So, Lemmy is sometime missing content. I don’t regret switching from Reddit to Lemmy but, expecially for niche communities, the content isn’t always here.

My idea is to fix this is a Fediverse-based content relay named Relly.

Relly allows you to select RSS feeds, Mastodon users, Mastodon hashtag and Mastodon instances (so, the top posts on that instance) as sources for content, and post them to your favourite Lemmy community.

There are several features which make Relly better and anti-spam:

  • Limits for a source (example: only up to 5 posts a day from this RSS feed)
  • Limits for a community (example: only up to 5 posts a day to !archlinux)
  • Global limits (example: only up to 10 posts made each day)
  • Opt-out for servers & communities (instance and community moderators will be able to ask to be put in the UNLIST, which blocks by default Relly on your instace/community; this isn’t an anti-spam, as it is more a tool for avoiding common users to use Relly in a malicous and spammy way)
  • Order posts (so, if i have 10 RSS posts and 10 Mastodon posts and a global limit of 15 posts, you can either have the 10 RSS posts and the 5 most upvoted Mastodon posts, or some RSS posts and some Mastodon posts [always the most upvoted])
  • Multiple communities (post the same content to different communieties, or set up a fraction [ex. 50%], so that each post has a certain percentage to be posted on a certain community)
  • Dynamic limits: You can set an objective of active users/post made in the last 24 hours, so that the limits (either for a specific source, a specific community or globally) will be reduced. Example: if you set a objective of 50 posts, and 25 are made, the limits of Relly will be 50% of what they were originaly set to be; this allows Relly to completly stop posting on a community if the objective was already reached.
  • Do not repeat: before posting a link, checks if it was already posted in the community in a specific time period (by default, 48 hours)
  • Modularity: new post sources and post outputs can be implemented; an example could be an e-mail output, so that you can run Relly in local and recieve an e-mail everyday with your favourite news)

Relly is designed to be used by moderators of communities, but users can also use it. A user should always ask the moderator if it is OK to use it. A moderator should always ask the admins if it is OK to use it. Moderators, if they are the one using it, should also make public the list of sources, and allow the community to discuss possible edits to the list. The admins should put in the sidebar notes if Relly is OK to use for moderators of communities.

At the moment, Relly is just the idea that I presented here; I want to hear the community’s feedback, and if the community is OK with this project being made, I will start working on it (I will make it in Rust and release under the MIT License).

  • Admiral Patrick@dubvee.orgEnglish
    67·
    1 year ago

    When the perceived problem is lack of content, why is the solution always to throw more bot posts at it? I’ve blocked or site-banned pretty much every bot account because they’re just adding dead end posts and noise.

    For Mastadon content, Lemmy just needs the ability to follow individual users. Not sure if that’s on the roadmap, but it should be straightforward to implement. Same goes for other ActivityPub platforms. When user-follow is possible, that opens up many avenues for users to subscribe to just what they want.

    What you’re proposing is not really adding content, just clutter and the appearance of content.

    Give Lemmy time, and it will grow organically. Let’s not try to force feed it with reposts from bots. As people discover Lemmy, if half or more of what they see is dead end crap reposted via bots, then I personally feel that will be a turn off for many (which defeats what you’re trying to accomplish).

    • djtech@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      44·
      1 year ago

      Thanks for replying to my post.

      For Mastodon: this isn’t the same as you are saying with the user-follow. In your case, each users follows the users that they want to see, and they can partecipate in the comments of that post, but they will see ALL of the posts of that user in their timeline/feed. Here, the community choose what users/hashtags/instances to follow, the best posts get selected and they get posted, without being spammy. You don’t have to see everything, but only the one that both were highly-ranked on Mastodon and they were upvoted on Lemmy. At the same time, you can’t control exactly what sources are selected, but you can also interact with the community in order to drive the moderators to change the sources list, or you could just change/make a new community based on Relly. They are two different approches, that could live in symbiosis (ex. You select your own Mastodon users to follow, and the only Relly’s Mastodon posts that appear are the one that you didn’t already saw in your personal timeline [this would require collaboration with the Lemmy Server Development Team])

      Some other additions:

      • This isn’t the same as other bots that keep on posting contents, thanks to Limits, objectives, top posts, …
      • Being moderated by the moderators/admin of the community/instance, the quality threshold is/should be higher.
      • Content is created by users who want more content. We can provide more content, and slowly stop pumping from the outside, until Lemmy is fully independent. (see Dynamic limits in my original post)
      • Now that I think of it, it might be a good idea to make a reverse bot, which takes the top posts from Lemmy and posts on Reddit/Mastodon/…, while providing the link to the original lemmy post, in order to drive more traffic and engagement

      Hope this is useful!