Lately I often read about kbin.social being similar to lemmy but more accessible. So I created an account there to check it out. My experience so far is a little mixed. From kbin I can access all Lemmy posts, although I find the interface less intuitive to join new communities. So from the kbin side it feels like an other Lemmy instance.
But when searching for kbin from this Lemmy Account, I do not find much. I feel like I am missing some basic concept, that makes it pretty clear. Why this is such a one way experience.
So now I am wondering: How does this work, what are the difference, what do both sites have in common?
I am striving to make the foundations very similar to Lemmy's, to facilitate potential migration in either direction. The main differences are that /kbin will ultimately be a modular gateway to the entire fediverse. I will tell you more about it a bit later.
I really like what you are building there, but at the moment I often cannot find the communities I'm subscribed to on Lemmy so I tend to jump between those two.
I'm intrigued by the idea of being able to talk to other Fediverse apps, but searching for my Pleroma account at @missingno to test this out turns up nothing. Is there some way to force discovery?
Thanks for the answer and all the work you put into kbin. Really like the design so far. Only have to get used to the structure a little more.
Something else I am wondering: when I registered at kbin I think I never could choose an instance. So is it only possible to use kbin with a registration at kbin.social or is a plan to allow other instances of it?
Community is smaller currently due to being newer but connects to the Lemmy, Mastodon, etc communities so it doesn't feel small.
Definitely needs a mobile app for collapsing comments, notifications, etc but installing on mobile through the browser works quite well.
Would like the ability to delete new magazines to change the URL for instance which I currently can't figure out how to do.
Calling communities magazines is a little confusing but nothing serious.
The ability to sign up without an email like Lemmy would be a huge bonus.
The privacy policy and UI is much nicer than on Lemmy.
Signing up is open compared to Lemmy which requires an explanation and review.
Most of these things will likely and hopefully come with time as the platform is developed. Other than that I feel this will most likely be my safe haven from the bs Reddit (fuck spez) has pulled.
Signing up is open compared to Lemmy which requires an explanation and review.
Only on certain instances. Lemmy.ml and beehaw.org, for example, require you to answer some questions (I've heard people say beehaw requires you to write an essay, lol) which I think is primarily to avoid being overrun by bot accounts. Not all instances do, though. sh.itjust.works has open registration, for one.
kbin looks good but I can't get over the fact that its backend is written in PHP. In the long run, lemmy's Rust backend will probably be way more resource efficient and thus better for hosters. We'll have to see though, since tech stacks aren't the most important thing. But for me a Rust backend is a huge plus.
Kbin is newer, so it has less traffic on its magazines than communities on Lemmy do, at least at the moment. Just like in Lemmy or other fediverse instances, to see kbin magazines someone has had to search for them on your Lemmy instance before they'll show up on your instance. So more people searching for Lemmy communities in your insurance rather than kbin's magazines means less will show up on your feed. That's what they have in common.
Kbin itself is a different software backend to access the fediverse. It supports viewing/subscibing/posting to Lemmy communities in other fediverse instances, but also has microblogging support (basically like random Twitter posts) that supports mastodon (fediverse Twitter). It also has a lot of customization options if you go into your kbin settings. Plus I read kbin doesn't rely on Javascript like Lemmy does, so that's a nice security bonus.
Kbin is much newer but I like the direction it's going. They do need to simplify link aggregation to make it a bit easier to view communities, but it's a work in progress that has a lot of potential.
I'll admit I can't wrap my head around how many of this works.
I like kbin and the default content it provides for the most part... But I want to branch out a bit.
I know there's a formula 1 community I want to join on lemmy, do I need to sign up for Lemmy now? And do I need to sign up for multiple "instances" whatever those are?
I'm pretty tech savvy but the fediverse makes me feel stupid, i have to assume this could be a barrier to entry for some
if you go to your preferences, you can get a more famililar reddit look and feel, by adding the top bar, and a few other tweaks.
i think that ultimately it wont (shouldn't) matter what 'window' you look through into the fediverse - correct me if i'm wrong. I like kbin a lot, but i', looking at beehaw. i was asked not to join lemmy.ml because of server load issues.
i'm not sure how mastodon fits. i guess that's a federated app - but is seems entirely seperate.
@henry@YoTcA the way each application handles federation is a bit different. Sure, you have the same content, buy it would be presented differently. Depending on the application goal, the presentation is more tailored to a particular way of interaction and content.
Mastodon is kinda similar to Lemmy but replaces Twitter rather than Reddit. They both use they same underlying technology though which is why kbin can talk to both!
But when searching for kbin from this Lemmy Account, I do not find much. I feel like I am missing some basic concept, that makes it pretty clear. Why this is such a one way experience.
Not sure if i understand correctly, but instances can only show you what they are aware of. This does not really depend on the underlaying software (unless it is specialized, like PeerTube maybe).
Is there a reason why instances couldn't just index and show all the communities from other federated instances?
Right now you have to do this to add a community from another instance:
Visit it, look in communities, copy the link to the community
Go back to the instance you were, paste link into search box and hit enter, then click the link, open sidebar, and click subscribe.
I don't see why instances couldn't just have an index over communities on all federated instances, so it's a one click action to subscribe to any community in the entire Lemmy fediverse.
If this was implemented it would lower the bar for new users enormously, and encourage a lot more cross instance subscriptions.
Word is Lemmy and kbin are working to make the process more automated, so if you click a link to a community/magazine your instance want aware of it'll start aggregation without having to manually do the search. Downside of going with a free, open source, decentralized solution is there aren't a bunch of devs dedicated to updating the platforms for a living, so features will roll out slower.
Has a good privacy policy, and works without javascript.
It integrates federated services like mastodon really nicely, so not only lemmy posts but mastodon, peertube and other services using activitypub will show and any comments sent to them will also show up on the other end
I personally think its more intuitive to find new communities, back on lemmy when i was on a less popular instance (tchncs), there was only a couple native communities and they were german, to add more i had to manually find and add them. Whereas on refreshing kbin, i can see a list of random threads/people/posts displayed on the right, alongside other posts on the homepage, which can promote less popular stuff i hadn't heard of before. Theres also the microblog, and magazines.