It often happens that a given lemmy link didn’t match with my own login from another instance. This causes troubles to comment and participate in the thread. This is what I have learned so far. Is there a better method of doing this? Browser extension suggestions are welcome.
Context:
- Have an account
@usernameon instancelemmy.testand being logged in - Given a lemmy link
lemmy.example.com/post/12345 - Want to comment as
@username@lemmy.testonlemmy.example.com/post/12345
Expected behavior:
- Opening links from
lemmy.example.comautomatically recognizes login fromlemmy.test, commenting and voting done without problems
Actual behavior:
- Instance
lemmy.example.comexpects logins only from its own server, not other federated servers likelemmy.test
Manual fix (for web browsers):
- Check for the “federation link” (the icon with five-colored star, is there a name for this?) from linked URL’s page. (If the icon does not exist, check Observations below)
- Open “search” from own instance (
lemmy.test> search) - Enter the “federation link” at search bar.
- First result should be a URL that’s compatible with the own instance: e.g.
lemmy.test/post/98765
Observations:
- If the link and its OP shares the same instance domain (
@user@lemmy.example.composting to!community@lemmy.example.com), then the federation link should be the link itself (please confirm if this is actually true). - If not, then the “federation link” has to be obtained.
- INCLUDE HTTPS before domain, otherwise it won’t appear in the search:
https://lemmy.example.com/post/12345OK
lemmy.example.com/post/12345NOT OK
Conceptually, it’s similar to an RSS feed: you can’t give someone a link to a feed that will automatically open in their own feed reeder; they need to go to their own reader first and paste the url there. The only exception is if their browser is configured to recognize feeds and open them in their default reader—and I think that’s going to have to be the solution for fediverse content: browsers will need to be updated, or browser plugins developed.
There are a few browser plugins that do this sort of thing for mastodon. I imagine some dev work would be needed to adapt them for the Threadiverse, but the concept is certainly out there.
Or maybe a general-purpose ActivityPub plugin, if you prefer to view lemmy content from your mastodon account or vice versa.
I don’t think I’m aware of a way to link to a specific post or comment natively in a way that allows every user to see it on their home instance. There are some userscripts that fix this problem, and I think some of the apps do, too. Here is one (requires Violentmonkey or the like)
An instance-neutral link could be nice. No idea if it’s doable.
If the link and its OP shares the same instance domain (@user@lemmy.example.com posting to !community@lemmy.example.com), then the federation link should be the link itself (please confirm if this is actually true).
If not, then the “federation link” has to be obtained.This is my understanding
If you’re given a link to a post, call the CommunityLinkFixer Bot, which should give you the URL of the post from your own instance (so you stay logged in):
[AT] CommunityLinkFixer [AT] lemmings.world
If someone gives you an absolute link to a Community, then the Bot should pop up to fix it itself.
I say that, and I’m actually 100% sure how it works, so lets try:
@CommunityLinkFixer@lemmings.world
Hi there! Here are all the fixed links for your instance:
There is a button with fediverse icon that can be used to go to the post’s link in the the original instance. Share that link instead. People that want to open it on their own instance can paste the link in their instance’s search bar to find the local federated copy. A bit awkward but at least it works.
Is there technical reason it has to be the original instance’s link instead of any other server being linked to? Federation and all, I see it as having an additional node before destination, but it’s not a broken link regardless.
The original url is basically the real post ID, which can be used to identify the same post regardless the instance you’re currently in. AFAIK there are efforts to make deep linking work without copy pasting the original instance’s url, so hopefully things are getting better in the coming months.
Matrix tackled this UX issue in the bud relatively early with https://matrix.to/. It still isn’t ideal, but much better than expecting users to install browser extensions or OS-specific hacks to properly handle ActivityPub links.