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No Stupid Questions @lemmy.world
mookulator @lemmy.world
• 95%

Is it bad Lemmy etiquette to “pollute” the All feed of a niche instance?

I heard that the All feed aggregates content from all communities that instance members have subscribed to, meaning if I subscribe to a new community, it’ll start showing up in everyone else’s All feed.

Let’s suppose I have an account on an instance with a particular thematic focus. Should I avoid subscribing to communities outside of that theme, in order to preserve the purity of their All feed?

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34 comments

  • Nah. That's what Local is for

    62

  • The All Feed shows you all communities from all instances. Whether you are subscribed to them or not.

    The Local Feed shows you all communities from your instance. Whether you are subscribed to them or not.

    The Home Feed shows you only communities you are subscribed to. This includes any communities you follow that are located in other instances.

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    • Not quite, the All feed shows you all posts from all communities subscribed to on your instance. If there isn't a user subscribed, it isn't pushed to that instance.

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      • So that one subscription is effectively how 'my' instance becomes aware any specific community off-instance, in order to check for posts there?

        That both makes sense and is rather counterintuitive at the same time.

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      • Oh! That's interesting. Thanks for clearing that up. :)

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      • How can I see all feeds on all instances while not being subscribed?

        EDIT: pleas disregard. I read the sticky. You must manually search for unknown communities.

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  • Personally I think it's even the opposite. What Lemmy needs is more interesting content and interaction, whether it's "niche" or not, and making content more visible to others spreads awareness so to speak. Deliberately holding back your own interests just because it could inconvenience someone else on the internet IF they sort their feed in a specific way ... that's counter-productive both for the site as a whole and your own spare time / interests in particular. Just subscribe to whatever community you want.

    Especially if it's something niche that would not get much traffic otherwise.

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    • Agreed - I want to come across as many communities as possible while I build my subscription list. I'd prefer if I could see all communities everywhere, but with the system the way it is, the next best thing is for everyone to subscribe to as many communities as possible. Please subscribe to anything you want!

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  • If you did this, you would prevent your fellow instance users from subscribing to content they are interested in. That wouldn't be very neighborly.

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  • I like discovering new communities and content through other people, but I will say y’all need to lay off the furry porn.

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  • If an instance allows anyone to sign up then I think they need to tolerate those users having different tastes and interests, within reason. Most instances have policies against illegal content, and many don't allow porn. Defederation is the tool instance admins can use to prevent subscriptions to content they don't want to host. Other than that, if other users don't want to see certain content, they can simply not subscribe to it and avoid the All feed. Personally I like browsing All precisely because it shows me things I didn't know about, and might be interested in.

    Currently there's no way for users or instance admins to block specific communities. I hope that will be made available at some point, so content blocking can be done at a more granular level and defederation can be reserved for more extreme cases. Instance admins would be free to curate their All feed if that's what they want to do. Users would be free to pick an instance that suits them, possibly one with a heavily curated feed or instead choose one that hosts a broad array of content. A broad array of content is much less likely to be an issue if users can block at the community level so they don't have to see it.

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  • I would say that it's too early for anyone to know what a more solidified etiquette will be. So for now just do whatever you want so long as you pay attention to any changes in public opinion or rule changes.

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  • I block NSFW on Lemmy.

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  • If it's a real instance? No problem, deal with it!

    In the futute I expect there would be spam instances with fake upvotes, yes those should be banned.

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  • No, it is fine, if people want to see the local thematic focus they have the Local view.

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  • No. In fact, you're helping your instance. If people don't want to see your niche instance, they gotta get out of the All feed and go back to their Home.

    Just don't follow any NSFW and people don't be bothered.

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  • I think it's a good idea to be cognizant about visiting other communities that are not in your home instance. Most people enjoy seeing new things and ideas within reason. I would say that as long as you aren't embarrassed by announcing to the community your own personal interests then go for it. And if it is something you would be embarrassed to share then maybe make an alt account on that instance for your own personal use.

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