Which instance should i choose when i share a link?
from sk1nnym1ke@piefed.social to fediverse@lemmy.world on 03 Jul 18:24
https://piefed.social/post/1003350
from sk1nnym1ke@piefed.social to fediverse@lemmy.world on 03 Jul 18:24
https://piefed.social/post/1003350
Let’s say:
- I am on instance A.
- I browse on a community that is on instance B
- a user from instance C post something on that community B.
Now i want to share a link to this post. Which instance should i pick?
- A my home instance
- B the community
- C the post author
threaded - newest
Id pick the communities instance because that’s the one responsible for federating the post and comments. Id only choose the instances a or c if b is or is planning to shutdown, or if I really wanted to show people what my home instance is
Theoretically, it shouldn't matter.
In the ideal case every connected server should host a full and complete copy of the data from the originating server (as @xkdrxodrixkr@feddit.org says, that's B)
Reality is a bit different, but not enough to warrant always picking B. Just share whichever you'd like, but B is the most right.
C is most correct canonical URL actually. See the HTML at the bottom of this screenshot
<img alt="" src="https://retrolemmy.com/pictrs/image/17b0f55d-8b27-4adc-a53d-a87a14a817e7.png">
More info: github.com/LemmyNet/lemmy-ui/issues/1418
I agree with the other answers here, however if you share the link to another fediuser outside of the platform (e.g matrix) I really like sharing with threadiverse.link.
Edit: an example using your post with threadiverse link (used my local instance to copy the post): threadiverse.link/sopuli.xyz/post/29845043
You set your instance once into the cookies and it will always redirect to yours.
That’s useful thanks for sharing.
It feels like there should be something like that built into Lemmy and I was a bit surprised there isn’t, just like how you can link to a community for example with !fediverse@lemmy.world
No problem, I feel like fedistuff is so scattered and hidden that it’s always worth mentioning your favourite tools :)
The frontends and apps do redirect embedded links in comments no? E.g. if you click this it should automatically use your instance to find the comment (even though its a link to my instance): sopuli.xyz/comment/17606535
Or maybe you mean when you paste an url to the browser that it should automatically redirect to your instance? If so thats tad bit difficult. There was once a post that proposed something like a activityPub/lemmy URI scheme where links would look like this:
But I don’t remember where that conversation led and also I have no idea how feasible that would be.
Edit: added words
No that link opens in your instance for me like a vanilla hyperlink, I’ve used several instances all with Lemmy’s default web front end and that’s always been the behaviour in my experience, maybe some apps do it differently? If it did it automatically wouldn’t the software have to have hard-coded knowledge of every other instance to know whether to handle it as a Lemmy link or somewhere else on the web?
Ah must remember wrong or maybe it was proposed!
Yeah the software would need to know, but in a way “lemmy” knows because it knows which instances your instance is federating with. If your instance isn’t federating with the link target it cant find it anyway.
Same as the ! Exclamation mark for communities or @ for users it can do a look up (you can put my link to your search input in lemmy and it will find it), but there would be otherways to achieve this too.
But yeah it would be really nice to have some universal way like the ! And @ signs to point to another fedi post/comment.
there’s also lemsha.re and voyager’s go.getvoyager.app
I thought lemsha.re stopped working - guess not, that’s good news! And such a cool feature by the dev with the voyager link. Haven’t tried that feature out yet (voyager is my personal favourite lemmy app).
@aeharding@vger.social could you add threadiverse support?
yes.
That would be awesome!
Since the page doesn’t have about or info page I’ll add the link to the repo of threadiverse.link: github.com/RikudouSage/lemmyverse.link
IMO link B is the “most original” one. Sort of like an “authoritative source”, if you will.
C is the original, not B
for example, this post’s permalink is piefed.social not lemmy.world
<img alt="" src="https://retrolemmy.com/pictrs/image/5f25c112-333b-4959-9430-9c25b461f6f7.png">
points at
https://piefed.social/post/1003350<img alt="" src="https://retrolemmy.com/pictrs/image/17b0f55d-8b27-4adc-a53d-a87a14a817e7.png">
When you post something, it is first posted to your own instance, then sent to the community, then the community sends it to its subscribers.
The authoritative source is always the one the originating user is from in ActivityPub.
Interesting.
Relying on your intuition really is no substitute to actually looking things up. If I had a tattoo on the back of my hand, it should say something like that, so that I won’t forget it. Keeps happening all the time.
On the other hand, the internet is always more than glad to correct my mistakes, so I still see this mess as a win-win for everyone.
Just copy the URL. Maybe if you’re DMing someone or replying to one specific person choose their instance.
Otherwise there’s just no perfect answer, keep it simple and just copy that URL from your own Instance.
use the fediverse icon to get the canonical link to a post (which is option C in your list), you can right click it to copy the link
on piefed.social it’s in the overflow menu:
<img alt="" src="https://retrolemmy.com/pictrs/image/687b7527-e3b2-4ea4-a3a5-bc14d4cd3528.png">
on Lemmy it’s just the icon
<img alt="" src="https://retrolemmy.com/pictrs/image/5f25c112-333b-4959-9430-9c25b461f6f7.png">
although sometimes I do not grab the canonical link, like if the instance is slow or has poor downtime, I’ll use link A or B from your list
(someone should maybe add this info to the Lemmy docs join-lemmy.org/docs/introduction.html idk if piefed has similar docs)
Do you know an easy way to retrieve link B? As a piefed.ca user viewing a piefed.social post on a lemmy.world community, I see no easy way to retrieve the lemmy.world link. If no easy way exists, then I guess it settles the B vs. C debate.
I don’t think there’s a quick way to get link B, but C is literally called the canonical URL. Check the <head> section in the HTML (bottom of the screenshot)
<img alt="" src="https://retrolemmy.com/pictrs/image/17b0f55d-8b27-4adc-a53d-a87a14a817e7.png">
Remember that posts belong to users, the community only does a retweet/boost of the post.
More info: github.com/LemmyNet/lemmy-ui/issues/1418
At this moment the web interface doesn't support this.
I use the app Voyager on my smartphone. I can set in the settings that the share link target links to A, B, C by default or that the app asks me everytime.
That was surprising. I thought like many others that the posts belong to the community. Actually it is not like you have proven.
In my opinion I always do that original instance the post was on.
More confirmation that C is the canonical URL. Check the <head> section in the HTML (bottom of the screenshot)
<img alt="" src="https://retrolemmy.com/pictrs/image/17b0f55d-8b27-4adc-a53d-a87a14a817e7.png">
Remember that posts belong to users, the community only does a retweet/boost of the post.
More info: github.com/LemmyNet/lemmy-ui/issues/1418
This is why it’s the link provided by the fediverse icon on Lemmy, and the “View original on…” link in PieFed. On Mbin it’s the “Open/Copy original URL”
I tend to pick D, the instance that is federated with most other instances so most of the interactions are visible or C.