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:
- 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.
- 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! 🚀 🚀 🚀
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)
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 🙂
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).