NRSK made a small website to introduce new users to the basics of Lemmy and give them an (incomplete) list of Lemmy Communities.
Hopefully this will help users find a lot of interesting content across the network, despite the home instance not federating with a particular community yet.
Such a list was something that was sorely missed when the NRSK administrator first became a user on the lemmyverse, and quite so after creating a new and isolated instance.
As mentioned, it is an unofficial site and if the devs disapprove, I can make the “unofficialness” of it clearer or discuss how we can make it work.
Manually sorting, cataloguing and estimating activity on 283 communities sure was something.
That’s why everybody is welcome to contribute to the list by submitting your own suggestions and corrections in the linked community. As of now the list is curated manually, I assume I’ve made several errors - Particularly when it comes to what “Topic” the different communities belong in.
Yes, you can sort nearly 300 communities by:
- Topic
- Name
- Instance
- Activity
- Recommendation
A lot of it could have been scraped the first time around I assume, but then there’d be no sorting by topic for sure.
You can visit the “Welcome” community by following the post link or visit https://nrsk.no/c/welcome.
There is no overarching theme or politics for the Lemmyverse – Every instance represents only itself and it’s users. Lemmy is not left-wing. Lemmy is not right-wing. Lemmy is what ever you make of it.
Very well written! I think this is very important to point out, especially for people who assume lemmy.ml and Lemmy are the same or assume it’s the “default” instance.
Here’s a good example for this sort of confusion.
It is cool it is free, decentralized, and federated. But of course naturally there is some privilleged POV coming from upstream development besides lemmy.ml is the most popular. join-lemmy.org lists lemmy.ml as first btw; ideally should be randomized.
join-lemmy.org lists lemmy.ml as first btw
r u sure bout dat?
Popular category. I think it should be random.
I see what you mean, I thought you were talking about when they promoted lemmy.ml first.
I don’t agree with random. People should be able to at least look for a community that suits their interests.
Someone focused on arts and crafts would probably have a better time at fapsi.be. It can be a make-or-break first experience for new users.
If I remember correctly mastodon tags instances? so join-lemmy could do that too and randomize the instances in a category/tag itself, and randomize sorting the categories
What about a “Pick random general instance” button?
Sure. I was even thinking “what if instances are able to set their own tags to really express what they’re all about”? But then I remembered… The servers are able to set their own description that’s shown on join-lemmy.
servers are able to set their own description that’s shown on join-lemmy.
but descriptions are not as easily filterable. tags, be it set by the servers or not, are simple enough and do a better job at this, while still showing other information like the description.
The list includes a lot of instances which are essentially inactive, or even full of spam. If the list was randomized, those would often be shown at the top. I think showing most active instances is better, as people will be able to find actual discussions. I would also be open for other sorting suggestions, as long as they dont need manual intervention.
inactive, or even full of spam […] be shown at the top
a priority can be implemented to put inactive and unmoderated instances always at the bottom of the category/tag they are listed in, explicitly acknowledging this fact in the interface.
I mentioned that it shouldnt need manual intervention. Otherwise, who will decide which instances count as active? I certainly dont have time for that.
I feel like there could be a button to simply sign up to a random instance from a curated list.
The site could essentially offer an easy (default) path that would tell you in the simplest possible terms (preferably with pictures) what Lemmy is and enough about federation that the user is aware that it’s normal to have multiple web addresses, they all just access the same network. It would then offer two buttons, one would take the user immediately to a recommended instance, the other would fork them to the “advanced” path, allowing them to pick an instance with all the bells and whistle options and access more detailed information about federation etc.
“Sign up to a recommended instance (server)” and “learn more first”/“advanced options” buttons, perhaps?
I feel like there could be a button to simply sign up to a random instance from a curated list.
This has been considered. I agree that it would be nice to have a curated pool of random servers with a “Random Instance” button. It should be quite easy to set up. It would also allow us, as the wider lemmyverse, to avoid promoting instances some would consider harmful to the reputation of lemmy. Like 6 dead and inactive servers in a row on the automatic join-lemmy overview.
On the other hand there has been changes on join-lemmy, with two rather nice general instances being promoted. And you can browse a short description of all the instances before checking one out in depth, that’s also nice.
I’m also a follower of instance culture. Some people are better suited at certain servers. NRSK have blocked individuals from federating their content with us, but don’t mind that they have a community to participate in “over there”. You can’t find the right instance for you if all you get is random.
What about a “Pick random general instance”? That’s Beehaw and Sopuli if I’m not mistaken.
The site could essentially offer an easy (default) path that would tell you in the simplest possible terms (preferably with pictures) what Lemmy is
Hopefully a more graphical introduction will come, so far the setup is mostly about getting the list sorted and online. All help is appreciated, and if anybody want’s to do screenshots and the write-up you’re welcome to contact me through https://nrsk.no/c/welcome or DM’s
and enough about federation that the user is aware that it’s normal to have multiple web addresses, they all just access the same network.
Beyond the comparison to e-mail, I believe understanding duplicated community federation isn’t required entry-level knowledge. If a user comes from i.e. reddit, throwing up 14 unique but isolated communities would confuse them. That’s why there’s only a single recommendation per topic on the list - First people have to make it work before they expand.
If someone is able to write up a short explanation on how the fediverse works that I can show to my father, and he’ll understand it before giving up - I’ll definitively reconsider.
offer two buttons, one would take the user immediately to a recommended instance, the other would fork them to the “advanced” path
That could work.
Looks good, thanks for making this!
One problem I noticed is that the community list doesnt have any clickable links, so you have to manually open the link, a bit annoying (unless i missed something). The list also includes some non-Lemmy instances like narwhal.city, but for me thats not a big problem as you can still follow it from Lemmy. If you want, you could use nodeinfo to check that instances are really using Lemmy.
One problem I noticed is that the community list doesnt have any clickable links
I used to be on Mastodon which had a function to “Remote follow” profiles on remote instances. I haven’t seen the function in Lemmy, and the only way I know how to subscribe to remote communities not federated is to copy-paste and search for the URL from within Lemmy.
Adding a link seemed like an extra step, follow link, open page, copy URL from browser URL field, paste etc. Is there a better way to subscribe besides searching for the URL?
The list also includes some non-Lemmy instances like narwhal.city
Good point. I have no strong opinions either way, and is looking for more feedback from other users. But the most important thing is that only lemmy instances are shown as a new home instance.
There’s been some suggestions on a “Join random instance” button on the welcome site, what do you think? Right now it’s just linked to directly to join-lemmy/instances.
I used to be on Mastodon which had a function to “Remote follow” profiles on remote instances. I haven’t seen the function in Lemmy, and the only way I know how to subscribe to remote communities not federated is to copy-paste and search for the URL from within Lemmy.
This is a good idea which has come up a lot recently. I think it would be very useful, hopefully we will have time to implement it soon. Just opened an issue for it: https://github.com/LemmyNet/lemmy/issues/2420
There’s been some suggestions on a “Join random instance” button on the welcome site, what do you think? Right now it’s just linked to directly to join-lemmy/instances.
It makes sense to me, and if thats what users want, go for it. Anyway its your site, so you can do things however you want, or experiment with different approaches. If your can handle such things better than join-lemmy.org, it can only benefit Lemmy as we will get more users.
You’re missing Hexbear which also doesn’t federate with anything currently but is by far the largest and most active.
A lot of users are looking forward to Hexbear getting their federation back. When they do, I’ll happily add any suggested communities to the overview.
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