Lately I often read about kbin.social being similar to lemmy but more accessible. So I created an account there to check it out. My experience so far is a little mixed. From kbin I can access all Lemmy posts, although I find the interface less intuitive to join new communities. So from the kbin side it feels like an other Lemmy instance.
But when searching for kbin from this Lemmy Account, I do not find much. I feel like I am missing some basic concept, that makes it pretty clear. Why this is such a one way experience.
So now I am wondering: How does this work, what are the difference, what do both sites have in common?
I am striving to make the foundations very similar to Lemmy’s, to facilitate potential migration in either direction. The main differences are that /kbin will ultimately be a modular gateway to the entire fediverse. I will tell you more about it a bit later.
You can search for groups and users in the following way (this will also be improved):
https://kbin.social/search?q=%40ernest%40szmer.info
https://kbin.social/search?q=%40wolnyinternet%40szmer.info
You can also disable federation in the options (sidebar) and only see local posts.
I really like what you are building there, but at the moment I often cannot find the communities I’m subscribed to on Lemmy so I tend to jump between those two.
Can you send me the names of the communities in a private message? I’ll see what can be done.
On Lemmy, if a community on another server doesn’t appear when you search for it, you can use the syntax “!communityname@server.name”. Your login Lemmy server will then go out and index it and it will appear in the search a few moments later.
Is there a way to do that on kbin? I’ve tried every syntax for a Lemmy community that I know of and nothing seems to work.
!communityname@server.name
/c/communityname@server.name
server.name/c/communityname
@communityname@server.name
etc.
Thanks for the answer and all the work you put into kbin. Really like the design so far. Only have to get used to the structure a little more.
Something else I am wondering: when I registered at kbin I think I never could choose an instance. So is it only possible to use kbin with a registration at kbin.social or is a plan to allow other instances of it?
I’m intrigued by the idea of being able to talk to other Fediverse apps, but searching for my Pleroma account at @missingno to test this out turns up nothing. Is there some way to force discovery?
kbin looks good but I can’t get over the fact that its backend is written in PHP. In the long run, lemmy’s Rust backend will probably be way more resource efficient and thus better for hosters. We’ll have to see though, since tech stacks aren’t the most important thing. But for me a Rust backend is a huge plus.
I’m sure it’s fine code, I just can’t imagine it’ll ever be as efficient as Rust.
Lemmy is not bottlenecked by anything related to the Rust code and neither is Kbin most likely. Modern php is efficient enough for it to not really matter (contrary to Python or Ruby etc.).
Kbin is newer, so it has less traffic on its magazines than communities on Lemmy do, at least at the moment. Just like in Lemmy or other fediverse instances, to see kbin magazines someone has had to search for them on your Lemmy instance before they’ll show up on your instance. So more people searching for Lemmy communities in your insurance rather than kbin’s magazines means less will show up on your feed. That’s what they have in common.
Kbin itself is a different software backend to access the fediverse. It supports viewing/subscibing/posting to Lemmy communities in other fediverse instances, but also has microblogging support (basically like random Twitter posts) that supports mastodon (fediverse Twitter). It also has a lot of customization options if you go into your kbin settings. Plus I read kbin doesn’t rely on Javascript like Lemmy does, so that’s a nice security bonus.
Kbin is much newer but I like the direction it’s going. They do need to simplify link aggregation to make it a bit easier to view communities, but it’s a work in progress that has a lot of potential.
Yeah, the design of the individual posts in the feed is nice. Are you using kbin on desktop? Because on mobile I only get the random feeds, when I search. And at least so far I find it a little confusing, where the random stuff starts and the search results end. But I think that will get better over time.
So far I am only using Lemmy, but maybe this is also a nice entry point for the other services.
What are the differences concerning privacy, you are talking about? Aren’t they using the same Lemmy infrastructure?
Also, Lemmys devs have pretty radical political views and I don’t want to support sites that don’t care about human rights
From what I’ve found thus far:
- Community is smaller currently due to being newer but connects to the Lemmy, Mastodon, etc communities so it doesn’t feel small.
- Definitely needs a mobile app for collapsing comments, notifications, etc but installing on mobile through the browser works quite well.
- Would like the ability to delete new magazines to change the URL for instance which I currently can’t figure out how to do.
- Calling communities magazines is a little confusing but nothing serious.
- The ability to sign up without an email like Lemmy would be a huge bonus.
- The privacy policy and UI is much nicer than on Lemmy.
- Signing up is open compared to Lemmy which requires an explanation and review.
Most of these things will likely and hopefully come with time as the platform is developed. Other than that I feel this will most likely be my safe haven from the bs Reddit (fuck spez) has pulled.
Signing up is open compared to Lemmy which requires an explanation and review.
Only on certain instances. Lemmy.ml and beehaw.org, for example, require you to answer some questions (I’ve heard people say beehaw requires you to write an essay, lol) which I think is primarily to avoid being overrun by bot accounts. Not all instances do, though. sh.itjust.works has open registration, for one.
Fwiw my application to BeeHaw I submitted last night was like 4 sentences and approved in < 10 minutes.
I don’t think they’re looking for anyone’s life story of personal philosophy on life and the universe ya know?
I have not applied to beehaw, myself. I dislike the lack of a down vote personally. I think it’s a useful utility to have as long as people don’t abuse it… Which people always will, but I don’t think that merits taking it away. That’s the great thing about decentralized services, though!
