Stop Internet Searching and Start Asking on Fediverse?

Kagi search has a function to specifically search the fediverse.

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

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.

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.

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?).

Thats fucking stupid

Maybe, instead of Reddit and Lemmy and other forums, how about you just host a Wiki? Its gonna take more time, but it will be way better for readability.

We need to seriously AI proof before that happens or the bots will clean us out and eat all our bandwidth. The only thing keep us safe is we are under the radar.

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

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?

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

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

Kagi has a search lens for Fediverse forums like Lemmy. More content in Lemmy will make that even better

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.

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.

Is there a way to encourage people to post more? Because the main problem seems to be getting actual posts, not replies to them.

For example "nostupidquestions" only has a few questions a day, but there are 40k subscribers and 1500 people or so checking in every day. It has 4.2k posts and 170k comments.

"asklemmy" has more posts, fewers subscribers, and over 2k a day check in. 6k posts and 317k comments.

Reddit took many years to build that reputation. And earned creepy badges along the way. I'm not saying the fediverse doesn't need to do it, but let's not be in a rush. We have technical challenges, and a lemmy.world, and a .ml problem before we're ready for the big leagues

And being niche is fine for now, email was tiny for decades

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

100% agree and I would like to add on to it that it's worth just posting information, too.

Did you run into a weird error with your Linux install and have a difficult, yet interesting time troubleshooting it? Post the solution! Even if it doesn't directly address someone else's problem, often finding pieces of an issue and correlating them with a bigger problem can help.

I don't run a personal blog and downvotes mean literally nothing here, so have at it!

I went cold turkey on Reddit when they stopped API access and it was rough in the beginning, but I get ever so slightly hints of the old internet here on Lemmy. It's raw, but it's fresh and it's ours. I love it.

knowledge that Reddit has and will always have

I deleted all of my comments and posts from reddit.

There is one worry I have about Lemmy being the knowledge of anything and it’s what happened on reddit. Many people went through and nuked their comments, essentially making many posts useless. There are already people here on lemmy that delete their profiles, comments and start over every few months. Not really sure what that means for all the federation, but I assume different instances may have different versions of deleted information in the long run?

Fediverse to replace stackoverflow would be something I am interested in.

But can people find your question on lemmy by googling?

coz thats how i personally found reddit back in the day. And i'm sure it is part of how reddit grew to what it is today.

If google cant find you, you cannot be a success, is my guess. But of course, NOT being found on google has it advantages too.

I can find this topic by searching on lemmy

but i cannot search comments, which limits the usability somewhat

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

E: the downvotes are interesting. I wonder why.

I think it shouldn't be a competition but possibly something with added value. Possibly in the form of structure, ie something that doesn't create hundreds of same/similar questions but constantly updates the best answers closest to the existing date. (Alphabetically searchable hashtags, etc..., build it communally, ie #NoStupidQuestions , how to best build a free information platform?).

Using a search engine and adding "Lemmy" will, given there is info of course, work similar to adding reddit before.

What's the right translation for "pepper" in German? And red pepper, green pepper and so on? I found several words that seem to mean pepper, but not sure if any is better than the others.

your local library is also a great option

There are some questions I just honestly would like a few opinions on and/or discussion around and I certainly prefer to do those here and here from members of the federation.

I've made a conscious effort to start doing this in conversations in general instead of opening up a browser tab. Yeah, "just google it" is a thing, but asking is often enough if you're not in a hurry, so why not?

Really solid points that really resonate with me, but are we sure lemmy is the right platform for this? And if so, would we need a separate homeserver with these goals in mind?

I feel like there is monumental opportunity for something to rise up through the ashes of reddit/stack overflow and the ilk that are gettinng AI churned atm. These are things I've been reflecting on for weeks and have not found many answers, but if anyone finds the answers please guide/inform me

I am not sure about “the need to build knowledge” but i am liking the idea of communities of specific interest and expertise with the idea anyone can go discuss things with experts.

I want to create a beat making community and make it live, post pro tips and things I watch and learned but the problem is that I don't have much time aside from work nowadays and so setting up that routine of making a community live is hard.

I think I should at least try tho

This is true. 💪