cross-posted from: https://programming.dev/post/24889

[Disclaimer: Lemmy newb here]

There are currently 3 Rust communities across 3 instances: programming.dev, lemmyrs.org and this one (lemmy.ml). I know it’s still very early for the migration from /r/rust, but it would split the community if there are so many options and nobody knows which is the “right” one. Currently this community has the most subscribers, but it would make sense if the Rust community finds its new home in one of the other instances.

  • lemmyrs.org seems like the logical solution if instance-wide rules are paramount and “non-negotiable”
  • personally I would love a programming-centric instance and programming.dev seems like a good way. Rust is not the only language I’m actively using (unfortunately :)). Maybe there can be community-specific rules that “enforce” the Rust CoC and the Rust community can find a home there?

Either way, the current situation has the most negative impact.

Thoughts?

  • lemmyrs@lemmyrs.orgMEnglish
    9·
    1 year ago

    A few things:

    • Instances are like their own self-hosted Reddits with communities being the sub-reddits. We have (had?) r/python, r/rust, r/golang along with r/programming; we can do the same here with topic-focused instance (like this one). I can imagine there being instances like lemmygo.org, lemmypy.org etc if the Reddit exodus continues.
    • You don’t need multiple accounts to access communities (sub-reddits) from other instances (reddit). A single account on any instance allows you to access communities from any other instance. The UX/UI is a bit wonky, but it works.
    • As @erlend_sh@lemmyrs.org pointed out, micro-communities like cli, wasm, networking etc can potentially become big enough and/or have specifics that are more suitable to exist on a topic-based instance.

    Personally, I don’t have any preference. I will simply subscribe to the community which is the most active on whichever instance.

    • veaviticus@lemmy.oneEnglish
      9·
      1 year ago

      The downside to individual servers, and micro-communities, is the cost and maintenance of lemmy instance. Its more scalable, reliable and cheaper to have a bunch of relatively low-churn communities exist on one bigger instance.

      The upside is that the rust community gets to own its own data. If programming.dev decides to shut down tomorrow, and posts and comments made there are gone. Lemmy doesn’t mirror or cache… all that data lives solely on the server ran by somebody.

      I’d vote lemmyrs at least for now until a governance and stability model is figured out to ensure these conversations don’t go into /dev/null like /r/rust (sort of) did.

      If say the Linux Foundation or a similarly large open source foundation (Apache, FSF, OSI, etc) decided to host a larger “open source” server, I’d consider moving there to improve discoverability and lessen the burden on the rust community itself

      • jeltz@programming.devEnglish
        3·
        1 year ago

        Agreed, there are advantages of having an own community. Especially until the people running e.g. programming.dev have a proven track record of being reliable.

        • veaviticus@lemmy.oneEnglish
          1·
          1 year ago

          Oh I’m not saying what your doing over at programming.dev is wrong or insufficient… Honestly I don’t know what your doing to ensure the lemmy server exists long term (though its great to hear you’ve got some policies in place already).

          I’m more thinking the rust community should evaluate options and vote, or some rust subgroup of the leadership should set criteria to ensure that another reddit-type event doesn’t happen again (the home of this community must be open-source, with data backups publicly available, with a governing body and a line of succession or something, etc).

          If programming.dev meets those things today, I’d say sure lets move there. I think its better to have a lemmy instance for a concept (computer science) than a specific topic (rust), but that’s just me

    • unreliable@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
      5·
      1 year ago

      On reddit was very common having multiple communities about same topics, you just subscribe to all. Overtime each would creates its own personality or vanish. It is a natural process.