Lemmy - A link aggregator for the fediverse
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Lemmy

In reaction to Can you follow a PixelFed with a Lemmy account? I thought it might be interesting to brainstorm how Lemmy could integrate and federate with the broader Fediverse in cool ways 😎

With some random thoughts I’ll kick off the brainstorm…

With Microblogging apps

What are the interactions with apps such as Pleroma and Mastodon?

Search and view Lemmy community profiles
  • Profile shows logo and full description of the community
  • Profile can be followed like any other account
Follow a Lemmy community
  • The Follower count of the community increases by 1
    • Maybe the Follower count can be clicked on to show where followers are coming from
  • Lemmy posts appear in your personal timeline
  • Lemmy comments are part of the toot thread
  • A toot you add also appears in the Lemmy UI
  • A Lemmy comment you Like/Favourite counts as an upvote
  • Boosts attract others to the Lemmy post to interact with
Post a toot URL in a Lemmy post
  • If there is no link or image in the toot, the instance logo is shown
  • If there is no instance logo, then the app logo is shown (e.g. Pleroma)
  • If there is a link preview, then the link’s OpenGraph image is shown
  • If there is an image, then this image is shown as the Lemmy preview image

How does the Lemmy post interact with the toot? Two options:

  1. A new toot thread is created under the Lemmy microblogging profile
    • The original toot URL is inlined as a reference
    • Note: Quoting the toot text is discouraged in Mastodon to avoid abuse as @Liwott points out. Should probably not quote, and just show the additional Lemmy post’s title + markdown body.
  2. A new branch is added to the existing thread and Lemmy post is a sub-toot of that
    • Upvotes are Likes/Favourites on the toot

How do cross-posts work for these options?

  • For option 1 a new toot is created under the Profile that matches the cross-posted community
  • For option 2 there may be a notification sub-toot “cross-posted to [community]” under which a new branch of toots relate to subsequent Lemmy comments
Mentioning a Lemmy community profile in a toot

How do we handle that? Probably we don’t want any random fedi account to be able to create Lemmy posts.

One option might be to add a separate timeline to communities to support this: “Mentioned across the Fediverse” or something, where you can find all mentions, drill-down in the toot thread and maybe respond from Lemmy. Responding may be a moderator-only feature, as they talk on behalf of the community.

With Image Media apps

Federating with apps such as PixelFed.

Do you wanna give a shot at this? Then burn loose below 🚀

With Video Streaming apps

Federating with apps such as PeerTube and Owncast.

Do you wanna give a shot at this? Then burn loose below 🚀

With Podcasting apps

Federating with apps such as CastaPod.

Do you wanna give a shot at this? Then burn loose below 🚀

With Event Planning apps

Federating with apps such as Mobilizon.

Do you wanna give a shot at this? Then burn loose below 🚀

With Your App of Choice

Go. go. go! 🚀 🚀 🚀

  • Liwott
    6·
    3 years ago

    How does the Lemmy post interact with the toot?

    How do cross-posts work for these options?

    I was about to say that the (re)post in question might be a boost by the community profile to which the comments are replies. Then I remember that Mastodon is explicitly designed to forbid that (Don’t know about other microblogging platforms though). Option 2 is probably close enough !

    • smallcirclesOPM
      5·
      3 years ago

      Thanks, I have updated above. The option 1 is still feasible I think, because inlining the toot URL is okay. Though some people create Lemmy posts with just an URL and no text. In this case they have to provide a title which can be transferred to the corresponding toot.

      Btw, I find Lemmy’s cross-post to be confusing feature. It works differently than I expected. See above in this post that there are 3 cross-posts of this one. But actually there are none. It just happens to be that 3 other posts exist that happen to refer to the same URL. Am I right in thinking this should be implemented differrently? CC @nutomic@lemmy.ml @dessalines@lemmy.ml

      • Liwott
        3·
        3 years ago

        Oh indeed my comment does not rule out option 1, I was actually thinking of it as an option 3 (killed in utero by mastodon).

        If I understand correctly the options, there’s one thing bugging me in each : (3 actors : toot author, post author, community)

        1. The link of the toot is only a link, nothing notifies back the toot author, or their followers, about the post in lemmy
        2. The post being being seen as a reply toot is not shown in the timeline or a user that does not follow both the authors (or toot author and community? Not sure to understand who is the microblogging poster between post author and community)

        What about the following option 4? Post is a reply to toot that mentions the community (basically option 2), then it’s boosted by the community, so as to appear on community subscribers’ feed.

        Note that I’m a simple user, this is just a naive comment of how the UX of Lemmy could be translated to the one of Mastodon. I don’t the first thing about the actual implementation of either (as is probably obvious from my confusion on option 2). Sorry for spam if it’s too naive 🙂

        • smallcirclesOPM
          3·
          3 years ago

          Ah yes, your option 4 is nice. It is a combination of both 1 and 2.

          When the toot contains only a link (option 1) then the original toot author might me mentioned in that as well. For option 2 the lemmy toot reply would not be part of the timeline unless you follow both the original toot author and the community profile (I think).

      • DessalinesA
        3·
        3 years ago

        Cross posts aren’t meant to be a single post with shared comments and votes, but new posts that stand on their own to interested communities, each having their own comments, votes, etc. This is the reddit cross-posting model, and posts in lemmy must belong to a single community.

        I also think it does make the most sense: different communities will have different reactions to news / content, and don’t necessarily want that mingled with other communities.

        • smallcirclesOPM
          2·
          3 years ago

          I am not a Reddit user, so if it works the same there it might make sense. My confusion stems from this:

          • This post topic: Brainstorm on Lemmy federation (links to Lemmy website)
            • Crossposted (says the UI) to Lemmy. But topic: Domain name redirect
            • Crossposted to Asklemmy. Topic here: How independent are instances?
            • Crossposted to Support / questions about Lemmy. Topic here: Add OpenGraph metadata

          So these crossposts have nothing to do with this federation brainstorm. Maybe clarifying the UI label may help: “URL has been crossposted to […]”. Maybe even avoid crosspost altogether with “URL is also posted to these communities […]”.

          I believe (correct me if wrong) that if I cross-post myself, my post text is dupllicated to the other community. After that comments are added separately and not synched, which is fine to me.