sdfpubnix @lemmy.sdf.org Scroll Responsibly @lemmy.sdf.org 1y ago

Is there any interest in SDF hosting an "old.lemmy.sdf.org" MLMYM Lemmy front-end

I noticed that lemmy.world and slrpnk.net host old.lemmy.world and old.slrpnk.net and I was wondering if there was any interest in doing that here. Personally, I think it meshes with the SDF vibe.

Edit: this would be in addition to regular Lemmy

Edit 2: it looks like they added it at old.lemmy.sdf.org. Thank you @SDF@lemmy.sdf.org!

50 comments

As someone that spends a lot of time on a vintage machine using sites like 68k.news and frogfind.com , I think it would be really sweet if there was a non JavaScript front end that could render correctly in something like Netscape 4. I know I’m a weirdo, but there’s a lot of weirdos like me on SDF :-)
- there's a lot of weirdos like me on SDF
  
  weirdo here, can confirm
- Wow! I knew about 68k.news but not frogfind.com! That one is awesome. Works nicely on my Alcatel 1066G which I have as secondary phone.
The default Lemmy interface already combines everything good about old.reddit's design with additional quality of life features, faster performance, and Fediverse-oriented functionality.

No, I do not want to use an old.reddit clone. Lemmy is already better and can be further improved by the community itself. We should be encouraging newcomers to embrace innovation, not encouraging them to go back to Reddit.
- I had meant in addition to the regular Lemmy UI as something cool for people to use if they want to... not force everyone to use it 🤣. When I tested lemmy.world vs old.lemmy.world just now, respectively, I got 14.31 seconds vs 6.98 seconds with 32 requests each and 1.5MB vs 4.8 MB transferred (all this was done un-cached in Chromium). So on my end, old is heavier, but also faster.
  
  Regardless, I just think that the old front-end is cool and retro looking, and I was wondering if others here thought the same or not.
I think having a noscript site like old.lemmy.sdf.org available could only be a net positive, I can't imagine that it would hurt to have it as an option, as long as it's not too much work to keep it running.
It would be great to have a lemmy interface that does not require Javascript (even if only for reading) I notice that old.slrpnk.net does not require Javascript to read posts.

Edit: the lemmyBB mentioned in other comments looks like it might be something I would prefer.
I wish it didn't look like a Reddit clone. I just think it's a bit of a disservice.
I love it! I'm a big fan of old.reddit.com. I love how it craps a ton of info and links into a small space. Regular lemmy.sdf.org just requires too much scrolling to see anything.

Not that it has to look just like old.reddit.com, of course, but the density of this layout is great.
Any effort to place a frontend that can be browsed on a terminal / without 123456 Javascript frameworks, is welcome. And I remmeber clearly that no matter how corporate Reddit is, at least it can be browsed on a terminal. It's incredible that a software for the people and for federation, doesn't support the absolute simplest interface possible.
- I am not sure how you mean "browse on terminal" but it can be done through lynx already.
  
  Image link for compatibility
  
  old.lemmy.sdf.org
  
  But it wasn't ready yet when you wrote the comment, only 3 hours later.
  
  Edit: Hell, you can even post! https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/1311243
I may have changed my mind based upon what I've seen. Is the old.lemmy.sdf.org terminal-friendly? If so, then, I think it was a good idea, despite the reddit-y UI, I think.
- Seems reasonably friendly via w3m on my phone (termux)
I'd rather see a lemmyBB (phpBB-style) front-end, myself
- Oh hey, we got the old.lemmy front-end. What are the chances of a lemmyBB front-end, then?
This is what it would look like:
- Doesn't look functionally that different, really, just more Reddit-y. The default Lemmy client has none of the new Reddit bloat to start with.
  
  It does seem a little faster... not that that would be the main reason to host it (and to clarify, I wasn't suggesting getting rid of the default by any means). It just seems like something interesting and slightly retro and I thought people on here might be interested in it.
I'd also agree that something new, rather than a reddit clone would be preferable. I think that cloning an unethical, for-profit aggregator would be antithetical to promoting free, open software, knowledge, and creativity.

Additionally, I've never really been a fan of their layout - always seemed pretty clunky.

ETA: What about a plaintext/JSON frontend? That I could absolutely get behind both from the fact that I tend to live in the terminal and that it would likely be straightforward to implement in a manner that is compatible with screen readers and other assistive devices.

EDIT2: It looks like this is terminal friendly. I think I am changing my mind.
- There is an XML API endpoint that could be parsed by a terminal RSS reader like terminews. For more information, the documentation is here. That being said, this would be read only. MLMYM does seem to be somewhat usable by lynx and w3m in the terminal too... this comment was posted using lynx and MLMYM.
  
  Edit: although it looks like it posted in duplicate lol.
  
  Oooh. Ok. I do like that. I like lynx but have been contemplating rolling my own with the Charm Bubbletea libraries.
I thought I wanted it but now that I'm using it, I realize I don't want to feel like I'm on Reddit ever again. Maybe instead of "old" there could be a "min" or "lite" that isn't a direct Reddit clone.
looks like they added it

https://mastodon.sdf.org/@SDF/110781912764919017

https://old.lemmy.sdf.org/
- Nice! Thank you @SDF@lemmy.sdf.org!
- Definitely a nice move as I couldn't browse with netsurf/Dillon ! But why old.lemmy.sdf.org ? I get that it's the old reddit interface, but hey, why not just "alt.lemmy.sdf.org" ?
As a user, I have 100% interest! I still use old.reddit and it's peak UI design. The feature I miss the most in Lemmy is "show images" to expand all thumbnails. Hopefully it can be deployed at SDF.
Any way to get RSS links from this? I didn't think I wanted this until I realized how light it is, I guess I don't really care that it looks like Reddit. But if I can't plug it into my RSS reader, and have the links open there, I don't have much use for it.
- For rss links… I’m not sure if this is what you’re looking for?
  
  Specifically, I'm looking for a way to get my personal "Subscribed" feed. On the normal site I can go to Posts/Subscribed/Hot|Active|... and there's an RSS link right next to those controls that I can copy into my reader. The link I get from there is something like this big url So I was hoping that I could prepend "old." to that url and get a feed that has links to "old..." That's how old.reddit worked. Even prepending "old." to the simpler, anonymous, url in that comment "https://old.lemmy.sdf.org/feeds/all.xml?sort=Hot" is a 404.
mlmym does have their own site where you can login with sdf credentials, or maybe that's how you generated your screenshot?

I used it for an old.reddit.com nostalgia hit, but it was kinda flaky because I couldn't post or comment a few times without some error

I do think alternative frontends would be cool to have on lemmy, but that would also increase maintenance work for the admins to keep it updated and whatnot, so I sympathize if they only want to have the 1 official frontend to maintain
- Yeah, that's how I generated it... and yeah, if it increases maintenance too much, it would be understandable if the admins said no.

50 comments