I think it’s a cool idea, and it could be the best way to help users on Reddit learn about Lemmy and migrate over.
I have some concerns though
What I like:
If you go to communities like !datahoarder@selfhosted.forum, you can see what I mean. Lemmy commenters are generally more helpful, more detailed, and get to the posts a lot faster than Reddit users.
If I understand correctly, once the network is implemented:
- Reddit user signs up on Fediverser
- Reddit user posts on a subreddit that has a Lemmy equivalent
- Post is crossposted to Lemmy
- When a Lemmy user replies to the post, that comment is reposted by a bot on Reddit
Users on the Reddit post will:
- learn about Lemmy
- see the good quality reply (if the reply is good, Reddit mods won’t ban the bot)
- get a direct link to a community/instance relevant to them
Users in the Lemmy community will
- get more content from people that are already curious about Lemmy
That would be really cool!
HOWEVER
Right now, the network isn’t fully implemented. Instead, in communities like !datahoarder@selfhosted.forum, there is a flood of ALL content that is posted in the respective subreddit.
This is bad because:
- Lemmy users don’t know that no human will see their replies, and the helpful Lemmy users are just talking to a wall. This will make them… less helpful in the future
- Because ALL content is being mirrored, this spams out the actual Lemmy posts
- Reddit users have no idea, and no control, over whether their posts are mirrored. I only noticed on the datahoarder community, but there are more sensitive subreddits where I would want control over where it is posted. I would also need a way to delete the content from Lemmy, and right now the users can’t do that.
Proposed fixes
- Don’t mirror all content, only the stuff from Reddit users that sign up. There is already an incentive for signing up (more replies, better replies, better reach). If a user doesn’t sign up, their post will not be mirrored, and they will not get the benefit.
- If two communities WANT full mirroring, let them decide and have them contact directly (ex. from Modmail). Encourage them to talk to their communities before deciding
- Any automated post NEEDS a note saying so
- Posts to Lemmy should have a link to the Reddit user, the Reddit post, and an “about” page for Fediverser
- Comments to Reddit should have a link to the Lemmy comment, an “about” page for Fediverser, and a link to some “what is lemmy”/“new to lemmy” article.
- If it’s not being implemented like the above, maybe change it up to consider the points about user control
As it is, reposting everything is damaging to Lemmy and potentially harmful to Reddit users that don’t know their stuff is being mirrored.
Not even just the niche communities, there are plenty of large communities that just don’t have a presence here whatsoever. Show subreddits, for example, don’t really seem to exist or get any attention, apart from Star Trek and Futurama. If I want to talk about the new episodes of Invincible or Rick and Morty or Doctor Who, Reddit is currently the only place, unless I want to sit around talking to myself in an empty Lemmy community.
Conversely, though, filling dead subs with mirrors of reddit content that we can’t seriously interact with feels like it’s just ramming home the point that the specific Lemmy community in question is dead. It’s like saying “come to Lemmy where you watch reddit have a discussion, but not join it.”
Ultimately this whole idea is trying to apply a tech solution to a human problem. If people won’t come here and fill the place with content themselves, that’s not an issue that can be programmed away without Reddit’s API access, but if we had that, we wouldn’t be here in the first place.
At first. After we map the places where the discussions are happening, it becomes “do you know this discussion you are having on reddit? Come to this place on Lemmy so that we can continue it without being molested by ads and Big Tech oligarchs”.