The version you've installed is the PWA (Progressive Web App). It's effectively just a stripped-down browser window that loads the mobile site in its own dedicated "app" on your device, even though it's technically just a separate Chrome window.
For a lot of users, this may be all they need. But because it's just the mobile web page, you won't get any extra features that you might find with a dedicated app (like notifications or custom UI elements).
This, the app is just a webpage that doesn't appear like one. Though I have to say that it is good for the time being (until some better app gets done)
Also a major mitigation would be if it redirected you to the page you were on, ideally with what you had written already filled in, after you log back in.
Better yet: if logging in was just a detour to submitting a comment or post. So if you try to post something and you're not logged in, you get presented with the login screen, put in your login information, send, and the post you were trying to make gets posted.
You've done an awesome job. And anyone complaining needs to remember that Kbin/ Fediverse is still in its infancy stages: It's going to cry, teethe, piss and shit itself when you least expect it. But with the right care (and time), one day it'll be a lot easier to manage.
I think we should be discussing and commenting on what we think is most important about this space.
One of the biggest tensions is going to be that as a community grows, it's going to attract the attention of (a) advertisers who will develop "organic marketing" campaigns, (b) political messaging campaigners for international as well as domestic concerns, and (c) "influencers" who want to market their brands. Each of these will use high-engagement ragebait and awwThatsAmazing-type posts. Reddit's r/all was full of these.
Kbin and lemmy seem nice and refreshing because a lot of those posts don't exist here yet. But if we continue to grow, they will show up. How will we handle this?
That’s one trend I hope doesn’t spring up over here. I hated the fact that 95% of the subs on /r/all were literally the same thing. Like, what was the difference between MadeMeSmile, DamnThatsInteresting, NextFuckingLevel? Just all the same clickbait trash, and then, as you say, some “organic” marketing campaign for the latest Marvel movie.
Edit:
Mastodon handles this by not having an algorithm. In order for a toot to gain traction, it actually needs to be boosted around so that people can see it. A great example of how this prevented “organic” marketing was with @Raspberry_Pi.
When they first joined, their SNS team tried the same easy brand tactics that they used on Twitter, trying to force engagement. It had the opposite effect, and the community backlash was fierce. They have since changed their messaging and become more genuine.
Since link aggregators usually need some kind of algorithm for a “front page,” I think the most important thing is to have it be transparent and static. No changing it every 4 months to increase engagement.
Most importantly, the community should also have a shared opinion on what kind of stuff they are okay with, and this can be more localized per instance.
Recently, I've visited r/all out of curiosity. Prior to deleting my Reddit account I can't remember the last time I had visited r/all. I was always on my home page, and r/all didn't even enter into my sphere. I would only catch brief glimpses of it as my home page loaded (I don't know if this is because I used RES or not). My wife and I would talk back and forth about things we'd see on Reddit, and they were vastly different experiences.
Considering the minimal content so far on kbin, I do peruse "all" frequently, however my default viewing is on subscription. I don't know how many users defaulted their home page to r/all on Reddit, but my wife and I did not. It seems to matter on how you curate your own experience. I'm glad these choices exist on kbin.
Reddit also had an aggressive recommendation system, where posts from your most recently interacted subs would show up more often. I would literally only open one sub via a post on the front page and the next time my /all would be filled with trash for that sub.
I used rif and I took the approach of blocking subs and using the front page rather than subscribing to specific subs. I don't think the algorithm worked through that app since it relied on the developers API key to load content.
I would get a lot of niche content showing up without a lot of the annoying subs spam.
Yeah, we haven't had an update in a while. Apparently the next one is going to be pretty big. Ernest said he's aiming for the end of September, but I'm assuming that may slip.
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