this post was submitted on 24 Jun 2023
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Is there a seamless way of linking to other instances? (lemm.ee)
submitted 1 year ago by tymon@lemm.ee to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml
60 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

For example, this comment links to another community on another instance, but when clicked on, you're not actually able to interact with anything on that community, because you're suddenly not logged in.

It's doesn't function like linking to a subreddit, and I understand that that's because of federation, but is there a better way of doing this? It seems... very stupid that linking to a page would suddenly "log you out" for all intents and purposes, while searching that same community wouldn't.

Does this make sense?

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[–] terribleplan@lemmy.nrd.li 22 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

For communities or users many clients (including the default web ui) understand relative links, like [!asklemmy@lemmy.ml](/c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml) or [@tymon@lemm.ee](/u/tymon@lemm.ee). The problem with these is that if instance the person reading your messages is on doesn't know that user/community (because no one is locally subscribed to it or there have been no actions seen by that user) you will get an ugly 404 page with the only remedy being to perform a search for that unknown user/community/whatever manually. I think this issue is being worked on to make things more seamless, but IDK when this experience will be improved.

There is also technically no guarantee that any instance will keep track of non-local objects perpetually, so the "canonical" location of a thing is generally on the server that the user is based on. Posts and comments are referenced by a sequential ID that is different on every instance, so... yeah.

Technically there is a unique ID for every object sent through ActivityPub, so those may be linkable in the future with a similar scheme such as /post/288327@lemm.ee or something uglier like /post/https%3A%2F%2Flemm.ee%2Fpost%2F288327 depending on compatibility needs (as the IDs in ActivityPub are all full URLs to the source object)

[–] OtakuAltair@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

!community@instance.url links to instance.url/c/community for me instead of /c/community@instance.url in the web ui for some reason...

Like !asklemmy@lemmy.ml links to lemmy.ml/c/asklemmy instead of /c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

[–] ritswd@lemmy.world 21 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yes, but it just got released as part of Lemmy 0.18.0, which isn’t everywhere yet: https://lemmy.world/post/477633

[–] bdonvr@thelemmy.club 9 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I don't think so. I'm on 0.18 and links to posts and comments still go to the linked instance.

However COMMUNITY linking is working great! Clicking on a link to a community on a different instance keeps you on your own instance :)

[–] maegul@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Sounds like a big or missing feature. You might want to write it up on GitHub if you can or the !lemmy@lemmy.ml community.

[–] TWeaK@lemm.ee 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You made your link to a fixed instance. Your source: [!lemmy@lemmy.ml](https://lemmy.ml/c/lemmy)

This is a functional instance agnostic link for older versions: [!lemmy@lemmy.ml](/c/lemmy@lemmy.ml) - like this: !lemmy@lemmy.ml

The new version should just let you type !lemmy@lemmy.ml and automagically make it instance agnostic. However the actual links need to either be /c/ or /u/.

[–] maegul@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

What is in my post is what the UI’s autocomplete provided. If it’s problematic or wrong, you should probably report a bug to the UI repo (I don’t know the details about these links).

[–] TWeaK@lemm.ee 2 points 1 year ago

I think maybe because my instance is still on 0.17.4 the !comm@instance type of link doesn't work. /c/ and /u/ did work on the old versions though, you just had to make them manually.

So there'd be no point reporting the bug. Not unless we check on another 0.18 instance to see if your lemmy.ml link is agnostic there.

[–] TWeaK@lemm.ee 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I just checked on sh.itjust.works, the only other instance I'm on that is on 0.18 yet, and your link works there. Edit: However the source of your link, made on 0.18, is different to my link on 0.17.4.

Yours: Sounds like a big or missing feature. You might want to write it up on GitHub if you can or the [!lemmy@lemmy.ml](https://lemmy.ml/c/lemmy) community.

Mine: The new version should just let you type [!lemmy@lemmy.ml](/c/lemmy@lemmy.ml) and automagically make it instance agnostic.

It looks like 0.18 creates an actual link in your comment when you make it, as a fall back for older versions, however that link is not agnostic. However if you view an old comment in 0.18 it will make an agnostic link for you, in spite of the old source. 0.18 apparently ignores the source in the comment where the link is not agnostic and just makes its own agnostic link out of the displayed text.

So maybe it would be better if 0.18 made a link like [!lemmy@lemmy.ml](/c/lemmy@lemmy.ml) to ensure full compatibility.

[–] maegul@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Coupled with the new rendering of links, into what I believe are instance agnostic formats for 0.18, the system seems it will to work well.

[–] TWeaK@lemm.ee 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I dug deeper and made a few edits lol it's not quite perfect. More than anything I don't get why it creates a non-agnostic link in the source.

[–] Tweak@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Test: !lemmy@lemmy.ml

Edit: !lemmy@lemmy.ml

Yep, that happens when you select it from the dropdown box. So it's the dropdown box that is making non-agnostic links to the host, however 0.18 ignores this and makes an agnostic link based on the text.

[–] TWeaK@lemm.ee 1 points 1 year ago

Oh strange, that was made on sh.itjust.works in 0.18 but didn't create a link in the source.

Are you sure you didn't manually create yours? Or did you maybe select it from the dropdown box?

[–] bdonvr@thelemmy.club 3 points 1 year ago

It's already been on there. They just didn't get to it this release

[–] maegul@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Here’s the first statement on this new feature that I saw: https://zemmy.cc/comment/119470. Presumably they know more about the feature and who developed it.

I also suspect this link will demonstrate your point!

[–] TWeaK@lemm.ee 1 points 1 year ago

Looks like there's no way to create an instance agnostic link to any specific comments. Here's my link for that same comment: https://lemm.ee/comment/378249, meanwhile the post instance's link: https://lemmy.ml/comment/912298, however yours is apparently the federated host link as that user is based in zemmy.cc.

[–] MentalEdge@sopuli.xyz 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

There is no way to locally link to a specific post or comment.

[–] tymon@lemm.ee 1 points 1 year ago

There's no way currently

[–] Dee_Imaginarium@beehaw.org 8 points 1 year ago

Is there a seamless way of linking to other instances?

Not really that I know of, not yet. Lemmy is still pretty janky, but it's our janky.

[–] PsychoticBananaSplit@lemmy.world 8 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (4 children)

This works on browsers but crashes Jerboa for some reason:

Ask Lemmy

Lemmy World

[Ask Lemmy](/c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml)

[Lemmy World](/c/Lemmyworld@lemmy.world)
[–] Gormadt@lemmy.blahaj.zone 14 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I'm not sure what I expected clicking those links in Jerboa, but it's true they do crash Jerboa when clicked

[–] NotInTheFace@lemmy.world 16 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Reading that comment, reading this comment, still clicking on the link with Jerboa:

[–] yote_zip@pawb.social 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

They work for me on Jerboa 0.35!

[–] NoTime@lemmy.one 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

They kind of work, you can see below that the content is not from those communities. I have to change the sort method to get the content, but the sort method is broken for me as I'm on lemmy.one which is not on v18:

[–] yote_zip@pawb.social 1 points 1 year ago

Whoops, I get that too. Refreshing the page loads the correct content for me. Clicking those links previously crashed Jerboa iirc so at least it's a step in the right direction!

[–] jlh@lemmy.jlh.name 2 points 1 year ago

Those links don't crash my jerboa. 0.18.0-rc and 0.0.35.

[–] bagfatnick@kulupu.duckdns.org 1 points 1 year ago

I can confirm this link style works in the iOS Memmy App. As well as links formatted like β€œ!community@instance”.

[–] Hanhula@kbin.social 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Hilariously, neither of these work on Kbin either (probably because Kbin uses m instead of c).

[–] Lumidaub@feddit.de 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

But is there a way to link to individual submissions on other instances?

[–] Tarte@kbin.social 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

The feature exists in the fediverse, but I don't know if or how it's implemented in Lemmy. I'm using Kbin and there is a button called "copy url to fediverse" (for comments and posts/threads):

Your comment: https://feddit.de/comment/508518

This post/thread: https://lemm.ee/post/288327

So basically, each entry has a unique ID and home instance that you can use to build a link to the "original".

[–] Lumidaub@feddit.de 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Well yes but that second link takes me out of my instance and I can't interact. That's the point of the question: can I link to an individual submission on another instance without leaving my own instance so that I can interact?

[–] Tarte@kbin.social 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Certainly! Just copy the URL from your browser. It looks something like this for me:
https://kbin.social/m/asklemmy@lemmy.ml/t/87952

From your perspective it's:
https://feddit.de/post/1053437

The original which is located on asklemmy@lemmy.ml is here:
https://lemmy.ml/post/1483815

Did I understand your question correctly? I feel like I missed something. It's new for me, too.

[–] Lumidaub@feddit.de 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

More likely I'm not being clear enough. These links all have an instance hard coded into them so I can't easily share them with people outside that instance. Right? Or am I not seeing something? What OP and I are looking for is a way to post a link to an individual submission on any instance that anyone can click on, regardless of their home instance, and be able to interact (this presumes their home instance and the target instance are federated, obviously).

[–] Tarte@kbin.social 1 points 1 year ago

Oh, now I get it! Thanks for staying with me and explaining.

That would be a nice feature indeed.

[–] BendyLemmy@lemmy.ml 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Aha, yes - this is the first (internal) issue. The wider issue is - how can these comments be included in search engine results?

The ultimate power of Reddit is that it shows up everywhere in search. Lemmy.ml, lemmy.world, BeeHaw etc... they just don't.

[–] briongloid@aussie.zone 2 points 1 year ago

It was actually resolved with 0.18 in the last day or two;

!lemmy@lemmy.ml

[–] lml@remy.city 4 points 1 year ago

There are ways to write links in such a way that they should keep you on your instance, but I'm not too familiar with them. I wonder if it would be possible to "precheck" links that load on a page, and if any point to content that can be federated, kick off the process of pulling that content in. Then when the user clicks that link, it would take them to the content on their home instance, where they can interact. That way users wouldn't need to deal with formatting links a certain way, it would just happen automatically (if your home instance software supports it).

[–] Spzi@lemmy.click 3 points 1 year ago

See (and please help if you can with)

  • A way to link posts across instances #3259
  • [Bug]: local links #3261
[–] fleabomber@lemm.ee 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Need a single sign in solution. Maybe?

[–] Kernel@beehaw.org 1 points 1 year ago

Intuitively, that's how I assumed it already worked, and it's probably what most new users will also expect. But a single global identity also runs counter to the idea of decentralization, and could invite other further complications.

The current experience can still be pretty jarring.

[–] faltuuser@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

This also happens in Jerboa. Clicking in a link opens up that community link in a browser.

[–] SpaceCadet2000@kbin.social 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

test

asklemmy@lemmy.ml

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