It seems https://lemmy-federate.com/ is just wildly popular with people suggesting it and eagerly biting on the suggestion they were given. It seems to just completely subvert the intention of not wasting any storage or space or even energy by federating out communities others did not ask for, or federating in communities nobody on the instance subscribes to, by having bots on instances follow communities. So my understanding is that even if nobody on example.instance cares about exampleCommunity@federate.org, example.instance still wastes resources on federating it in if someone submitted it here.

I do see that

If you want to add your instance to the list, you can login from top right. If you are a user, you can ask your instance admin to add your instance.

on this page. And I have heard of instances opting out from this. So I am curious: if your instance does not participate, what does that mean? No bots subscribing to communities on your instance so they go to everyone else? How does it work? I looked at https://lemy.lol/c/lemmyfederate@lemy.lol and https://lemmy-federate.com/ and https://github.com/ismailkarsli/lemmy-federate and did not see an explanation. On the list of instances on lemmy federate almost everyone seems to be enabled. So I’m curious how it works. Half of me thinks this chips away at the whole point of decentralization, just making sure every instance federates tons of stuff in regardless of actual user interest on the instance. The other half says people can do what they want with their instance, maybe I just do not understand how it works and it does not cause the problems I think it does, even if I’m right maybe most Lemmy users want it, and that it doesn’t actually impact my life unless I decide to start being an instance host myself (and in that case then I would really need to know how it works, to figure out how my own instance would behave with lemmy-federate and what restrictions I could place on it).

Please let me know if my understanding is wrong, and how it actually works if so, because I have actually tried the provided resources by the lemmy-federate project to understand before coming here and sharing my understanding and disapproval of how it works if it works the way I think it does.

  • iso@lemy.lolEnglish
    6·
    20 hours ago

    I created this tool and have been using it in my instance since the very beginning. My instance is almost 2 years old and it’s total database size is 60.2GB.

    The thing is:

    • If a community is generating enough activity, it’s likely that someone from your instance is already following that community.
    • If a community isn’t generating enough activity, it won’t create much of a network/storage burden anyway.

    Sure, it will make a small difference, but it’s nothing compared to the benefits it provides.

    • Elevator7009@ani.socialOPEnglish
      2·
      12 hours ago

      Since you are the creator, could you point me to learn how it works besides “now every post from communities signed up will show up on your instance?”

      I’ll also admit part of my prejudice is because I’ll never touch All with a ten foot stick, so I end up not experiencing any benefit personally, and I do not mind checking out communities on their instance if they seem to have no posts on mine.

      Thanks for replying civilly by the way, and not just flipping out on me for my position on lemmy-federate. I am not sure I’d have the same grace in your position, which is why I’m incredibly careful about putting things I make out there online in public lol.

      • iso@lemy.lolEnglish
        2·
        1 hour ago

        Lemmy Federate doesn’t do anything special. It searches and follows communities just like normal users do. The only difference is that it does this from every (registered) instance, for almost every community. The reason I didn’t explain it in more detail is that it has evolved into an admin tool rather than a user tool. Generally, admins know what this tool is for.

        However, I can explain a few things that will be useful for you outside of the “All” tab:

        Discoverability

        Lemmy Federate enhances community discoverability by allowing users to search communities from their instance. Instead of relying on an external site, you can discover new communities while staying within the context of your own instance.

        Crossposts

        Let’s say that technology@lemmy.world is federated in your instance, but technology@lemmy.ml is not. In this case, you won’t see crossposts from technology@lemmy.ml sharing the same link as technology@lemmy.world.

        Initial post count

        When a community is pulled for the first time, only a certain number of recent posts are pulled with it. If you are the first to follow a community you are interested in from your instance, you will not be able to see all posts from that community.