Why YSK: right now, Lemmy’s autocomplete for the !community syntax isn’t working correctly.

It will appear to work, like so:

But the link produced will redirect you away from your home instance and leave you unable to vote/subscribe…

To fix this issue, you’ll need to manually edit the autocompleted link like so:

BAD LINK: [!youshouldknow@lemmy.world](https://lemmy.world/c/youshouldknow)

⬇️⬇️⬇️ Remove the domain (i.e.: https://lemmy.world) & append the @ identifier (i.e.: @lemmy.world)

GOOD LINK: [!youshouldknow@lemmy.world](/c/youshouldknow@lemmy.world)

Removing the domain like this transforms it into a local link which prevents the instance redirection. Doing this will make it easier for newcomers to join your community and participate in discussions!

Those interested can monitor Github issues #369 & #1048 for when this UI bug is fixed!

  • Barbarian@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    5·
    2 years ago

    There is an issue with this. If nobody on the instance of the user that clicks the link is subscribed to that community, this will result in a 404 error. If at least one person on the instance is subscribed, it’ll work. In a browser. Not in Jerboa.

    • NotaCat@lemmy.fmhy.mlEnglish
      4·
      2 years ago

      As a temporary bandaid, it looks like every instance needs a sacrificial user/volunteer to subscribe to every community they can find.

        • Pat12@lemmy.worldEnglish
          1·
          2 years ago

          Is there a french instance? I can actually do the French and German ones since I am already creating and involved with those communities.

        • impulse@lemmy.worldEnglish
          0·
          2 years ago

          Sounds like the perfect job for a bot to monitor that list and autosubscribe to every new community.

          • chaorace@lemmy.sdf.orgOPEnglish
            6·
            2 years ago

            I suspect that this may be somewhat frowned upon. The whole point of not grabbing all communities from all instances by default is to avoid massive traffic dumps every time a new instance joins the federation. Doing this via a bot is basically the equivalent of DDOSing your home instance!

            It’s less bad when a human does the same thing because:

            • A) A human will work more slowly than a bot
            • B) A human will likely only do this one time and then let the system continue working as intended afterward
            • C) A human can be easily reprimanded and told to stop if they’re causing problems
    • chaorace@lemmy.sdf.orgOPEnglish
      2·
      2 years ago

      Yes, unfortunately. This is one of those situations where it’s technically less user friendly to browse on a smaller instance (since large instances are more likely to already be subscribed to a given random community). Of course, this issue affects anyone who tries to visit a given community via their home instance, not just people using this particular link style.

      Right now this problem is being tracked on the backend Github as #2951. Hopefully they manage to sand off this particular rough edge ASAP.