(unlike Reddit, for example)

I use bold and italic a lot in post titles. Some of the other stuff wouldn’t make much sense I don’t think, but every little bit helps.

The Lemmysphere sure seems to get slammed a lot at places like r/RedditAlternatives. I wonder if possibly some of that is sockpuppet-stuff, as unlikely as that sounds. Still, more than ever we live in the age of misinformation and manipulation by opposition groups & monied interests, so the idea & practice is certainly on the table.

Unfortunately, there’s also the reputation of at least one of the primary Lemmy coders. Seems like the sooner Kbin, Mastodon, etc can get better integrated, the less notable that should be. *knock on wood*

Just make a community. Build it, they will come.

This is exactly what I’ve done, but I must say that in the particular community’s case, it hasn’t been easy. We’re going on 1.5yrs now, 900+ subscribers, and I’ve personally contributed ~360 posts (most of them curated mini-articles) out of 466 total posts, yet the sub still essentially needs me to provide the content.

So IME, niche-type subs can take a hell of a lot of work to take off, and we’re not even that much of a niche.

I know I can filter content. I know I can post and be the change I seek. Yet, it feels like an uphill battle.

It doesn’t look like you mentioned subscriptions, which gets you out of the ‘all’ / ‘filtering’ side of things entirely. But just as with Reddit, you’ll need to spend time building your personal feed over time and tweaking it.

The good news is that there’s no limit to your subscriptions (unlike Reddit’s cap of 50 displayed at any one time), but that you’ll need to use the right tools to search the Fediverse to find those communities you want to subscribe to.

The main tool I typically use seems to have a bug right now (based on the recent software upgrade?) but I suspect will be back up in a few days. You might take a look at this, tho, plus other resources.

Block FlyingSquid

You mean the user that moderates some Star Trek stuff and Out of Context Comics? What’s the problem..?

Yes, I found it well-written but not all that enlightening. I recognise that it made sense for SpaceGhost/CheapSkate to build his sites out by hand in the true spirit of DIY, but that doesn’t seem too practical or advisable for most folks.

The various federated software & networks may have their weak points and inconsistencies, but far as I can tell it’s still best for volunteer site runners to work within that framework so as to remain connected to something bigger than just their little personal corner of the internet. Is it really so expensive a thing to federate? I seem to recall that some instances can host for only ~US$20, which doesn’t seem bad at all. Images are arguably best stored at other sites like Imgur, anyway.

@Blaze@reddthat.com

lemmy alternative

As long as it federates, hey?

Alternative (Alt) Text is meant to convey the “why” of the image as it relates to the content of a document or webpage. It is read aloud to users by screen reader software, and it is indexed by search engines. [Harvard link]

Oh, I see what you mean! So strictly speaking, alt-text should be used for the intended purpose, i.e. in order to help certain users and searches, etc.

Fortunately or unfortunately, I suspect most webcomics makers, and no doubt others, are going to keep using it the way they are. I’m not sure there’s a real issue in this case, but maybe in others…

Sequoia Brussels sprouts are delicious but it’s pretty hard to finish one.

Yes, it’s a pretty obvious riff on the main joke, i.e. entertaining the idea that Brassica sequoia is a real thing, based on the fact that brussels sprouts, like cauliflower, collards, kohlrabi, cabbage and others, are all cultivars of B. oleracea.

If you didn’t know that last bit, I can see getting confused about the alt-text.

@yolta@programming.dev @lugal@sopuli.xyz