For a long time, users have been able to submit microblog-style posts to link-aggregator subs (a.k.a. subcommunity, community, magazine, etc.). Some platforms such as mbin require you to select one for your post. Previously, I've thought this sub selection as a special hashtag for the post. However, I've recently been reminded that posts actually show up in communities as full-on threads. So what do you (or the threadi gods) consider to be proper etiquette in selecting a proper sub to make your microblog post to? There's always !random, but that feels kinda worthless...

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[–] aasatru@kbin.earth 1 points 2 weeks ago (11 children)

One good option is to look for relevant groups in a.gup.pe - such as !technology@a.gup.pe. These groups are geared towards Microblog content, and give good reach on sites like Mastodon.

You can add pretty much anything before a.gup.pe, but some groups have many followers on Mastodon and some have none.

Lemmy and Mbin treat Microblog content very differently. Mbin is more similar to Mastodon in this regard, Lemmy tries to force-fit everything into the thread format. It's not very intuitive for new users - sorry about that! :)

[–] Draconic_NEO@lemmy.world 2 points 2 weeks ago (10 children)

Heads up the project behind a.gup.pe is very much stagnated, and while it does still work, I wouldn't encourage people use it because it has federation issues with non-Mastodon software, and the fact that it could potentially go down anytime taking the groups with it, to be clear it's a risk with any service but since guppe hasn't gotten much attention for a while it's more of a risk since they might not be maintaining the site.

I don't deny that it's a cool service but it probably won't last. I'd recommend people use alternatives to host groups on Mastodon, like communites on Lemmy or mbin. Ultimately though they are the same thing activitypub wise, it's just a handle that is a group entity, rather than a user. Different services just interpret the data differently, Lemmy and mbin show a forum, Mastodon just shows boosts of user's posts (yes it is posts, not toots, toots is an outdated term).

[–] aasatru@kbin.earth 1 points 2 weeks ago (9 children)

I wasn't aware of this - good to know.

What's great about using it (while it lasts) is that it boosts content to a lot of instances across the fediverse, so you don't need to be incredibly well connected in order to have reach. Otherwise, if you post microblog posts from Mbin, you risk yelling into a very tiny void.

It'll be interesting to see how native group support in Mastodon is going to play out.

[–] Draconic_NEO@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Something I learned recently which should've been obvious but I guess I just never noticed it was that it seems that Guppe groups aren't moderated, like at all. This is concerning and problematic because it basically means they could become spam and hate vectors with only the admins of individual servers able to moderate the content. Compare that to the fact that Lemmy and mbin indeed can moderate communties, remove posts, and most importantly ban users from participating and stop the group from boosting them. That's as good a reason as any why one might want to use Lemmy or mbin to host groups on Mastodon instead of guppe.

[–] Aatube@kbin.melroy.org 2 points 1 week ago (2 children)

All of Mastodon's moderation has always been done and federated by individual instances.

[–] Draconic_NEO@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago

The problem with Guppe is that it automatically federates all the post content unlike with hashtags which are just a marker. If someone spams in a hashtag n one server it's going to suck but unless people follow them it'll be limited to that server for the most part. With Guppe groups if they spam to them it gets boosted to all servers. It's not just a tag that gets cluttered, it forces the content into all the other instances by way of boosting.

[–] aasatru@kbin.earth 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

It's tricky with guppe though, as it allows spammers a vector into instances they have no business being federated with. The #mastodonforharris hashtag has been taken over by users abusing the mutual aid group, and whenever there are apam attacks on mastodon this is how they reach the entire network rather than individual servers.

So it does confront a fundamental problem with how Mastodon works. But as long as they're there, I guess it makes sense to use them for legitimate uses as well.

[–] Draconic_NEO@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Even with the Hashtag misuse that's not as bad as group spam, since people spamming groups can reach further than they otherwise would just spamming on their server. Which is why being able to moderate groups is important. Also with Guppe's system you can create any group you want without authorization, that's a problem because malicious people can create groups that aren't acceptable including ones with racist and illegal content and use it to distribute that across the network. I found a few of these without much digging and I quickly reported them to Mastodon.social and got them suspended but they're still there on the other servers.

[–] aasatru@kbin.earth 3 points 1 week ago

Ah, yeah, that's messed up.

I'm really happy Mastodon takes their time todevelop new features instead of rushing into things. Makes me hopeful they'll get it right.

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