9h ago

Hashtags do not replace groups.

No one moderates them. They’re easy to hijack and spam. And there’s simply no permanence to them.

Which is why, if you actually want to discuss something, it’s better to tag a group. For example, if you want to be part of an actual PC gaming community on the Fediverse, it’s better to tag @pcgaming@lemmy.ca than #pcgaming.

This needs to be common knowledge because people new to the Fediverse do not know about groups. Hell, I’d say people who have had Mastodon accounts for years still don’t know. And that’s a shame.

@fediverse@lemmy.world

62 comments

@atomicpoet @fediverse Wait.. is that how it works to follow a lemmy .. whatever the equivalent is of a subreddit .. group? anyway, you just follow @groupname@instancename? How did I not understand this before?
- @LibertyForward1 @fediverse Not only can you follow, you can post to a Lemmy community from Mastodon by mentioning the Lemmy community. In fact, you just mentioned a Lemmy community, so your using Lemmy right now—but from you’re perspective, it looks like Mastodon.
  
  @atomicpoet @fediverse trippy

+1, I absolutely loathe the twitter model of discussion because it's a huge mess of out of order replies and random spam. Individual discussion posts with tree threaded comments are way, way, way more effective at keeping discussion relevant and directed. Also +1 re: moderation, social media functions best with effective, vigorous, moderation and the twitter model just sucks there.

@atomicpoet
Also it whould be neat to somehow see from the handle itself if it's a group or not. It's the case with the classic å.gup.pe, but I can't derive that from lemmy.ca without having to look it up.
I also find it father difficult to find groups, because the default ActivityPub-Search doesn't work that way and groups are just special users.
That's why I like a.gup.pe, it sounds a bit like Gruppe in german. Which doesn't help internationally, something like gro.up oder a subdomain including group whould be helpful and make the seqrch for groups easier, because then it's part of the name.
@fediverse
- @alsternerd @atomicpoet @fediverse @crossgolfrebel would be nice if the !group@domain.com reference becomes an ActivityPub standard
  
  @mapto @atomicpoet @fediverse @crossgolfrebel This could help a lot, yes. :D

Communities are for Lemmy and hashtags are for Mastodon.
They each make sense in their proper context.
- What if I told you that you can use Lemmy with Mastodon right now—and that many people do?
  
  No one said you can't. They said they make sense in their own contexts. The interface is different. Plus I don't need my inbox blown up with notifications from a dozen Mastodon users tagging me unnecessarily.
  
  I have heard of the opposite. Mastodon users can see and comment on lemmy posts, but i have yet to discover how to view mastodon post from lemmy.
  If it is indeed possible can you or anyone elaborate how to?
  
  You're not the first to suggest it, but I still haven't seen anyone do more than linking one from the other. This feels as inconsequential as posting a Twitter screenshot on Reddit. Is there a deeper integration possible?

@atomicpoet @fediverse
Tag spammers get muted.
- @m3t00 @fediverse Give me more context and what you specifically mean.

The tricky part is, the group-supporting fediverse software and the microblogging software need to improve how they interact for this to be as good as it could be.
Right now Mastodon barely supports group users/actors/accounts, however they're called, translating stuff from Lemmy's format in a rather clunky way. Meanwhile Lemmy also has to roughly translate Mastodon's format to its own, working pretty well all things considering, but leaving clear artifacts (subject line/first line repeating, community mention remaining shown, etc.).
- sharkey seems to have good lemmy support
- @ElectroVagrant@lemmy.world With time, that stuff will be ironed out. Group support is in Mastodon’s road map. Now Mastodon develops very slowly, so take that with a grain of salt. But the point is that groups are coming to Mastodon… eventually.

I’m all for it as long as people know that posting on something like mastodon and tagging a lemmy community will then make a post in that community. Could make for great discussions, but could also lead to a lot of posts/spam in the communities.
- @BenDoubleU@lemmy.radio But again, a big reason I recommend groups over hashtags is because you can remove spam from a group, whereas with a hashtag, you cannot.
  So… will that increase spam? Not if moderators actually do their jobs.
  
  As an instance owner and moderator: that’s a horrible way to look at things. Just throwing the onus onto someone else is irresponsible.

@atomicpoet @fediverse TBH I think a lot of people (including me) have a very sketchy idea of how the different bits of the Fediverse link together... I'm still a bit vague about how my #Mastodon and #Pixelfed accounts could work better together.
There's a lot of assumed knowledge about the #Fediverse ... and people don't want to ask 'stupid' questions because they don't want to 'look stupid'. There needs to be easily accessible and explicit step by step instructions to get people started.
Where could I find a group about #ux or #humancentredesign for example? Or #photography ?
- @Coolmccool@mastodon.au @fediverse@lemmy.world The best way to explain #Pixelfed is that it’s an Instagram-like front-end for the Fediverse. But practically speaking, it’s Mastodon if pictures were a requirement on Mastodon. You interact with a Pixelfed account from Mastodon in much the same way you interact with another Mastodon account, or how you’re interacting with my Akkoma account right now. It really is just like email.
  Regarding group topics, the best way to find them is to do a search on a place like lemmy.world or lemmy.ca. For example, uiux@programming.dev is one. And you can find the URL here:
  https://programming.dev/c/uiux
  
  @atomicpoet @fediverse @Coolmccool I think you're missing the point - it's not "what is PF/Masto/whatever", it's "how do they relate to each other, exactly, in a way I can understand & benefit from?" I've been in fedi for a few years & have, in fact, been asking the stupid questions, but I still don't quite understand either...
- I have literally zero interest in cross pollination between social media types.
  They each have their own interfaces that work best for their communities and content types. You're always missing something trying to access one from another.
  
  If you have zero interest in the fundamental architecture of the fediverse, why are you in this community? You're probably interacting with "cross pollination" way more than you realize.

62 comments