has not changed anything. It does not update automatically.

      Am I correct in thinking that without lemmy.ml federating with my instance, I should expect to see all posts and comments but not interact with them in any way? (and in order to interact, I’d need to ask lemmy.ml to federate with my instance)

      • DessalinesMA
        1•3 years ago

        Am I correct in thinking that without lemmy.ml federating with my instance, I should expect to see all posts and comments but not interact with them in any way? (and in order to interact, I’d need to ask lemmy.ml to federate with my instance)

        Correct, and your instance won’t receive updates. I’m also not sure why a private instance would want to federate w/ anyone tho.

        As far as pulling the oldest posts tho, I’ll look into that.

        • @support_throwaway393
          4•3 years ago

          Ah, I meant private as in “basically only really for me,” not “sequestered from everything else.”

          I created my own instance as a challenge to myself, to have control over my user account and (at least local) data, and because I wanted to mess with federation. It’s unfortunate that I can’t even see a read-only view of a remote community that I’ve “subscribed” to without first copying each post into my local instance’s search bar.

          If this is intended, I would recommend greying-out the “subscribe” button if the remote instance doesn’t federate with the local instance.

          EDIT: Perhaps not graying it out, but putting up a warning that says something to the effect of “Due to the fact that X instance doesn’t federate with this instance, you will not see new posts, updates, or comments to this community until that happens.”