So, I don’t know if this is a dumb question, but how do I change from lemmy.ml to let’s say, beehaw, without switching accounts? I’m on the Jerboa app.

  • Arindrew@midwest.social
    2·
    1 year ago

    Links to other instances always say I’m logged out (which, technically, I am) that makes the link useless.

    For example, I am logged in at my home instance of https://midwest.social If I click a link to go to https://lemmy.ml/c/lemmy_support it takes me to that community, but I am not logged in (to lemmy.ml) so I am unable to meaningfully interact with it. I have to manually edit each lemmy URL that I go to in the URL bar in order for me to go to that community with my lemmy account.

    So I need to manually change https://lemmy.ml/c/lemmy_support into https://midwest.social/c/lemmy_support@lemmy.ml and I have to do this each time I click a link to another instance if I want to post there.

    I’ve been a system administrator for 20 years, and this took me a few minutes to figure out. “Casual” users are just going to be SOL since they aren’t going to be analyzing editing URLs to make them work. I feel like the only want to fix this is to have a browser addon intercept any lemmy URLs and modify them to work based on your home instance.

    Am I doing something wrong, or is this just how it is?

    • pineapple@lemmy.pineapplemachine.com
      3·
      1 year ago

      For example, I am logged in at my home instance of https://midwest.social If I click a link to go to https://lemmy.ml/c/lemmy_support it takes me to that community, but I am not logged in (to lemmy.ml) so I am unable to meaningfully interact with it. I have to manually edit each lemmy URL that I go to in the URL bar in order for me to go to that community with my lemmy account.

      Communities are a pain, but posts are even worse, since post URLs use a numeric ID that is different between instances. I haven’t found a better way than manually navigating to the community on my own instance and then ctrl+F’ing to find the post title. This is definitely one of the bigger problems for me, trying to get accustomed to lemmy.

      • Jay K@lemmy.ml
        2·
        1 year ago

        I think this is a big problem that needs to be solved sooner rather than later. I think a lemmy instance needs to parse links in comments/post text to determine if they are links to lemmy content or just something else on the internet. I don’t know how it should do that, but then it could adjust the link to do the right thing based on context, and any apps that use the api could get that data to know how to handle the link.

        Edit, as an example… if someone puts a link like https://midwest.social/post/604650 into a comment (like this one!). It should be changed (somehow) to https://lemmy.ml/post/1151098 for people logged into lemmy.ml. lemmy itself needs to do this so everyone’s links behave correctly all the time.

        If you enounter a link to another instance in the wild, then that’s a separate problem that also needs thought.

      • Arindrew@midwest.social
        2·
        1 year ago

        Apologies, I didn’t realize someone had replied to my comment before I deleted it. I figured starting my own post was better than trying to hijack someone else’s similar post. (Again, that link won’t work for you - I’ve been told if you enter that URL into your instances search bar, it will translate it)

        I agree with you though, this is the biggest problem I’ve seen that will lead to adoption issues. Not really a lemmy issue though, more of a Fediverse/ActivityPub issue.