I was just thinking about this, when I'm facing an issue, the first thing I do is go to a search engine and usually there's a Reddit post. But I don't want to ask there. And the only way we're going to build up the info for folks to find us and come here is for us to just start asking here. On the Fediverse. We need to build up that mountain of knowledge that Reddit has and will always have. So we should be championing ANYONE asking questions here. Even if we think it's obvious and we think you can just Google it. There was a time where you literally couldn't just Google it. That was built over time. We need to build that here. So start asking your questions here! Find the answers and then post your answer to your own question. Or let someone do it for you. We need to build the knowledge here to be found. It's not just about people looking for alternatives. We need our knowledge to be more valuable than their knowledge.

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[–] stringere@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 hour ago

Kagi search has a function to specifically search the fediverse.

[–] Irelephant@lemm.ee 5 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

I try to ask questions here instead of reddit in the hopes that lemmy will pop up in google for someone.

[–] ozoned@piefed.social 3 points 1 hour ago

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. :-)

[–] Paddy66@lemmy.ml 4 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

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

[–] Irelephant@lemm.ee 4 points 2 hours ago (2 children)

Kagi (paid search engine, haven't tried it myself) has a fediverse forums (lemmy, piefed, mbin) lens.

[–] stringere@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 hour ago

It also makes it easy to remove reddit from search results entirely.

[–] Paddy66@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

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?

[–] Irelephant@lemm.ee 2 points 1 hour ago

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.

[–] user_naa@lemmy.world 5 points 4 hours ago

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?).

[–] Haffwit@lemmy.ml 5 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

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?

[–] JackbyDev@programming.dev 8 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

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.

[–] Irelephant@lemm.ee 3 points 2 hours ago

I'd say having those groups isn't bad in itself, but they should crosspost posts to and from the small groups.

[–] aceshigh@lemmy.world -2 points 2 hours ago

I ask chatgpt first. It usually gives me decent ideas to test out.

[–] jivandabeast@lemmy.browntown.dev 18 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

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.

[–] ozoned@piefed.social 7 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

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.

[–] jivandabeast@lemmy.browntown.dev 3 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

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

[–] ozoned@piefed.social 1 points 2 hours ago

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.

[–] cupcakezealot@lemmy.blahaj.zone 26 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago) (2 children)

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.

[–] zenforyen@feddit.org 3 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago)

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.

[–] ozoned@piefed.social 5 points 9 hours ago

Let's DO IT! :-)

[–] applemao@lemmy.world 7 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

Thats what I've been doing...I say yes do it! We need more humanity nowadays too, when everything's bots.

[–] ozoned@piefed.social 2 points 7 hours ago

100% more humanity!

[–] burgerpocalyse@lemmy.world 10 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

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

[–] ozoned@piefed.social 4 points 10 hours ago

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. :-)

[–] melsaskca@lemmy.ca 7 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

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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[–] remon@ani.social 6 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 11 hours ago) (2 children)

Oh hell no. Lemmy is an extremely specific filter bubble and absolutely not suitable to replace even the worst search engine.

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[–] jbd@lemmy.ml 5 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago) (3 children)

knowledge that Reddit has and will always have

I deleted all of my comments and posts from reddit.

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