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Fediverse @lemmy.world Aatube @kbin.melroy.org

Microblog posts that are adjacent to a sub but won't qualify as a thread there

For a long time, users have been able to submit microblog-style posts to link-aggregator subs (a.k.a. subcommunity, community, magazine, etc.). Some platforms such as mbin require you to select one for your post. Previously, I've thought this sub selection as a special hashtag for the post. However, I've recently been reminded that posts actually show up in communities as full-on threads. So what do you (or the threadi gods) consider to be proper etiquette in selecting a proper sub to make your microblog post to? There's always !random, but that feels kinda worthless...

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23 comments

  • If you're going to post it to a Lemmy community, I would that that that should be considered long before you reach the "post" button. Like if you're going to share a link or write a text post, you should already be familiar with a community in mind. Please don't post something to a community as an afterthought, especially if it's not really that relevant.

  • Kbin/Mbin handle microblog posts kinda oddly. They're not actually attached to the magazine you see them in, in most cases, and it's instead *bin auto-sorting posts by hashtag. *bin will aggregate all of the microblog content and sort it by the first hashtag listed, and that'll determine which local magazine that post will appear in.

    So for instance, I could post:

    Just got the high score! #gaming

    And this will show up in /m/gaming for you, even though I didn't specify any magazine to post it to. I could do that from my Mastodon account, even, and you'd see it there, as well. You can subscribe to local magazines to effectively subscribe to Mastodon hashtags this way.

    Posting microblog content directly to a magazine is a bit weird, as *bin basically just adds a "hidden" hashtag with the magazine's full address in the metadata. So if you wanted to post a microblog post to this magazine, for instance, you could do that by either selecting this magazine from the list when posting, or you could include #fediverse@lemmy.world as a hashtag from any Fediverse platform, and it'll show up in the microblog tab on *bin.

    I hope that makes sense; I might not be explaining it properly lol

  • I'm assuming that this is about your earlier post that ended up in LW's technology community. Microblog posts like that seem to be more intended for whoever is following you as a user. If MBIN insists that you also have to choose a 'sub' then I think it'd be best to put it in whatever it considers a dumping ground (ideally something that doesn't federate out), so the 'random' magazine sounds about right to me.

  • Welcome! :)

    I figure it's not too different from a regular text post here, so if there's a community that seems relevant to the post somehow, that'd prolly be best.

    As to how to find them, I'd recommend the communities tab of lemmyverse explorer, and searching a word or category that seems close to what you're posting to see if there's a community that already exists for it.

  • One good option is to look for relevant groups in a.gup.pe - such as !technology@a.gup.pe. These groups are geared towards Microblog content, and give good reach on sites like Mastodon.

    You can add pretty much anything before a.gup.pe, but some groups have many followers on Mastodon and some have none.

    Lemmy and Mbin treat Microblog content very differently. Mbin is more similar to Mastodon in this regard, Lemmy tries to force-fit everything into the thread format. It's not very intuitive for new users - sorry about that! :)

    • Heads up the project behind a.gup.pe is very much stagnated, and while it does still work, I wouldn't encourage people use it because it has federation issues with non-Mastodon software, and the fact that it could potentially go down anytime taking the groups with it, to be clear it's a risk with any service but since guppe hasn't gotten much attention for a while it's more of a risk since they might not be maintaining the site.

      I don't deny that it's a cool service but it probably won't last. I'd recommend people use alternatives to host groups on Mastodon, like communites on Lemmy or mbin. Ultimately though they are the same thing activitypub wise, it's just a handle that is a group entity, rather than a user. Different services just interpret the data differently, Lemmy and mbin show a forum, Mastodon just shows boosts of user's posts (yes it is posts, not toots, toots is an outdated term).

      • I wasn't aware of this - good to know.

        What's great about using it (while it lasts) is that it boosts content to a lot of instances across the fediverse, so you don't need to be incredibly well connected in order to have reach. Otherwise, if you post microblog posts from Mbin, you risk yelling into a very tiny void.

        It'll be interesting to see how native group support in Mastodon is going to play out.

23 comments