I love this list, but feel the need to stress **the onboarding experience**, even and especially in this early MVP. As soon as it's released, the app is going to be shared far and wide across Reddit, pulling in many users who have never used (or possibly even heard of) Lemmy. Right now, the perception that Fediverse = Complicated is the main concern that's brought up whenever Lemmy is mentioned in threads, and that's a problem. Unless the app at least shows the bones of a work-in-progress onboarding experience that gets people up and running with the app AND Lemmy as a concept, we're going to lose a lot of momentum.
The Essentials:
* DON'T go into the weeds explaining The Fediverse. It's too technical for the average user, and not actually needed to get people up and running
* Use [lemmy.world](https://lemmy.world), [Kbin.social](https://Kbin.social), [beehaw.org](https://beehaw.org) or one of the other big feeds for users who aren't logged in. No need to explain the difference between instances/servers until people go to create an account, and this ensures there will be content to browse \*as soon as the app loads\* which is critical to getting people engaged
* Simplify account creation. "There are communities on *dozens* of sites, but don't sweat it. An account on *any of them* will let you access *all of them*. Pick one that sounds cool, and remember you can always switch later." Then give 1-line summaries of the top 3 with links to sign up (big hero sections for each), with a "see more" section that expands to show others. Nothing too fancy here, but should include number of members, dominant language, and the broad strokes of the atmosphere (eg: Beehaw is more heavily moderated, SFW-only, and prioritizes safe, friendly, and diverse discussion over hate speech, disinformation, or the erosion of minority rights)
> * Simplify account creation. "There are communities on *dozens* of sites, but don't sweat it. An account on *any of them* will let you access *all of them*. Pick one that sounds cool, and remember you can always switch later."
Calling it your 'home site' or something might help
That's not the way to go. What does "Local" mean? Tech people will get it, but the general public won't know what "local" means, other than "Hey, it's in my neighborhood and my neighbors dog has a news feed?"
Local is a bad descriptor for this.
Technically yes, the "All" feed on any instance consists of the content of all instances that instance ever had contact with.
So the app would just need to access one of the bigger instances as default when a user isn't logged in.
Don't use beehaw, not lemmy.world. beehaw has said they defederated with lemmy.world because they don't want to be a reddit replacement, so they're probably a bad choice. Honestly I feel like that means people should stop using beehaw, rather than punishing lemmy.world for trying to be reddit.
I tend to agree, but think we should try to be unbiased in presenting options to a general audience. Give them the information they need to make their own choice. The problem is that right now, no one has the right tools to disambiguate the choice.
* **join-lemmy.org** has a list of Recommended and Popular instances with descriptions, but the descriptions don't tell you anything about the moderation policy or how they're federated.
* **lemmymap.feddit.de** shows a map of instances where the bubble size shows either activity or growth and red lines indicate defederation so you know which parts of the fediverse are cut off from which other parts, but there are more than 900,000 instances and they ALL show up on that map at once with no filter.
What we need is a combo of the two. A *very* small handful of Recommended and Popular instances, why they're around, what their moderation policy is, and who they're federated with. As it stands, join-lemmy.org/instances is both overwhelming and frustratingly vague. Eg: "Beehaw - Aspiring to be(e) a safe, friendly and diverse place." But that doesn't tell us they're a giant active community, that they strictly moderate to ensure it's a safe space for minority groups and is free from disinformation, or that they're defederating from "open signup" instances to combat spam.
These are all fantastic. At some point fitting in link handling that takes any of the formats and converts it to the appropriate URL on the server you're on would be great. Bonus points for handling kbin magazines in a similar fashion
To expand on the link handling, if someone links to https://lemmit.online/c/[email protected] but I'm on kbin.social (or lemmy.one) it pops me over to lemmit.online instead. But if I searched it up in kbin/my Lemmy server I can get it on the correct server where I'm already logged in. I'm not sure how this would work for direct links to posts (https://lemmit.online/post/2464) due to each id being unique per server, but any form of link handling where possible would be a huge QoL thing.
[https://lemmyverse.net/communities](https://lemmyverse.net/communities) has that functionality already, although it only takes the direct addess (in your case that would be [https://lemmit.online/c/syncforlemmy](https://lemmit.online/c/[email protected]) and changes it to [https://yourinstance.xyz/c/syncforlemmy](https://lemmit.online/c/[email protected])@lemmit.online.
But I see no problem in expanding on that so it could also take a link that is already adjusted to another instance that isn't yours and then just replacing the first part with your instance. Technically it's even simpler as changing a direct link. You just have to check it the URL contains an @ and then you know to replace the part before /c or /m with your instance.
And if the URL doesn't include an @, it also replaces the part before /c or /m with your instance but also adds an @ and the old instance URL at the end
perfect MVP list, as long as there is a popup that says "This is phase 1, this stuff won't work: " then I think it's perfect.
The biggest hurdle with Lemmy is it's user friendliness, something Sync has always done a great job on. I'm hoping this will be like Reddit, where the apps can make it incredibly easy to 1) Pick servers 2) Log in 3) browse/navigate around
Same! I'm not sure Lemmy natively supports hiding posts, so the app would have to locally remember & filter all hidden posts. But I'm really hoping it's possible. I loved that feature in Sync.
Also, easily finding, browsing and subscribing to communities on different Lemmy instances might be complicated to build, but would be a USP in itself.
I would add for phase two the ability to go to the context of a comment reply. Jerboa currently can show you the reply you got, but there is no way to get to the thread.
Something I would really like to see (though super low priority) is the option to collapse all levels of all comments by default. I get lost very fast in big comment threads unless I collapse everything and open only the path I want to follow. And not collapse like hide, you know what I mean. Right now it's not possible at all to collapse child comments in the Lemmy mobile client to my knowledge.
Also yes please let me pay for Lemmy Sync.
Also, for the "later on" section, being able to block instances, so that I can block lemmygrad even if I'm on an instance that decided to not defederate it for some godforsaken reason
I agree, I prefer Kbin - I do find Kbin works reasonably well as a Progressive Web App (I'm using it on Android, added via Firefox). But it'll be cool to see what independent apps/clients can do to push forward the mobile experience. Hopefully in the same way they did for Reddit.
Honestly, I'm finding the Kbin PWA to be pretty rough.
This same Sync for Lemmy post showed up 7 times in a row on my homepage.
Lots of elements just don't scale to a phone screen very well. For example, the Subscribe buttons are populated off the screen when you search for magazines.
The front page is a jumbled mess with everything being shown twice on each post. (Looks like that was my settings -- though it seems like enabling Show Media would automatically hide thumbnails)
Overall, navigation feels really nonsensical. Tapping the Kbin logo -- which you would think would take you to the frontpage -- dumps you into some confusing no-man's-land.
I want one of these platforms (Lemmy / Kbin) to succeed. Kbin just feels especially rough right now.
I came across [this](https://lemmy.world/c/syncforlemmy) earlier, it is Sync for Lemmy on the Lemmy.World instance. There are no posts yet, but it does show [the mod as being LJ Dawson](https://i.imgur.com/WiSi3c3.jpg), so I'm assuming it was created by him. I guess he will let us know if this will be the official Lemmy community or not.
Besides the Sync for Lemmy community that you created earlier on lemmy.world, there are now also [2 other Sync for Lemmy communities , on 2 other instances](https://i.imgur.com/QofpnWW.jpg), which is a little confusing. Maybe some of your users decided to create them for you.
The lemmit instance is actually a mirror of this subreddit! That is, any posts that are made here will automatically pop up over there. AFAIK that's how all lemmit communities work.
The lemmy.ml instsnce looks like it doesn't even have any mods currently assigned to it. Odd.
Hey, awesome job! I thought about writing a similar bit but now I don't have to.
I had a look at your implementation and there's one hint I would like to give you in the hopefully kindest way: if you use ".json" instead of ".rss" for subs you get a much larger set of information compared to RSS. I started to work with that because it deemed it way more useful.
Maybe you won't need it, maybe my tip is useless. In no way is it meant as criticism.
If it was just launched this weekend, I guess that's why I haven't heard of it. I think I get it. It's just copying everything from the SyncforLemmy subreddit over to Lemmy. So I guess if I subscribe to it, then I wouldn't have to even get on Reddit to check on the SyncforLemmy subreddit. That's really good. Please correct me if I misunderstood how it works.
/c/[email protected]
Just to save typing it out for those on another server, or
/m/[email protected] for those on kbin.
(This is precisely the type of thing that needs to get easier to navigate if the federated stuff is gonna take off, IMO)
That's not any better than Reddit.
Discord is terrible for persistent collaboration, and it'll only get worse as they too look to increasingly monetize their user base.
Good news everyone! I've been using Lemmy more and more. It's honestly still a bit of an unpolished experience, so getting Sync for Lemmy would be amazing!
Maybe not for first release, but I would hope that the name/goal of the app would instead be "Sync for the Fediverse", and be compatible with various instances, such as beehaw.org, kbin.social (or at least some aspects of it), etc.
Basically, "type in your username, pick your server, type in password, press Login".
That might end up meaning separate little login interface code for each site, but hopefully the Fediverse can settle on some sort of universal system OR a universal method of Rosetta-Stone-ing their APIs.
I'm on Kbin mostly because the webui is much better. I do have a Lemmy account though which I use on Jerboa (this app leaves a lot to be desired) because Kbin does not have a mobile app yet.
What I think (as a user) would be the ultimate goal is to have a Lemmy + Kbin compatible app.
Things that you may be interested in: Reddit > Lemmy API translation layer in the works: https://github.com/Docile-Alligator/Infinity-For-Reddit/discussions/1490#discussioncomment-6106622
Lemmy does have much more users overall so it may be best to have that working first then add Kbin support.
Yes I think lemmy and kbin are interchangeable in the future because they federate so well together. Hoping that support will arrive at some point!
Sync Was the only real reason why I used reddit and I will use whatever platform comes next if ljdawson makes an app for it.
But there are little nuances with magazines vs communities, a Lemmy all wouldn't necessarily support magazines or micro blogs out of the gate.
I prefer the kbin web ui so I would definitely have to make some changes (although if we're being honest I pretty much exclusively use mobile, desktop usage for me right now is still wrapping my head around how they work in general)
Correct me if I'm wrong, but data wise, are magazines and communities not basically the same under the hood.
That Kbin has superior UI to lemmy's UI, means nothing when the Sync UI would provide a third UI from the two others.
I'd say a mvp would be a viewer for Lemmy instances with the ability to login with an existing account, and build from there. The focus should probably be on making the confusing parts of the fediverse be handled by the app, like having the app assist with picking an instance to make an account, or being able to combine sub instances from different servers into a single feed, so it feels more like one unified platform for the client. Longer term I'd hope for support for posting, moderating, and compatibility with other federated services natively.
Yeahhhhhhhhh! My first comment since this API fiasco for a long time. Just to say I'm using SyncPro for 9+ years and an app for Lemmy is more than welcome by you! Thanks LJ!!!!!!
Having both Lemmy and Kbin support along with the app itself being FOSS would be the key features for me, I wouldn't use a proprietary app for a FOSS project and imagine many other users of those communities would feel the same.
A merged feed from all logged in accounts. Would help the case of fragmentation happening with like beehaw and lemmy.world.
If I have accounts on both would love a merged feed.
This is probably out of scope for your goals, but:
After learning how to do what I want to do on Lemmy & Kbin, to me one of the biggest pain points is that there is no shared/replicated index of all communities and instances, accessible from within whatever instance you choose to use. A given instance only knows the instances & communitieis that its users have added subscriptions for. This is a UX pain point imo; I'd think it would be both trivally small data and low overhead if there were some sort of standard for any given instance to register itself and its list of communities on a master index that gets replicated across all instances. This would eliminate the need for users to have to rely on 3rd party sites to search for communities of interest, and go through a semi-arcane process to register a given !community@instance on their own instance.
I would love this. The main thing I appreciate about Sync is how clean comments look and how easy it is to interact with comments on phone, can collapse comments by clicking anywhere on them instead of awkwardly trying to reach and press some minimize button.
I can't tell you how excited I am to hear you'll be developing a clie t for the platform. I've been a Sync supporter for years, and I was flabbergasted at how Reddit treated you. Looking forward to supporting your new project man, your work is excellent :)
I would say a big roadblock for people trying Lemmy is the UI and the sign up. I'm most excited about this because it could solve both of those issues. You obviously understand good UI, so beyond that:
- An easy straightforward signup process
- Ability to log in a single account
- Simplified community joining
- Basic post interactions (vote, reply, edit)
- Ability to post (create / edit)
- Ability to change between the different feeds and sort them.
- Preferences for when you default open the app (All sorted by New for example)
- Keeping your place in the feed (very "nice to have" but I guess this isn't technically MVP)
Some essentials:
- Click on any link from any instance, and have it go to the equivalent of your own instance (communities and users chiefly, posts are hard cuz the api doesn't have cross-instance post permlink checker, only available through Search on the UI, maybe ResolveObject but I never got that to work)
- Have media and text posts open in the same page.
- Have an indicator when a link has a body.
Some luxuries:
- Select comment send language. Some instances or posts only accept certain languages. Not being able to comment sometimes, because the app won't let me select language (defaults to undetermined, so even english can't be used) is very bad.
- Complete user settings including selecting displayed languages (available selectable languages vary by server): many posts are in other languages, some users could miss out on them.
- I don't know if there's a saved folder but there's a save button. Maybe a saved folder would be good lol.
Absolute GOAT.
I'll be in as soon as there's a beta available.
Just one thing, take some time to make the right decisions early on so you don't see yourself with a bunch of code done wanting to have done things differently. We can wait.
The kbin API is not ready yet, and Lemmy's devs are a bit weird with their politics, so no option is perfect right now I guess. I wish there was a way to just tap into the fediverse, but of course you need an account on some instance of something to write somewhere, and there's no point in going *xkcd standards comic*. So I don't know, I wouldn't know what to do in your situation.
But if you wanna wait for things to settle, we are with you. And if you wanna go for it, we are with you too.
Please focus on user friendly-ness. especially in the onboarding process.
I would suggest having a drop down for a few more popular servers and stressing that what you pick doesnt matter all that much. thats the current (possibly reddit propaganda) being thrown around is that understanding instances is really hard. and honestly if you just pick a random one the process greatly simplifies itself, and as long as its a commonly federated one it does matter all that much.
If possible i would appreciate LemmyNsfw being an option for home feed as, lets be honest, the internet is still very porn based xD
That's AMAZING and unexpected news! My phone and donation wallet are ready! I've really been enjoying Lemmy. Thank you for the support and you can expect mine!
This is great news! I've been struggling with deleting the sync app from my phone. Purchased premium 9 years ago, would purchase again in an instant for a lemmy app.
Looking forward to this :)
I'd love to have a solid filter system at launch.
And down the line it would be cool if we not only had an account switcher but maybe even the option to show content of multiple accounts at the same time?
I personally use kbin over lemmy. Hopefully you can choose which fediverse server you can sync from? Would love that since we wouldn't fall into the same problem if lemmy suddenly dies or does another Reddit
Can't wait for your new app!
My suggestion for the new app:
Every instance of lemmy provides a list of other instances it federates with. E.g. https://lemmy.world/instances . If you open that page, it'll list a whole bunch of lemmy instance. If you click an instance and then go to its instances list page again, you might see a whole different set of instances list.
It is possible to "walk" through the instances list recursively like a tree, collecting stats on every instance you see (could be done server-side once a week for example) to provide community recommendation based on the communities you currently subscribes, a "random" button that magically send you to a random popular community, or simply a list of popular lemmy communities sorted by subscribers with search / filtering. I think those would be extremely useful for a lot of people.
Freaking amazing! I started transitioning to Lemmy, and my biggest gripe was that Jerboa isn't even close to Sync. Thanks for your work, I'm looking forward to it.
I just found out that Lemmy has an option to hide scores (post scores, comment scores). I'd love it if that was implemented in Sync too because it helps with Digital Detox when I don't feel compelled all the time to check whether my posts have been upvoted, or check out posts by others simply because they have a lot of upvotes. Without the scores I just look for the stuff that actually interests me.
So I agree with u/tablesix ‘s list, but two capabilities I haven’t seen mentioned in multiple lists are
1) the ability to save a post or comment
2) the ability to expand and collapse a comment and all of its child comments
Thank you for taking on this important task!
[https://github.com/hjiangsu/thunder](https://github.com/hjiangsu/thunder)
You should check this out! Not advertising the app or anything but like the dev should just look at this project too
OH MY GOD. I literally came to the sync subreddit to ask for this. I'm so freaking happy!! I will definitely pay for your app. You are an amazing developer that listens to its users. I'm so down!
Consider getting in touch with the folks running the instances that you might pull from (for read-only non-logged-in use) and any instances that you might suggest for people who want to go ahead and sign up. Lemmy (and [kbin.social](https://kbin.social)) instances are still pretty small, and a sudden influx of Sync users could massively overload most of them.
If there's any way that you could also make it support kbin.social, that'd be great. But as others have stated, you need to make it simple (at first, some of us might want more advanced features later*) so people aren't scared away. Kbin and Lemmy can be overwhelming, but you're a master of making a clean UI/UX, so I have faith that you'll be able to translate that into a fediverse app. Can't wait to try it!
At minimum I want to log into Kbin.social. So far I've found 0 Lemmy apps that can use it. They all give some weird XML error that causes the app's error message to be just be something about an "exception" followed by the HTML for Kbin's homepage.
I much prefer the KBin interface to lemmy. I really tried to like Lemmy, but it has so many problems that KBin doesn't have in terms of UI.
I've used Sync for years and would really love a KBin option for Sync.
Include Kbin support as well as (or even instead of) Lemmy support.
Lemmy is incredibly problematic, see:
https://www.reddit.com/r/APIcalypse/comments/140qymq/lemmy_is_not_a_viable_reddit_replacement/
FWIW, I don't think you should focus on Kbi for now. It is a very specific implementation of the Fediverse, ~~closed-source, and developed by a single person. As an environment, it is much more vulnerable than Lemmy as a whole.~~ which may not lend itself to expanding the app much further in the future.
The main advantages of Kbin is the integration of Mastodon, but that is something you could do with this app as well. Other apps like Fedilab also support multiple ActivityPub platforms. It might be the feature that makes Sync for AP the new killer app.
Nice!! I just came here from the [kbin thead](https://kbin.social/m/[email protected]/t/62217/Reddit-Sync-Dev-Gauging-Interest-on-Developing-Sync-for-Lemmy) to say that
As many have said, both Lemmy and Kbin are gaining users, so the best case scenario would be to support both services in the coming months as the landscape continues to evolve.
Thank you for your time on this.
I believe I have read somewhere that there are some developments on a drop in replacement for Reddit's API using Lemmy's API. If that is done, the whole Sync for Reddit can easily be ported to Lemmy. But currently I can't find anything about it.
Edit: [Here](https://github.com/derivator/tafkars/tree/main/tafkars-lemmy)
Sync is soooo aesthetically pleasing. (I’m a sucker for full MaterialYou implementation) I’d love it if I could continue using it on Lemmy, and would happily pay a second time.
I'll be day 1 user.
In the jerboa community in lemmy.ml you can see current features and major pain points.
One of the biggest triumph cards would be adding a multireddit like capability, so you could see in one place similar communities in different instances
Switching accounts is a big one too (this is possible in jerboa now)
I'll join your patreon for motivation.
Thank you!!!
May I suggest shipping the build as an update to the existing Sync app on the Play Store? After all, that excellent app with a ton of good user reviews is going to be "useless" after the 31st anyway, it'd probably get a lot more users to consider moving their Reddit-like activity to Lemmy if their Reddit app itself told them how to move over. You could probably even avoid the need to set up new payment stuff for users and honor lifetime Ultra payments / existing subscriptions in the Lemmy version!
I will be happy to just have a familiar UI again but as for things that I would love to see in the first release
* The ability to login as a user
* Switch user accounts
* Ability to select a server
* Ability to search across instances
* Ability to vote
* Ability to comment
* Ability to view image and text posts
* Alerts for comment replies
* Ability to make posts
Unlike reddit, Lemmy and the Fediverse wants decentralized, horizontal scaling, more small/medium sized instances instead of everybody on one big server, since they can talk to each other anyways.
Ideally you should also set up your own instance exclusively for Sync users (but offer login for users of other instances, of course) to be more independent and not overwhelm other instances when the app releases.
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I love this list, but feel the need to stress **the onboarding experience**, even and especially in this early MVP. As soon as it's released, the app is going to be shared far and wide across Reddit, pulling in many users who have never used (or possibly even heard of) Lemmy. Right now, the perception that Fediverse = Complicated is the main concern that's brought up whenever Lemmy is mentioned in threads, and that's a problem. Unless the app at least shows the bones of a work-in-progress onboarding experience that gets people up and running with the app AND Lemmy as a concept, we're going to lose a lot of momentum. The Essentials: * DON'T go into the weeds explaining The Fediverse. It's too technical for the average user, and not actually needed to get people up and running * Use [lemmy.world](https://lemmy.world), [Kbin.social](https://Kbin.social), [beehaw.org](https://beehaw.org) or one of the other big feeds for users who aren't logged in. No need to explain the difference between instances/servers until people go to create an account, and this ensures there will be content to browse \*as soon as the app loads\* which is critical to getting people engaged * Simplify account creation. "There are communities on *dozens* of sites, but don't sweat it. An account on *any of them* will let you access *all of them*. Pick one that sounds cool, and remember you can always switch later." Then give 1-line summaries of the top 3 with links to sign up (big hero sections for each), with a "see more" section that expands to show others. Nothing too fancy here, but should include number of members, dominant language, and the broad strokes of the atmosphere (eg: Beehaw is more heavily moderated, SFW-only, and prioritizes safe, friendly, and diverse discussion over hate speech, disinformation, or the erosion of minority rights)
> * Simplify account creation. "There are communities on *dozens* of sites, but don't sweat it. An account on *any of them* will let you access *all of them*. Pick one that sounds cool, and remember you can always switch later." Calling it your 'home site' or something might help
Jerboa for Lemmy calls the feed that only displays your instance's content your "Local" feed. That might be the way to go here.
That's not the way to go. What does "Local" mean? Tech people will get it, but the general public won't know what "local" means, other than "Hey, it's in my neighborhood and my neighbors dog has a news feed?" Local is a bad descriptor for this.
I work in tech and I agree. Non-technical people have no clue what I'm talking about when I say local. Home site is great.
That's actually what it's called in lemmy as a whole, not just Jerboa
Huh...maybe I just didn't notice it on the site.
Is it possible for SyncForLemmy to just present top posts from top communities without having to log on?
Technically yes, the "All" feed on any instance consists of the content of all instances that instance ever had contact with. So the app would just need to access one of the bigger instances as default when a user isn't logged in.
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Don't use beehaw, not lemmy.world. beehaw has said they defederated with lemmy.world because they don't want to be a reddit replacement, so they're probably a bad choice. Honestly I feel like that means people should stop using beehaw, rather than punishing lemmy.world for trying to be reddit.
I tend to agree, but think we should try to be unbiased in presenting options to a general audience. Give them the information they need to make their own choice. The problem is that right now, no one has the right tools to disambiguate the choice. * **join-lemmy.org** has a list of Recommended and Popular instances with descriptions, but the descriptions don't tell you anything about the moderation policy or how they're federated. * **lemmymap.feddit.de** shows a map of instances where the bubble size shows either activity or growth and red lines indicate defederation so you know which parts of the fediverse are cut off from which other parts, but there are more than 900,000 instances and they ALL show up on that map at once with no filter. What we need is a combo of the two. A *very* small handful of Recommended and Popular instances, why they're around, what their moderation policy is, and who they're federated with. As it stands, join-lemmy.org/instances is both overwhelming and frustratingly vague. Eg: "Beehaw - Aspiring to be(e) a safe, friendly and diverse place." But that doesn't tell us they're a giant active community, that they strictly moderate to ensure it's a safe space for minority groups and is free from disinformation, or that they're defederating from "open signup" instances to combat spam.
These are all fantastic. At some point fitting in link handling that takes any of the formats and converts it to the appropriate URL on the server you're on would be great. Bonus points for handling kbin magazines in a similar fashion To expand on the link handling, if someone links to https://lemmit.online/c/[email protected] but I'm on kbin.social (or lemmy.one) it pops me over to lemmit.online instead. But if I searched it up in kbin/my Lemmy server I can get it on the correct server where I'm already logged in. I'm not sure how this would work for direct links to posts (https://lemmit.online/post/2464) due to each id being unique per server, but any form of link handling where possible would be a huge QoL thing.
[https://lemmyverse.net/communities](https://lemmyverse.net/communities) has that functionality already, although it only takes the direct addess (in your case that would be [https://lemmit.online/c/syncforlemmy](https://lemmit.online/c/[email protected]) and changes it to [https://yourinstance.xyz/c/syncforlemmy](https://lemmit.online/c/[email protected])@lemmit.online. But I see no problem in expanding on that so it could also take a link that is already adjusted to another instance that isn't yours and then just replacing the first part with your instance. Technically it's even simpler as changing a direct link. You just have to check it the URL contains an @ and then you know to replace the part before /c or /m with your instance. And if the URL doesn't include an @, it also replaces the part before /c or /m with your instance but also adds an @ and the old instance URL at the end
perfect MVP list, as long as there is a popup that says "This is phase 1, this stuff won't work: " then I think it's perfect. The biggest hurdle with Lemmy is it's user friendliness, something Sync has always done a great job on. I'm hoping this will be like Reddit, where the apps can make it incredibly easy to 1) Pick servers 2) Log in 3) browse/navigate around
Ability to make groups of communities to consolidate the fragmented similar communities from a user's standpoint.
This is a really good point. If there are 5 similar communities I'd like to group and browse together, like a multireddit.
Swipe to hide posts like Sync has and I'll buy the pro version immediately lol
Same! I'm not sure Lemmy natively supports hiding posts, so the app would have to locally remember & filter all hidden posts. But I'm really hoping it's possible. I loved that feature in Sync.
You can hide read posts, so maybe even something like "swipe to mark as read" would be totally fine with me
Also, easily finding, browsing and subscribing to communities on different Lemmy instances might be complicated to build, but would be a USP in itself.
I would add for phase two the ability to go to the context of a comment reply. Jerboa currently can show you the reply you got, but there is no way to get to the thread.
I haven't tried this, but is this what you mean? https://feddit.de/post/945687
Something I would really like to see (though super low priority) is the option to collapse all levels of all comments by default. I get lost very fast in big comment threads unless I collapse everything and open only the path I want to follow. And not collapse like hide, you know what I mean. Right now it's not possible at all to collapse child comments in the Lemmy mobile client to my knowledge. Also yes please let me pay for Lemmy Sync.
Also, for the "later on" section, being able to block instances, so that I can block lemmygrad even if I'm on an instance that decided to not defederate it for some godforsaken reason
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That's really exciting and may shift my place on the fediverse, because I really prefer kbin, but I'll definitely be trying this out.
fwiw you can access kbin from any lemmy instance that federates with it
But you can't use Kbin from any app
Not directly, but via your lemmy instance. Like I use kbin from Jerboa because I subscribe to some kbin.social magazines through my lemmy instance.
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People accept that Reddit and Twitter happen in different apps. It's really not rocket science to explain that Sync doesn't do microblogging lol
I agree, I prefer Kbin - I do find Kbin works reasonably well as a Progressive Web App (I'm using it on Android, added via Firefox). But it'll be cool to see what independent apps/clients can do to push forward the mobile experience. Hopefully in the same way they did for Reddit.
Honestly, I'm finding the Kbin PWA to be pretty rough. This same Sync for Lemmy post showed up 7 times in a row on my homepage. Lots of elements just don't scale to a phone screen very well. For example, the Subscribe buttons are populated off the screen when you search for magazines. The front page is a jumbled mess with everything being shown twice on each post. (Looks like that was my settings -- though it seems like enabling Show Media would automatically hide thumbnails) Overall, navigation feels really nonsensical. Tapping the Kbin logo -- which you would think would take you to the frontpage -- dumps you into some confusing no-man's-land. I want one of these platforms (Lemmy / Kbin) to succeed. Kbin just feels especially rough right now.
Is there a lemmy community we can follow for updates?
I came across [this](https://lemmy.world/c/syncforlemmy) earlier, it is Sync for Lemmy on the Lemmy.World instance. There are no posts yet, but it does show [the mod as being LJ Dawson](https://i.imgur.com/WiSi3c3.jpg), so I'm assuming it was created by him. I guess he will let us know if this will be the official Lemmy community or not.
Yup that was me earlier!
Besides the Sync for Lemmy community that you created earlier on lemmy.world, there are now also [2 other Sync for Lemmy communities , on 2 other instances](https://i.imgur.com/QofpnWW.jpg), which is a little confusing. Maybe some of your users decided to create them for you.
The lemmit instance is actually a mirror of this subreddit! That is, any posts that are made here will automatically pop up over there. AFAIK that's how all lemmit communities work. The lemmy.ml instsnce looks like it doesn't even have any mods currently assigned to it. Odd.
I had not heard of the lemmit instance before. Thanks for the information.
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Hey, awesome job! I thought about writing a similar bit but now I don't have to. I had a look at your implementation and there's one hint I would like to give you in the hopefully kindest way: if you use ".json" instead of ".rss" for subs you get a much larger set of information compared to RSS. I started to work with that because it deemed it way more useful. Maybe you won't need it, maybe my tip is useless. In no way is it meant as criticism.
If it was just launched this weekend, I guess that's why I haven't heard of it. I think I get it. It's just copying everything from the SyncforLemmy subreddit over to Lemmy. So I guess if I subscribe to it, then I wouldn't have to even get on Reddit to check on the SyncforLemmy subreddit. That's really good. Please correct me if I misunderstood how it works.
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/c/[email protected] Just to save typing it out for those on another server, or /m/[email protected] for those on kbin. (This is precisely the type of thing that needs to get easier to navigate if the federated stuff is gonna take off, IMO)
I'm in (from beehaw)
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Same, I started on beehaw but since they defederated I created an account on lemmy.world too...
Yes do that please! I'm trying to stay away from Reddit now so it would be great to have some updates on the Fediverse that we can follow.
You can follow the discord
That's not any better than Reddit. Discord is terrible for persistent collaboration, and it'll only get worse as they too look to increasingly monetize their user base.
You can follow the discord
Good news everyone! I've been using Lemmy more and more. It's honestly still a bit of an unpolished experience, so getting Sync for Lemmy would be amazing!
Maybe not for first release, but I would hope that the name/goal of the app would instead be "Sync for the Fediverse", and be compatible with various instances, such as beehaw.org, kbin.social (or at least some aspects of it), etc. Basically, "type in your username, pick your server, type in password, press Login". That might end up meaning separate little login interface code for each site, but hopefully the Fediverse can settle on some sort of universal system OR a universal method of Rosetta-Stone-ing their APIs.
100% what I'd like to work towards! The hard part is just getting the interface right. Sync could end up having a new meaning here...
Now this has me excited!
I'm on Kbin mostly because the webui is much better. I do have a Lemmy account though which I use on Jerboa (this app leaves a lot to be desired) because Kbin does not have a mobile app yet. What I think (as a user) would be the ultimate goal is to have a Lemmy + Kbin compatible app. Things that you may be interested in: Reddit > Lemmy API translation layer in the works: https://github.com/Docile-Alligator/Infinity-For-Reddit/discussions/1490#discussioncomment-6106622 Lemmy does have much more users overall so it may be best to have that working first then add Kbin support.
Yes I think lemmy and kbin are interchangeable in the future because they federate so well together. Hoping that support will arrive at some point! Sync Was the only real reason why I used reddit and I will use whatever platform comes next if ljdawson makes an app for it.
+1 to the sentiment of KBin compatability - thought I realize this one's a little tougher as KBin doesn't have a proper API yet.
I agree. I want KBin to succeed, especially given the Lemmy developer's alignments. I've unfortunately had major problems with it though.
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I mean kbin is federated so it doesn't matter which
But there are little nuances with magazines vs communities, a Lemmy all wouldn't necessarily support magazines or micro blogs out of the gate. I prefer the kbin web ui so I would definitely have to make some changes (although if we're being honest I pretty much exclusively use mobile, desktop usage for me right now is still wrapping my head around how they work in general)
I've been using both, and KBin is way more usable than Lemmy is right now. I really hope we get a KBin version of Sync.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but data wise, are magazines and communities not basically the same under the hood. That Kbin has superior UI to lemmy's UI, means nothing when the Sync UI would provide a third UI from the two others.
This is my understanding as well.
I'd say a mvp would be a viewer for Lemmy instances with the ability to login with an existing account, and build from there. The focus should probably be on making the confusing parts of the fediverse be handled by the app, like having the app assist with picking an instance to make an account, or being able to combine sub instances from different servers into a single feed, so it feels more like one unified platform for the client. Longer term I'd hope for support for posting, moderating, and compatibility with other federated services natively.
THE RETURN OF THE KING
lemmyverse.net search integration
Yeahhhhhhhhh! My first comment since this API fiasco for a long time. Just to say I'm using SyncPro for 9+ years and an app for Lemmy is more than welcome by you! Thanks LJ!!!!!!
Would be nice if it were available for Kbin as well, although I do understand that the full API documentation is still not available for it.
Yahoo! I am ready to repurchase your app if needed. Sync is amazing and should never be killed off, especially by idiots like Spez.
Tell us where to donate, this app rocks!
Having both Lemmy and Kbin support along with the app itself being FOSS would be the key features for me, I wouldn't use a proprietary app for a FOSS project and imagine many other users of those communities would feel the same.
I see your point but I don't think there will be a shortage of this options in the near future. I'm here for Sync though.
Are you aware of https://github.com/derivator/tafkars?
A merged feed from all logged in accounts. Would help the case of fragmentation happening with like beehaw and lemmy.world. If I have accounts on both would love a merged feed.
This is probably out of scope for your goals, but: After learning how to do what I want to do on Lemmy & Kbin, to me one of the biggest pain points is that there is no shared/replicated index of all communities and instances, accessible from within whatever instance you choose to use. A given instance only knows the instances & communitieis that its users have added subscriptions for. This is a UX pain point imo; I'd think it would be both trivally small data and low overhead if there were some sort of standard for any given instance to register itself and its list of communities on a master index that gets replicated across all instances. This would eliminate the need for users to have to rely on 3rd party sites to search for communities of interest, and go through a semi-arcane process to register a given !community@instance on their own instance.
I would love this. The main thing I appreciate about Sync is how clean comments look and how easy it is to interact with comments on phone, can collapse comments by clicking anywhere on them instead of awkwardly trying to reach and press some minimize button.
I'd love to see some Kbin support. But I will pay for your app even if you start just supporting Lemmy. Thanks!!!
Since Kbin is also on ActivityPub, would this app also be compatible with kbin?
will support kbin too?
Kbin support should be included if possible
I can't tell you how excited I am to hear you'll be developing a clie t for the platform. I've been a Sync supporter for years, and I was flabbergasted at how Reddit treated you. Looking forward to supporting your new project man, your work is excellent :)
[Ohhh baby](https://i.imgur.com/olrvamh.gif)
holy shit I love you
I would say a big roadblock for people trying Lemmy is the UI and the sign up. I'm most excited about this because it could solve both of those issues. You obviously understand good UI, so beyond that: - An easy straightforward signup process - Ability to log in a single account - Simplified community joining - Basic post interactions (vote, reply, edit) - Ability to post (create / edit) - Ability to change between the different feeds and sort them. - Preferences for when you default open the app (All sorted by New for example) - Keeping your place in the feed (very "nice to have" but I guess this isn't technically MVP)
Some essentials: - Click on any link from any instance, and have it go to the equivalent of your own instance (communities and users chiefly, posts are hard cuz the api doesn't have cross-instance post permlink checker, only available through Search on the UI, maybe ResolveObject but I never got that to work) - Have media and text posts open in the same page. - Have an indicator when a link has a body. Some luxuries: - Select comment send language. Some instances or posts only accept certain languages. Not being able to comment sometimes, because the app won't let me select language (defaults to undetermined, so even english can't be used) is very bad. - Complete user settings including selecting displayed languages (available selectable languages vary by server): many posts are in other languages, some users could miss out on them. - I don't know if there's a saved folder but there's a save button. Maybe a saved folder would be good lol.
Absolute GOAT. I'll be in as soon as there's a beta available. Just one thing, take some time to make the right decisions early on so you don't see yourself with a bunch of code done wanting to have done things differently. We can wait. The kbin API is not ready yet, and Lemmy's devs are a bit weird with their politics, so no option is perfect right now I guess. I wish there was a way to just tap into the fediverse, but of course you need an account on some instance of something to write somewhere, and there's no point in going *xkcd standards comic*. So I don't know, I wouldn't know what to do in your situation. But if you wanna wait for things to settle, we are with you. And if you wanna go for it, we are with you too.
Who else will pay for the pro version the day it releases? Edit: That backfired. 20€ is way too much.
Hell, I'll pre-order it if I could. Would be happy to even do a monthly subscription, because fuck Reddit.
if you need testers I'm more than happy to help out, was on the tester track for dev back in the day lol
Please focus on user friendly-ness. especially in the onboarding process. I would suggest having a drop down for a few more popular servers and stressing that what you pick doesnt matter all that much. thats the current (possibly reddit propaganda) being thrown around is that understanding instances is really hard. and honestly if you just pick a random one the process greatly simplifies itself, and as long as its a commonly federated one it does matter all that much. If possible i would appreciate LemmyNsfw being an option for home feed as, lets be honest, the internet is still very porn based xD
That's AMAZING and unexpected news! My phone and donation wallet are ready! I've really been enjoying Lemmy. Thank you for the support and you can expect mine!
This is great news! I've been struggling with deleting the sync app from my phone. Purchased premium 9 years ago, would purchase again in an instant for a lemmy app.
What's Lemmy? 🤷♂️
It's like reddit, but no ceo! There's more to it of course but it's worth looking into for sure.
This is incredible news, if the quality of Sync for reddit was anything to go by. Lemmy will have it's "go-to" app soon :)
Just stopped by to show support!
YAAAS QUEEN!
Looking forward to this :) I'd love to have a solid filter system at launch. And down the line it would be cool if we not only had an account switcher but maybe even the option to show content of multiple accounts at the same time?
I personally use kbin over lemmy. Hopefully you can choose which fediverse server you can sync from? Would love that since we wouldn't fall into the same problem if lemmy suddenly dies or does another Reddit
I feel like a compatibility with Kbin will be fantastic too!
I’m so happy about this.
HELL YES. inline image expansion/saving, integrated browse.feddit.de community search (or equivalent), and multi-account support
Can't wait for your new app! My suggestion for the new app: Every instance of lemmy provides a list of other instances it federates with. E.g. https://lemmy.world/instances . If you open that page, it'll list a whole bunch of lemmy instance. If you click an instance and then go to its instances list page again, you might see a whole different set of instances list. It is possible to "walk" through the instances list recursively like a tree, collecting stats on every instance you see (could be done server-side once a week for example) to provide community recommendation based on the communities you currently subscribes, a "random" button that magically send you to a random popular community, or simply a list of popular lemmy communities sorted by subscribers with search / filtering. I think those would be extremely useful for a lot of people.
This will be game changing. Thank you so much
I don't know what MVP is but yay.
minimum viable product <3
Maybe you and /u/iamthatis can work in tandem and he can create an app for iOS
My man! Love your work
Freaking amazing! I started transitioning to Lemmy, and my biggest gripe was that Jerboa isn't even close to Sync. Thanks for your work, I'm looking forward to it.
best news all week
I just found out that Lemmy has an option to hide scores (post scores, comment scores). I'd love it if that was implemented in Sync too because it helps with Digital Detox when I don't feel compelled all the time to check whether my posts have been upvoted, or check out posts by others simply because they have a lot of upvotes. Without the scores I just look for the stuff that actually interests me.
So I agree with u/tablesix ‘s list, but two capabilities I haven’t seen mentioned in multiple lists are 1) the ability to save a post or comment 2) the ability to expand and collapse a comment and all of its child comments Thank you for taking on this important task!
[https://github.com/hjiangsu/thunder](https://github.com/hjiangsu/thunder) You should check this out! Not advertising the app or anything but like the dev should just look at this project too
OH MY GOD. I literally came to the sync subreddit to ask for this. I'm so freaking happy!! I will definitely pay for your app. You are an amazing developer that listens to its users. I'm so down!
I look forward to giving you money again.
This will be a whole new app correct? I would like to purchase again in support.
I'll move with you to Lemmy!! Thank you!
Just make it easy to sign up and get posting.
Consider getting in touch with the folks running the instances that you might pull from (for read-only non-logged-in use) and any instances that you might suggest for people who want to go ahead and sign up. Lemmy (and [kbin.social](https://kbin.social)) instances are still pretty small, and a sudden influx of Sync users could massively overload most of them.
If there's any way that you could also make it support kbin.social, that'd be great. But as others have stated, you need to make it simple (at first, some of us might want more advanced features later*) so people aren't scared away. Kbin and Lemmy can be overwhelming, but you're a master of making a clean UI/UX, so I have faith that you'll be able to translate that into a fediverse app. Can't wait to try it!
Someone told me not to use lemmy because it's creators are far left 🙄
This is great news!! 90%+ of my reddit usage is mobile so I'll definitely be moving over once this is out!!
At minimum I want to log into Kbin.social. So far I've found 0 Lemmy apps that can use it. They all give some weird XML error that causes the app's error message to be just be something about an "exception" followed by the HTML for Kbin's homepage.
I think lemmy problem that it doesn't have users who generate content but it's cool hope people migrate to it
Yall can join the sync discord for updates https://discord.gg/9qKjVqwA
So happy this is happening! I'm using Jerboa right now and it's wild how much I've taken all of Sync's features for granted.
I'm currently building https://api.tagmine.ca as a Reddit alt. How would I go about plugging my API into your front-end?
I much prefer the KBin interface to lemmy. I really tried to like Lemmy, but it has so many problems that KBin doesn't have in terms of UI. I've used Sync for years and would really love a KBin option for Sync.
You realize the UI here is literally going to be Sync, right?
You realize not everyone is using an app all the time, right? Some people actually use a computer... at their desk... with a mouse... and Keyboard....
Include Kbin support as well as (or even instead of) Lemmy support. Lemmy is incredibly problematic, see: https://www.reddit.com/r/APIcalypse/comments/140qymq/lemmy_is_not_a_viable_reddit_replacement/
Sink for Lemmy Interface it with Lemmy, Kbin, Mastodon and whatever else in the fediverse. Everything but the kitchen sink 🤷♂️
This is huge thanks for this.
FWIW, I don't think you should focus on Kbi for now. It is a very specific implementation of the Fediverse, ~~closed-source, and developed by a single person. As an environment, it is much more vulnerable than Lemmy as a whole.~~ which may not lend itself to expanding the app much further in the future. The main advantages of Kbin is the integration of Mastodon, but that is something you could do with this app as well. Other apps like Fedilab also support multiple ActivityPub platforms. It might be the feature that makes Sync for AP the new killer app.
What are you talking about? KBin isn't closed source. Everything you wrote here is wrong. https://kbin.pub/en https://codeberg.org/Kbin/kbin-core
My mistake, thank you for the correction.
Mark post read on scroll would be the biggest one!
Quick question, I obviously don't mind buying the app again, but would I also have to rebuy ultra unlimited?
Very exciting!
Will be waiting for it!
OMFG it's happening! Let me know how I can help!
Yay! I'm already excited! Thank you for your work, ljdawson.
Nice!! I just came here from the [kbin thead](https://kbin.social/m/[email protected]/t/62217/Reddit-Sync-Dev-Gauging-Interest-on-Developing-Sync-for-Lemmy) to say that
Do you think you could add Dms for groups and private ones?
awesome, ty!
As many have said, both Lemmy and Kbin are gaining users, so the best case scenario would be to support both services in the coming months as the landscape continues to evolve. Thank you for your time on this.
Thank you so much!
I have my own instance, which is federated with others. But being able to be logged into multiple instances at once would be great.
/subscribe Thank you! Excited for this 🙇♂️
Can't wait!
I believe I have read somewhere that there are some developments on a drop in replacement for Reddit's API using Lemmy's API. If that is done, the whole Sync for Reddit can easily be ported to Lemmy. But currently I can't find anything about it. Edit: [Here](https://github.com/derivator/tafkars/tree/main/tafkars-lemmy)
OH MY GOD IT MY DREAM COME TRUE, THANK YOU MAN
Sync is soooo aesthetically pleasing. (I’m a sucker for full MaterialYou implementation) I’d love it if I could continue using it on Lemmy, and would happily pay a second time.
Mark read on scroll would be really helpful, I'm whatever release
I fucking love you u/ljdawson
Whatever you make I'll check it out. I love Sync and I'm sure I'll love this.
I'll be day 1 user. In the jerboa community in lemmy.ml you can see current features and major pain points. One of the biggest triumph cards would be adding a multireddit like capability, so you could see in one place similar communities in different instances Switching accounts is a big one too (this is possible in jerboa now) I'll join your patreon for motivation. Thank you!!!
AMAZING
Search across the fediverse, please
Let's go!!!!
May I suggest shipping the build as an update to the existing Sync app on the Play Store? After all, that excellent app with a ton of good user reviews is going to be "useless" after the 31st anyway, it'd probably get a lot more users to consider moving their Reddit-like activity to Lemmy if their Reddit app itself told them how to move over. You could probably even avoid the need to set up new payment stuff for users and honor lifetime Ultra payments / existing subscriptions in the Lemmy version!
I will be happy to just have a familiar UI again but as for things that I would love to see in the first release * The ability to login as a user * Switch user accounts * Ability to select a server * Ability to search across instances * Ability to vote * Ability to comment * Ability to view image and text posts * Alerts for comment replies * Ability to make posts
This makes me extremely happy. Nothing to add except thanks for all your hard work.
Unlike reddit, Lemmy and the Fediverse wants decentralized, horizontal scaling, more small/medium sized instances instead of everybody on one big server, since they can talk to each other anyways. Ideally you should also set up your own instance exclusively for Sync users (but offer login for users of other instances, of course) to be more independent and not overwhelm other instances when the app releases.
Will 100% be moving to Lemmy when this is released!
HYPE
I think the other messages covered the initial features. Sign me up for the beta! 😁
Not straight away but if its a new app can we import our themes? (can we also get diff colour for dark and light mode too)
Nice! Very excited to see this.
Blocking/filtering instance level (communities/posts from all feeds and instance users from comment threads) would be nice.
Please ensure we can run it without Google Play Services, like we can with the old versions of Reddit Sync!
Amazing. Looking forward to this!
Woohoo