this post was submitted on 13 May 2025
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Fediverse

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I was just thinking about this, when I'm facing an issue, the first thing I do is go to a search engine and usually there's a Reddit post. But I don't want to ask there. And the only way we're going to build up the info for folks to find us and come here is for us to just start asking here. On the Fediverse. We need to build up that mountain of knowledge that Reddit has and will always have. So we should be championing ANYONE asking questions here. Even if we think it's obvious and we think you can just Google it. There was a time where you literally couldn't just Google it. That was built over time. We need to build that here. So start asking your questions here! Find the answers and then post your answer to your own question. Or let someone do it for you. We need to build the knowledge here to be found. It's not just about people looking for alternatives. We need our knowledge to be more valuable than their knowledge.

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[–] Luffy879@lemmy.ml -2 points 3 hours ago

Thats fucking stupid

Maybe, instead of Reddit and Lemmy and other forums, how about you just host a Wiki? Its gonna take more time, but it will be way better for readability.

[–] stringere@sh.itjust.works 17 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

Kagi search has a function to specifically search the fediverse.

[–] ozoned@piefed.social 4 points 9 hours ago

OH! LOVE THIS! Thank you KAGI!

[–] Irelephant@lemm.ee 12 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

I try to ask questions here instead of reddit in the hopes that lemmy will pop up in google for someone.

[–] ozoned@piefed.social 8 points 12 hours ago

And I think that's what we should do. Or even ask the question, search it on Google, and answer your own post! :-) We need to foster the Fediverse by existing in the Fediverse and stop depending on Big Tech or using them to help build OUR internet. :-)

[–] user_naa@lemmy.world 12 points 15 hours ago

I personally think that the main problem is bad search optimization. There quite a lot of good answers on Fediverse (Lemmy) but it is nearly impossible to find them via Google or any other regular search engine. And making things worse since Lemmy is Federated it is not easy to implement correct indexing for it. So it makes a lot of questions(Should each instance index only local posts to prevent duplicated search results? What about small instances? Or use some central instance like Lemmy.World? What about different frontends for same instance like Photon or Alexandrite?).

[–] jivandabeast@lemmy.browntown.dev 22 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

Yes, or if you find a solution you can post it here for preservation. I've posted some guides and info that i pulled from Reddit onto here because the way things are going, I can't guarantee that information will still be available in a years time.

[–] ozoned@piefed.social 11 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

Preservation is so MASSIVELY important imo atm. With Internet Archive under fire, Reddit and Twitter closing APIs, Google shutting down fucking everything, we need OUR internet, not theirs and we need to protect that which is precious to us.

[–] jivandabeast@lemmy.browntown.dev 7 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

Exactly. While Lemmy isn't exactly like the Internet archive, at least its self hosted so you could preserve anything you want for as long as you wanted on here

[–] ozoned@piefed.social 2 points 14 hours ago

Agreed. And even if 1 instance goes down, if another instance is following, it's still there. It's potentially the strongest off site backup ever.

[–] cupcakezealot@lemmy.blahaj.zone 31 points 21 hours ago* (last edited 21 hours ago) (2 children)

fediverse bringing back bulletin boards and forums would be a great thing.

the internet became a worse place when we lost bulletin boards and forums and got reddit and ai.

[–] zenforyen@feddit.org 5 points 14 hours ago* (last edited 14 hours ago)

I think about Reddit-style platforms being the centralized bulletin boards and forums of these days, and Lemmy is closest we have to a DIY kind of thing which is controlled by the community.

Back in the day only a sufficiently tech savvy person could set up and run a forum software. Now everyone can do it, and with the Fediverse it's all nicely interconnected, interoperable and truly free and open.

In general the Fediverse is the best shot we got right now to get back to the non-corporate Internet of my childhood and youth, I really hope it will succeed. And succeeding does not mean that it must grow and outcompete the commercial offerings, I think success is if enough motivated and interesting people join and participate. Quality > quantity.

[–] ozoned@piefed.social 5 points 21 hours ago

Let's DO IT! :-)

[–] Paddy66@lemmy.ml 4 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

It would be cool if there was an operator that would force the search into Lemmy content. Are they called bangs? Like starting with !r

[–] Irelephant@lemm.ee 5 points 13 hours ago (2 children)

Kagi (paid search engine, haven't tried it myself) has a fediverse forums (lemmy, piefed, mbin) lens.

[–] stringere@sh.itjust.works 4 points 12 hours ago

It also makes it easy to remove reddit from search results entirely.

[–] Paddy66@lemmy.ml 2 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

Oh wow, you're right!

I wonder how they set that up? DDG has thousands of bangs but not one for Lemmy - probably because it is not at one single URL?

[–] Irelephant@lemm.ee 3 points 13 hours ago

Kagi's lens are the equivalent of custom feeds for searching (i think, I haven't used kagi).

But yeah, ddg bangs basically just jump you to a search page on a website.

[–] Haffwit@lemmy.ml 6 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

Suppose I wanted to discuss, say, typewriter repair. How could I find the appropriate community? How do I avoid having my questions deleted because they are “off topic”? How do I find posts/comments/answers related to my interests?

[–] JackbyDev@programming.dev 11 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

One of my biggest gripes about the fediverse (and honestly any online community) is people making increasingly niche places to discuss things before there is a need to split things due to size. I'd post that to something like a general hobbies group. I'd also say mods need to be less strict about what is and isn't on-topic while there isn't much traffic in their communities.

[–] Irelephant@lemm.ee 5 points 13 hours ago

I'd say having those groups isn't bad in itself, but they should crosspost posts to and from the small groups.

[–] applemao@lemmy.world 9 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

Thats what I've been doing...I say yes do it! We need more humanity nowadays too, when everything's bots.

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[–] burgerpocalyse@lemmy.world 12 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

i find that most of the information and recommendations i have seen on Lemmy is about what NOT to do or use. dont use this service, dont use this Linux version

[–] ozoned@piefed.social 5 points 22 hours ago

Yeah we need to pivot to being more open. But not even just Lemmy. Post anywhere. Anyone can build anything. The Fediverse isn't Lemmy. I posted on Piefed.social. :-)

[–] melsaskca@lemmy.ca 8 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

All knowledge available for all, should be the goal. Us vs. them train of thought is so old and tiring but still continues to light a fire under some.

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[–] RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world 9 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I don’t use reddit results much at all anymore thanks to it constantly trying to force me to use the app, which I don’t have. I do try to force lemmy into search results by adding it to the search terms when appropriate.

Problem is that Lemmy/Fediverse simply doesn’t have the established depth and breadth of information that reddit does yet, and reddit does have it because it sort of killed the internet forums that would have existed foe those subjects. I agree, it’d be great to have more knowledge sources in Lemmy. Growing the community types would be a start, but that needs people and participation, and growth is hard.

[–] nulluser@lemmy.world 10 points 23 hours ago* (last edited 23 hours ago) (4 children)

Problem is that Lemmy/Fediverse simply doesn’t have the established depth and breadth of information that reddit does yet, and reddit does have it because it sort of killed the internet forums that would have existed foe those subjects.

That's the problem OP is asking you to help solve.

[–] ozoned@piefed.social 8 points 22 hours ago

Exactly this. We need to start investing in the Fediverse and stop depending on Reddit or any of the big techs. WE all built their content. We can do it again FREELY.

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[–] remon@ani.social 6 points 22 hours ago* (last edited 22 hours ago) (2 children)

Oh hell no. Lemmy is an extremely specific filter bubble and absolutely not suitable to replace even the worst search engine.

[–] ozoned@piefed.social 5 points 22 hours ago

I'm not saying LEMMY specifically. I'm on Piefed Social. I'm saying ANYWHERE on the Fediverse. Find your platform, build your platform.

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[–] lordnikon@lemmy.world 95 points 1 day ago (6 children)

We need to seriously AI proof before that happens or the bots will clean us out and eat all our bandwidth. The only thing keep us safe is we are under the radar.

[–] anzo@programming.dev 1 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

Instances can close registrations if there are too many bots, and somehow it could be okay. Bots aren't impossible to fight, the problem is that capitalist platforms support or ignore the issue since for them is somewhat convenient driving engagement... Or whatever ad-revenue system is behind that.

[–] lordnikon@lemmy.world 3 points 12 hours ago

Yeah accounts are needed to post I'm talking just the AIs scraping content and them not respecting robots.txt.

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