Even at the most basic level it is broken - at the bottom of your comment is a "context" button with the fediverse symbol. If I click on it, it won't take me to the comment on my instance (lemmy.world) but instead is an absolute link to the comment on your instance (Aussie.world) even though the community lives on lemmy.world.
I love lemmy, and I think it has a bright future, but this fundamental problem really needs to be fixed.
The best thing you can do to help is to comment on threads. I know it feels weird to comment in an empty post, but it does tend to spur lurkers to respond.
I think people are working on browser extensions to do that, and it would work for users & communities. As far as I can tell posts and comments are numbered by the instance, and don't correspond between instances, so there is no way to link them in an instance independent way.
Someone gives you a link, or you find it in search
You click on the link, because that's what you do with links
It takes you to what you are looking for, but it says you have to log in to comment or vote
You log in so you can comment or vote
The UX for interacting with off-instance subs is abysmal. What is even worse is that as far as I can tell, there is no way to link a post or comment that is instance relative / instance independent.
I this this requires some more subtlety: defederating from a corporate-controlled competitor can prevent Embrace/Extend/Extinguish.
Meanwhile, I think it would be perfectly sensible for businesses to create their own Fediverse instances on their own domain to control their social media presence, and avoid paying to be recognized as who you are. Communities on their instance could replace the once-ubiquitous forums.
I think for me, the killer feature for a Facebook alternative is being able to limit the audience - there is some stuff I want to share with friends and family that I don't want to be globally public.
That isn't a feature, it is a bug. With the exception of during recent slowdowns, it almost never happens on Lemmy. If you want to post a warning, at least give the ability to dismiss it - I don't need to have an oddly colored banner at the top of every community.
I'm curious about what aspect of Kbin is similar to Facebook / Tumblr? I can't tell the difference between a post and a thread, but both seem to be posted in magazines (communities).
I get the point, but the presentation is a "It is very important that you do not miss this warning". The message (and attitude) is less "We have technical details to work out" and more anti-federation.
shrug I'm just speaking of my experience. I've been able to access the communities I'm interested in on multiple lemmy instances, but I've had zero luck on Kbin. Frankly, the "connect to remote community" UX for both lemmy and Kbin is complete crap, and is likely the #1 turnoff for new users. I'm very disappointed that neither have chosen to fix it.
I see little difference beyond the ability to microblog on Kbin. I think it was unnecessary to rename communities, and causes confusion. I still keep an eye on my kbin.social and fedia.io logins, but I just can't access content I can find from multiple lemmy instances. I was also swayed away from Kbin by an admin who was running it but ultimately gave up on it and switched to lemmy because Kbin is unstable. (I'll update this comment with a link if I can find it)
I'm really put off by the "warning warning this content isn't from this instance" attitude of Kbin. I've also had a heck of a time getting some content to federate. I'm having a much better experience on Lemmy, so I'll put up with the UI quirks - I use the memmy app most of the time anyway.
Listen and be supportive. If you feel the need to solve, of think they are looking for a solution, ask. "Are you venting or looking for advice?"
It is really important to ask before offering advice/solutions, because doing so can make someone feel like you are trivializing their problem, or that they can't solve it themselves.
If the fediverse wants to retain its independence from Meta, the content producers of significance need to be convinced of the value of being in control of their brand while still having access to the user base of Threads. If the content producers go to Threads, the fediverse becomes irrelevant.
Even at the most basic level it is broken - at the bottom of your comment is a "context" button with the fediverse symbol. If I click on it, it won't take me to the comment on my instance (lemmy.world) but instead is an absolute link to the comment on your instance (Aussie.world) even though the community lives on lemmy.world.
I love lemmy, and I think it has a bright future, but this fundamental problem really needs to be fixed.