So far for me the process is very convoluted:
- I go to https://browse.feddit.de/ and find the community.
- Then I need to copy it’s name.
- Then I need to go to my particular instance (lemm.ee)
- Then I type manually in my browser address bar lemm.ee/c/<communityname>
- Then I go back to https://browse.feddit.de/ and copy the address of the original instance of the community.
- Then I go back and add the original instance address to already typed thing in step 4 like this lemm.ee/c/<communityname>@<originalinstanceofcommunity>
- Then I can finally subscribe!
Oh my God! Please, tell me there’s a better way of doing this!
EDIT: There is a better way! Solution is to … use the search function in your instances home page and select community (if it exists already) and search. This way I don’t need to go to browse.feddit.de anymore. And links will take me straight the the communities “reflection” in my own instance, where I can subscribe.
I am not sure why? In the app, all communities that are federated to my server are visible when searhching. On desktop, ad in the app, all you have to do is select “all” instead of “local” or “subscribed” and then just search. Half the communities I am subbed in are not from my own instance, for example.
Thank you! The search icon was so small on lemm.ee that I didn’t notice. It actually works much better! You’re a saviour!
How do I properly close this thread? Do I have to? Can I mark it as solved somehow?
I think you can edit the title. No rules here, but a simple [solved] should do. Also you are welcome, we are all figuring this out!
Correct me if I’m wrong, but that search only exposes the communities that at least one of the servers members is currently subscribed to. It is not a list of all possible communities. This works okay if your server has a lot of members because it will likely surface the main popular communities, but it’s misleading that it’s all communities and someone had to do it the hard way like OP said the first time around.
Huh, I didn’t know this! I think that this could be solved by smaller servers making a bot account that su subsribes to all avaliable communities?
On the top of lemm.ee website there is a button “Communities”. Select “All” instead of “Local” and you can search for any community.
It’s easier to just type/paste in the address of the community on the search page of your instance in the
!name@instan.ceformat.You can then click the result and just hit subscribe.
Would be nice if Jerboa and the web UI just translated links in that format so that theyd just open from your instance and let you sub instantly.
ATM they just open in the browser and display from the hosting instance, preventing an easy sub.
The link doesn’t even need to be in that format. Simply copying the link from the fediverse button (the rainbow Pentagon) and pasting that in your instances search will bring it up. It should only be a 3 step process. Although I still feel that can be a little clunky.
For discovery I browse the community list of whichever instance I’m viewing and then link it back to my home instance. I just wish I knew of a way to view the list of communities from an instance directly from my home instance. (Other than selecting the All filter from my home instance community list)
I don’t know how a browser would know to open a link in a different webpage. An extension could possibly do it, an app can if you browse in it or paste into it, but at that point pasting into the search on your instance seems the same to me.
It seems a little too bad they didn’t make it like a different protocol so the browser could send it to an program to handle like a mailto link, but otoh, this would mean it’s not clickable just with a browser, which is less than ideal.
I guess after Mastodon I just got in the habit of copying the link to my instance search field.
I think it’s possible with some logic basically if url and/or string meets some basic rules
!community@domain,
ect convert to local instance community url. Update logic for local community urls to look for community if not available locally and display. So first time navigating to a community might take a little bit longer but seems very possible.
Edit: ugh some formatting issues
feddit.dk lets you subscribe to communities directly from the community browser.
if there was kind a data export feature. maybe we could export list of subscription list then we can import to other instance. it could be like mastodon migration.
Do you mean like when creating another account on a different instance?
- Go to https://browse.feddit.de/ and find the community.
- Copy the URL for the community - they actually have a copy button right next to the link to make this easier (i.e. https://lemmy.ml/c/asklemmy)
- Go to your particular instance
- Use your instance’s search and paste in the URL from step 2.
- Click the search result that represents that community. You are now viewing and can subscribe to that community from your own instance.
When I add
!privacy@lemmy.mlinto my search field, it doesn’t show anything - in fact, it ends up telling me that there are no results. I have to then go into the Communities tab again, and hope it shows up there.I can see it doing work as I watch the logs. But this is really a little weird/frustrating. I hope this sees improvement eventually! =)
I actually still don’t understand what exclamation mark does.
EDIT: I guess the goal for you would be to get to this page:
Good call! That said, I am still going to have to copy-paste a lot of community handles… Oh well, it works for now, I guess.
Thanks for the idea!
if you search for the actual URL it will show up in the search, as long as the type filter is set to All instead of Communities
Interesting. Will give it a try, thanks for the hint!
Step 6 will return you a 404 - comunity non existent if your instance is not federating with the instance of the community you’re looking for.
I do:
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Step 1.
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Copy the URL
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In my instance, I use the search fuction. I search for the URL. The community is one result.
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enter the result, the instance has begun federating.
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subscribe.
Wait, you can force your instance to start federation with another instance!? Did I understande you correctly?
Not exactly force. It’s by design. Instances don’t federate with each other unless a user of one wants to communicate with the other (via subscription, or commenting, or whatever).
But instances can block each other and if that happens, there’s no way you can access from your instance.
What usually happens is that big instances (like lemmy.ml), just by the mere fact that they are big, are probably already federating with your instance anyway so you may not have encountered this situation.
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