I remember what the standardising committee did to XMPP: users wanted to share photos, send files, and make audio/video calls; XMPP said “we’re not going to standardize that, but each application can use its own extensions”… then it all went to hell.

🧘💮✨

Downvotes mean your comment is more likely to get removed by a mod, and you’re more likely to get banned.

I don’t like either of your tones. You’re both probably some of those people from a different country, who vote for some other parties. /s

Lemmy lets you block users and communities, some Lemmy apps also let you block instances and keywords.

The federated nature also means it’s a big set of interacting niches, which hasn’t really been done before.

Do you subscribe to games and memes communities, read Local, or the All feed?

Keep in mind there is no automatic filter to clickbait you in All, it’s up to you to “be the filter”.

If the free GitHub scripts from the other comment don’t work for you, Sync has it as a paid option.

beehaw and sh.itjust.works just rub me the wrong way during first impressions

They’re pretty descriptive: do you want a place to “behave”, or would you rather fling shit at each other?

This isn’t Reddit, you get to pick your experience. Can even sign up to more than one instance, each with different rules!

We also need super-communities that pull in content from multiple communities/instances

Apps do that, including some web app.

Search and migrations could be improved, though.

Does it take into account instance rules like language, moderation, or whether it’s a personal instance hosted on a raspi that may go down at any moment?

There are plenty of FOSS apps for Lemmy out there, no need to “start” any project, just lend a hand

Reddit has benefitted from Sync, and other 3rd party apps, way more than Sync has benefitted from Reddit.

It’s less clear cut with Lemmy, which is supposed to evolve an ecosystem of free tools, so it might be that some day Sync will be benefitting from Lemmy more than Lemmy from Sync… but for now, Lemmy is relatively bare bones, like what Reddit used to be 15 years ago, so any 3rd party app with extra features is still a good thing.

Fortunately, Lemmy has no incentive to go closed source, like Reddit did (let’s not forget Reddit used to be open source while it was convenient for them, then it wasn’t).

you’re paying for lifetime ads

You don’t need to pay for that, just go to Reddit. Free unlimited lifetime ads! 😉

The true “lifetime purchase” for software, is the GPL.

Instead of hacking Sync to remove the ads, why not spend the same time helping with a free app to add the features you want?

Well, compared to Reddit getting filled with “ad looking like real post”, and “ad written as a comment”, and “mass downvote everyone except the ad”… it’s really hard to stoop that low.

What is likely to keep Sync in check, are the alternative apps. Reddit got enshittified because it became the single point of failure.

You can use multiple instances. If you get an app (mobile or web), they can even integrate all your accounts into a single feed.

Some users have accounts on more than a single instance, some instances may be malicious, home to just spam/bot accounts.

Things are looking promising, but it’s still early.