Why does the frontpage of kbin.social work so much better than any other server?
Why does the frontpage of kbin.social work so much better than any other server?
When I visit kbin.social, I see new posts regularly. On other servers posts stay on the frontpage for multiple days. This is also true if I switch their sorting to "hot". So that is probably not the difference.
What is kbin.social doing differently?
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It depends on what you mean by other servers…Lemmy instances? I haven’t seen any differences between kbin instances.
Kbin is entirely different software from Lemmy; it’s a completely different backend.
So that would be why it’s “better” in that regard than Lemmy instances. My understanding is that it’s a bug in Lemmy that will be fixed soon.
The “popping” of the feed in Lemmy is tied to their use of websockets instead of http. I believe the devs stated they’ll be moving off of websockets in the future.
Kbin is entirely different software from Lemmy; it’s a completely different backend.
Wow did not know that. So how can it interact with the lemmy instances if it's not running lemmy software?
Because they use the same protocol: ActivityPub
For example, E-Mail gets send over the protocols pop3, smtp, imap. It doesn't matter if you use Outlook or Gmail for Android or whatever email program. They still send data to each other using these protocols. Therefor both know what to do with the information exchanged.There is software that is completely different from Lemmy and Kbin which can still interact via the ActiviyPub protocol. For example Mastodon for Twitter-like mini blogs. Or PeerTube which is a video platform. Pixelfeed is an image sharing platform similar to Instagram and the like. But since they all use AcitvityPub you can interact, comment, vote etc. on these images and videos or mastodon posts here on Kbin or on Lemmy.
In theory this sounds great. But obviously the different software needs to have the backend and the UI to support these features implemented.
To make it all even more difficult to implement, since all these different installations are spread over many different servers (= federation). Which all can have difference in their software again and different speed and rules about how often they synchronize their data.
The ActivityPub protocol! It's hot all these platforms talk to each other.
Not only can this Reddit talk to that Reddit, it can also talk to the various Twitters, and YouTubes. Twitter can also talk to Instagram, Facebooks, and Goodreads, etc. That's the magic of the fediverse!
That's the magic of ActivityPub! It's the protocol that most of the fediverse is built on, and it lets users from completely different fediverse platforms share posts with each other. It's the special sauce that lets Mastodon, Lemmy, and kbin (and more!) work together
Via the ActivityPub protocol that fediverse software uses :)
Pretty cool stuff!
Kbin can also directly interact with Mastodon users and toots because of this. Kbin magazines can natively contain both “threads” from Kbin and Lemmy, and microblog “posts” from Kbin and Mastodon. (And other software depending how they map these features.)
Yeah Lemmy instances. I thought kbin is also a Lemmy instances. Thanks for clearing up my confusion.
You bet! The fediverse is definitely a confusing concept to wrap your head around the first time. And it doesn’t help that different software server instances don’t need to use a site name that specifies which software they are (like Beehaw, for example).