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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[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

I have been trying to do that since I came here because you are precisely right google has become at best broken at worst an agent actively trying to manipulate you and reddit is entirely untrustable, keep doing what you are doing and don't forget to have fun while you are doing the right thing!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 weeks ago

Thank you so much! It's nice to know others agree. I've been so concerned with all of this, thinking I'm the only one thinking this, but I'm not. We're ALL thinking this. And I've been having an absolute BLAST. Not just for myself, but doing my Fireside Fedi show and even working towards setting up my nonprofit BT Free. We'll see where it all goes. Maybe it just us, but at least we have each other. :-) Thank you for the kind words of support. <3

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

Good idea, I try to do it, but niche stuff is rough here, if you are a part of an active discord, suggest making and hosting a lemmy community to them, I'm gonna try to get some 3d discords to post more art here.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 weeks ago

Every little bit counts.

[–] [email protected] -3 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 weeks ago

Hey thanks! Just a point of advice starting a conversation with "that's fucking stupid" isn't exactly seen as useful or helpful information. I'm just attempting to start conversations and help promote the fediverse so that it continues to grow. If you want to offer any helpful advice instead of being negative, that's be great.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Kagi search has a function to specifically search the fediverse.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 weeks ago

OH! LOVE THIS! Thank you KAGI!

[–] [email protected] 13 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 weeks ago

This is what I do when I want to search Lemmy. I put Lemmy: "search for this" into the search box and see what comes up. It works better than Lemmy's internal search function a lot of the time.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 weeks 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. :-)

[–] [email protected] -4 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

I ask chatgpt first. It usually gives me decent ideas to test out.

E: the downvotes are interesting. I wonder why.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 weeks ago

Downvotes are because a lot of folks are against ChatGPT and LLMs. We're going through MANY information transitions in the last 40 years and yet another holy grail is difficult to swallow. If you want to ask ChatGPT that's fine, but I'm trying to get folks to foster the Fediverse and make it more welcoming, more valuable, and heck just help people find us. Use the tools you want, absolutely. But we also need to find ways to help promote the Fediverse.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 weeks 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

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 weeks ago

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

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 weeks 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?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 weeks 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.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 3 weeks 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?).

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 weeks 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?

[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 weeks 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.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 weeks ago

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

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