Why YSK: making the most of the fediverse means aggregating content from as many places as possible, but it’s not an intuitive process right now, especially for those using apps like Jerboa or Mlem.

I have been seeing some comments from people struggling to subscribe to kbin magazines from Lemmy so here’s a step-by-step of how I’ve been doing it:

  1. Note the name of the kbin magazine you want to subscribe to (example: kbin.social/m/books)
  2. Log into your Lemmy instance from a browser
  3. The Lemmy instance you are registered with will be the first part of the URL and the kbin community will be the second part. Example: I’m registered with lemmy.world so to register with the kbin Books magazine I would type https://lemmy.world/c/books@kbin.social
  4. From there, just hit subscribe and it will start showing up anywhere you’re logged into your Lemmy instance (I use Jerboa).

Hopefully this helps spread the word!

    • cdiv@kbin.social
      1·
      1 year ago

      I think these instructions only work for communities someone on your instance has already subscribed to. Instead, try going https://lemmy.world/search and entering the full URL for the community ( https://kbin.social/m/LucidDreaming ). It’ll spin for a little longer than usual but it should show up in the search results.

      Edit to add: The community will probably appear empty, however… new posts will show up, but anything from before the you subscribed probably won’t. If you want to reply to a particular comment, though, you can make it show up by searching for its full URL.

      • mabd@kbin.social
        0·
        1 year ago

        I was about to reply saying that the search didn’t work, that I could only see two comments I made in kbin.social sharing the link, but then I pressed the next button and there was a one line link to the community on the next page. Really weird formatting, but that did it! Thanks a lot! :)

        EDIT: @cdiv So it turns out that this worked for lemmy.world but not for sh.itjust.works. When I search there I only see comments where people have mentioned the link, but no actual link to the community. This is so weird and confusing lol

    • michikade@lemmy.world
      0·
      1 year ago

      Have them go to search, make sure everything is searching all, and have them put https://kbin.social/m/LucidDreaming as the search query.

      There’s a solid chance they won’t be able to see anything posted prior to when they subscribe, but at least that will make the community federate with that person’s Lemmy instance.

      • CoderKat@kbin.social
        1·
        1 year ago

        They really need to fix that. It shouldn’t require a subscription to federate. That just means that an /all view is wrong and from this thread, we can see it’s a major UX stumbling block

        • michikade@lemmy.world
          3·
          1 year ago

          “All” picks up any communities your instance knows about, whether you personally are subscribed or not. My understanding is that once one person from your instance subscribes to something it starts federating, but unless someone does that it stays separate.

          While I agree being able to search for communities needs a little help if it’s a brand new community outside of your home instance to make it less confusing, it makes sense from the standpoint of having to tell the community to talk to an external instance by having someone from the external instance subscribe.