It would be cool if there was an operator that would force the search into Lemmy content. Are they called bangs? Like starting with !r
this post was submitted on 13 May 2025
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Kagi (paid search engine, haven't tried it myself) has a fediverse forums (lemmy, piefed, mbin) lens.
Oh wow, you're right!
I wonder how they set that up? DDG has thousands of bangs but not one for Lemmy - probably because it is not at one single URL?
Kagi's lens are the equivalent of custom feeds for searching (i think, I haven't used kagi).
But yeah, ddg bangs basically just jump you to a search page on a website.
I try to ask questions here instead of reddit in the hopes that lemmy will pop up in google for someone.
And I think that's what we should do. Or even ask the question, search it on Google, and answer your own post! :-) We need to foster the Fediverse by existing in the Fediverse and stop depending on Big Tech or using them to help build OUR internet. :-)
I ask chatgpt first. It usually gives me decent ideas to test out.
I personally think that the main problem is bad search optimization. There quite a lot of good answers on Fediverse (Lemmy) but it is nearly impossible to find them via Google or any other regular search engine. And making things worse since Lemmy is Federated it is not easy to implement correct indexing for it. So it makes a lot of questions(Should each instance index only local posts to prevent duplicated search results? What about small instances? Or use some central instance like Lemmy.World? What about different frontends for same instance like Photon or Alexandrite?).
Suppose I wanted to discuss, say, typewriter repair. How could I find the appropriate community? How do I avoid having my questions deleted because they are “off topic”? How do I find posts/comments/answers related to my interests?
One of my biggest gripes about the fediverse (and honestly any online community) is people making increasingly niche places to discuss things before there is a need to split things due to size. I'd post that to something like a general hobbies group. I'd also say mods need to be less strict about what is and isn't on-topic while there isn't much traffic in their communities.
I'd say having those groups isn't bad in itself, but they should crosspost posts to and from the small groups.
Yes, or if you find a solution you can post it here for preservation. I've posted some guides and info that i pulled from Reddit onto here because the way things are going, I can't guarantee that information will still be available in a years time.
Preservation is so MASSIVELY important imo atm. With Internet Archive under fire, Reddit and Twitter closing APIs, Google shutting down fucking everything, we need OUR internet, not theirs and we need to protect that which is precious to us.
Exactly. While Lemmy isn't exactly like the Internet archive, at least its self hosted so you could preserve anything you want for as long as you wanted on here
Agreed. And even if 1 instance goes down, if another instance is following, it's still there. It's potentially the strongest off site backup ever.
fediverse bringing back bulletin boards and forums would be a great thing.
the internet became a worse place when we lost bulletin boards and forums and got reddit and ai.
I think about Reddit-style platforms being the centralized bulletin boards and forums of these days, and Lemmy is closest we have to a DIY kind of thing which is controlled by the community.
Back in the day only a sufficiently tech savvy person could set up and run a forum software. Now everyone can do it, and with the Fediverse it's all nicely interconnected, interoperable and truly free and open.
In general the Fediverse is the best shot we got right now to get back to the non-corporate Internet of my childhood and youth, I really hope it will succeed. And succeeding does not mean that it must grow and outcompete the commercial offerings, I think success is if enough motivated and interesting people join and participate. Quality > quantity.
Let's DO IT! :-)
Thats what I've been doing...I say yes do it! We need more humanity nowadays too, when everything's bots.
100% more humanity!
i find that most of the information and recommendations i have seen on Lemmy is about what NOT to do or use. dont use this service, dont use this Linux version
Yeah we need to pivot to being more open. But not even just Lemmy. Post anywhere. Anyone can build anything. The Fediverse isn't Lemmy. I posted on Piefed.social. :-)
All knowledge available for all, should be the goal. Us vs. them train of thought is so old and tiring but still continues to light a fire under some.
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Oh hell no. Lemmy is an extremely specific filter bubble and absolutely not suitable to replace even the worst search engine.
Agreed. About the only thing I would search Lemmy for is obnoxious Linux snobbery. That, they have on lock.
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knowledge that Reddit has and will always have I deleted all of my comments and posts from reddit.
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I don’t use reddit results much at all anymore thanks to it constantly trying to force me to use the app, which I don’t have. I do try to force lemmy into search results by adding it to the search terms when appropriate.
Problem is that Lemmy/Fediverse simply doesn’t have the established depth and breadth of information that reddit does yet, and reddit does have it because it sort of killed the internet forums that would have existed foe those subjects. I agree, it’d be great to have more knowledge sources in Lemmy. Growing the community types would be a start, but that needs people and participation, and growth is hard.
Problem is that Lemmy/Fediverse simply doesn’t have the established depth and breadth of information that reddit does yet, and reddit does have it because it sort of killed the internet forums that would have existed foe those subjects.
That's the problem OP is asking you to help solve.
Exactly this. We need to start investing in the Fediverse and stop depending on Reddit or any of the big techs. WE all built their content. We can do it again FREELY.
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