Or why Lemmy is too much like hard work

The sole admin of the first instance I joined (which isn’t small) has gone missing. So it’s been defederated by some other instances. Then re-federated by some of them.

So about six weeks ago I made an account with instance two, which seems to be well run BUT updates to the latest version so it doesn’t work with any of the third party apps I use.

Which wouldn’t be an issue except the Lemmy web UI works horribly on mobile. There’s a PWA but that hasn’t been updated and won’t now authenticate.

So I joined a third instance but that seems to have completely disappeared without warning.

I’d join Lemmy.world but it has regular resource issues and downtime. Plus moderation issues.

App 1 hasn’t seen any development for over three months and now barely functions.

App 2 which is apparently the second most popular app now only receives emergency fixes when it won’t work at all

Apps 3 and 4 throw authentication errors on any instance running above 0.18.4 because the developers are re-thinking.

As a user it’s almost enough to send me to Reddit.

  • Blaze@discuss.tchncs.de
    60·
    1 year ago

    It seems you were unlucky with your instances, sorry to hear that.

    You are currently on feddit.uk, which is indeed managed by a single person.

    I always recommend to go for instances with at least two admins, for this kind of issues.

    https://lemm.ee/, https://sh.itjust.works/ https://discuss.tchncs.de/ are solid choices.

    Which are those apps? Boost, Sync, Thunder, Liftoff, Connect, Avalon and Voyager all work pretty well.

    The authentication error is probably due to the release of 18.5 yesterday, should be fixed quickly.

    All of those are growing pains. If you don’t want to deal with those, you don’t have too, just take a break from Lemmy. People should be free to let go of platforms at any time, and come back after a while if they feel like it.

    Edit: Also, you can use https://github.com/CMahaff/lasim to move accounts

    • Otter@lemmy.caEnglish
      93·
      1 year ago

      Yep, agree with all of the above. On the last point, a big point of the Fediverse is to prevent one platform from locking you in. Totally feel free to take a break, go back to Reddit, or try out something else.

      I’m personally using Boost/Connect on mobile, regular UI on web, and lemmy.ca for my instance. I haven’t encountered any disruptions, but I get how it would be frustrating. Lemmy needs more time to mature, and it’s totally fine to come back later, or even join a different Fediverse platform to get the same content (again, later once federation issues are resolved).

      For what it’s worth, I still check a select few Subreddits on Reddit (moderation, local communities & niche interests). I don’t post/comment/upvote there, and haven’t felt the need to, but I still read it to pass the time.

      • Blaze@discuss.tchncs.de
        2·
        1 year ago

        I still read it to pass the time.

        I guess most of us do. When I really want to get into a rabbit hole, Reddit content is hard to beat. Hopefully with time Lemmy will become the same, but in the meantime, Reddit is still the one for that specific use case.

    • FelipeFelop@feddit.ukOPEnglish
      213·
      1 year ago

      None of those apps cope with the changes. Which were introduced about three weeks ago in beta so plenty of time to update.

      Liftoff hasn’t had an update in three months and doesn’t work properly with anything above 0.18.3 and get worse as the version number increases.

      • ribboo@lemm.eeEnglish
        4·
        1 year ago

        Avalon works fine for me, and was updated just a couple of days ago. Voyager works good as well, though not as frequently updated lately.

      • maaj@lemmy.ca
        52·
        1 year ago

        Liftoff is working perfectly fine for me. I’d also suggest joining lemmy.ca and using the Jeroba app. Cheers.

        • FelipeFelop@feddit.ukOPEnglish
          21·
          1 year ago

          Check the liftoff developers chat. They know it isn’t working properly but have had PRs failing.

            • FelipeFelop@feddit.ukOPEnglish
              11·
              1 year ago

              That also needs updating. According to a post on Lemmy.ml all apps will need updating for 0.19 Some changes are also in 0.18.5 so most apps will need an update to work properly. (you might not be able to Login but if you’re already logged in you’ll see your feed but not the list of communities. The app will have needed to test against 0.18.4b8 or higher)

              • russjr08@outpost.zeuslink.netEnglish
                3·
                1 year ago

                Not sure where the information about 0.18.5 having breaking changes came from. The 0.18.5 release is just the federated deletion fix that was cherry-picked in.

                0.19 will definitely have breaking changes though, yes. In the admin matrix group there were quite a few people talking about accidentally leaving their instances on the latest docker tag which includes all of those breaking changes and no way to downgrade due to the DB structure changes. Maybe you’re hearing about it from them?

                I updated my instance to 0.18.5 yesterday and have no problems with any of the apps. Re-logged into Thunder and can see my communities just fine.

                • FelipeFelop@feddit.ukOPEnglish
                  11·
                  1 year ago

                  I’ve been told that 0.18.5 includes the changes from 0.18.4b8 that caused the last round of issues with some apps needing to be updated (eg Voyager) For example, Liftoff didn’t update so will have issues with 0.18.5

                  According to development chat they can test against it on a test instance but PRs are failing.

                  • russjr08@outpost.zeuslink.netEnglish
                    2·
                    1 year ago

                    Seems like discussion of the version numbers is getting mixed up then. I just logged out of Liftoff and logged back in with zero issues on my instance running 0.18.5.

                    As you can see in the GitHub link I posted in my previous comment, there’s only one major commit difference between 0.18.4 and .5, which fixes deletions not propagating correctly through Federation when an admin deletes a post who wasn’t a mod of the community (but still an admin of the community’s main instance) in question.