This article is an x-post from m/quickstart

Quick note before starting: although this article is far from comprehensive, I wanted to get something done in time for the next wave of reddit migrants when the third party apps close down.

What you see below was written in anticipation for the same set of questions from new users being asked again and again.

If you want me to add anything in, or make any corrections, comment here and I will do my best to make amendments before I repost it on 1st July. Thanks!

All screenshots were taken using the kbin Web version on chrome for android, unless otherwise specified.

How to use this guide

This article is a work in progress, but what I am hoping to achieve is an easy to follow, quick to consume guide that presents you with the knowledge you need in a somewhat logical order.

To that end, I have divided it up into sections, or ‘tiers’. The idea being that once you are confident at one tier, you can move up to the next. So let’s start with…

1. Lurker Tier

Intro to subscriptions and magazines (kbin communities)

Other basic navigation

Voting and boosting content

Optional quality of life settings

Exploring the Fediverse

Useful information

2. Contributor Tier

Basic terminology

Don’t worry if all these terms don’t click with you right away. You might even be able to disregard a few of them. Either way, you can always come back and refer to this later.

  • A ‘magazine’ is a kbin community

  • Magazines contain ‘threads’ and a ‘microblog’

  • The terms thread and microblog can cause some confusion, so we’ll clear that up soon. But first…

  • A thread is a discussion based on either an ‘article’ (i.e. text post), a link, a photo, or a video (although video is not yet supported)
    How to create an article

  • A ‘comment’ is a response to a thread

  • A ‘microblog’ is a collection of ‘posts’ that are based on the magazine itself as opposed to a single article, link, photo, or video

  • Confusingly, a post can still contain things like images, it’s just that its replies will appear alongside all the other microblog posts
    How to upload an image to display on a post

  • Responses to microblog posts are called ‘replies’

  • The distinction between comments and replies is significant because they are split by type in your user profile by those names.

  • A ‘favourite’ is a thread you have upvoted using the arrow button
    How to view your favourites

Threads vs microblog posts

Thread Post
Shown on front page ✅️YES ❌️NO
Added to favourites ✅️YES ❌️NO
Can be downvoted ✅️YES ❌️NO
Has a title ✅️YES ❌️NO
Can be pinned to top ✅️YES ❌️NO
Can be boosted ✅️YES ✅️YES
Shown on microblog ❌️NO ✅️YES
Can comment ✅️YES ❌️NO
Can reply ❌️NO ✅️YES

Staying engaged

3. Addict Tier

To make good use of the tips in this tier you must have the prerequisite knowledge from tiers 1 and 2.

Tips in this tier may also be quite quirky (e.g. only works on desktop) or require detailed explanations. Or they might be advanced niche tips for users looking to get the absolute most out of kbin.

Although you’ve reached the end, this article is still a work in progress. If you’ve any corrections, or feel something is missing, you can reach out to @Friend or post to m/quickstart. Thanks for reading!

  • CoderKat@kbin.social
    12·
    1 year ago

    The how to subscribe to a magazine guide sadly won’t work if you’re the first to subscribe to it within kbin. Unfortunately, the guide to doing so might scare people away. You have to search @magazine.domain in the search (not the magazine search!).

    Some of these things really highlight changes that need to be made. Like my above example. It’s bad that there’s two ways to subscribe to a magazine (one being completely unintuitive). It’s bad that the whole thread vs post thing is so confusing. It’s bad that we call something magazines while most of our content, which comes from Lemmy, calls them communities (and also has syntax for linking to them that doesn’t work for us).