this post was submitted on 22 Jun 2023
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Moving to: m/AskMbin!

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founded 1 year ago
 

I am torn. Lemmy feels slimmer and easier to use with a wider variety of apps. Kbin has an advantage of being an "all-in-one" solution for the Fediverse with a better UI.

That said I use Mastodon for microblogging, so Kbin having that built in only clutters the site in my particular use case. While Kbin has a better UI it's also more drab in color and harder to navigate. Kbin also has this karma/points system which feels odd. It skews into the negative VERY easily and is displayed on your profile. I prefer Lemmy's upvote/downvote system but doesn't have a permanent karma/points system.

I've been reading Lemmy is growing much faster than Kbin, but then I hear that "it's all bots" and not real growth.

Where do you stand on this? Where do you think you'll find yourself when this all shakes out?

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[–] [email protected] 39 points 1 year ago

There's multiple things to consider, both are great options, but right now I'm liking kbin more for these reasons:

  • Better algorithm, when I go to my homepage I feel that the site is full of new, active content, where people are having discussions.
  • Integration with Mastodon, I like to take a peek from time to time on the Microblog tab.
  • No feed bug. Lemmy has a problem where it would show every single new post on top of the feed (I know this is being fixed)

Overall both Lemmy and kbin are in their infancy and I expect both to get better to a point where choosing between them won't come down to which one of the two have less bugs, and more focused in the features and appearance you want, this ofc will change with the many apps being developed, since they will be vastly different.
I might end up in Lemmy or I might stay on kbin, it depends which one feels more "active" to me.

[–] [email protected] 37 points 1 year ago (1 children)

For sure Kbin. I keep trying Lemmy from time to time but between the UI and the inconsistent sorting algorithms over there I have chosen to stay here!

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Agreed. Luckily the algorithm bug is being fixed in the next release.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

Oh cool! The more improvements the better!

[–] [email protected] 25 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I prefer kbin myself, though it is imperfect. Comment box should be at the top of the thread, and our subscriptions we subscribe to should be more easily discoverable, under profile name/settings seems non obvious from what i've seen of questions asked by others.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Comment at the bottom makes me bonkers

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I wish I could get that but I primarily browse on my iPhone.

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[–] [email protected] 23 points 1 year ago (4 children)

I think Kbin, but the lack of an easy to navigate list of subscribed magazines has made me rethink a few times. On Lemmy, it's easier to get to a list of what communities you're subscribed to and the 'local' feed option can be quite useful too (e.g. on feddit.uk I can more easily use this to browse the UK content).

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

This. I miss the list of things I'm subscribed to that reminds me to check in on some of those communities from time to time.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You can find that in your profile.

Open your profile, and at least in mobile, there’s a menu showing you your active posts, threads….and subscriptions is towards the end.

I use it for the same reason you describe here.

Hope it helps.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (2 children)

If you're using a browser, try this userscript. It adds a wonderful list on the side bar.

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[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 year ago

Kbin is my preference but it's not perfect yet. I have a few nitpicks but it's still the best I've used so far.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 year ago (10 children)

I tried lemmy, I've been lectured about "orientalism", Zelensky was constantly trashed talked about. Enough is enough...I left lemmy for kbin.

It's not about the technology, it's about the community. I prefer to restart from scratch on kbin.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago

Christ, what instance did you sign up on? Lemmygrad?

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Going to have to say Kbin, considering that every attempt to log in to one of the big Lemmy servers just results in an endlessly spinning circle.

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Ultimately Kbin, but I'd love for there to be a "collapse child comments" button like reddit and lemmy

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago

Kbin all day. Reminds me of old forums so it's got the nostalgia appeal.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago (5 children)

Lemmy needs just one click on an image and it enlarges the image just below the post. Kbin requires 3 clicks to see an enlarged image. Maybe this is a settings issue, and I am all ears on how to make kbin work like lemmy. But, for me, as of now, lemmy wins with this feature.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I agree that is annoying, but that's got to be an easy change for the devs.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

There is a button to preview/expand media, it's the image/film icon just to the left of the "N comments" button.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Click the little image icon and it'll enlarge it for you.

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Kbin. I think it has a more interesting feature set. Plus, the main Lemmy devs are apparently ‘free speech absolutists’ similar to Elon. They refuse to take down reported posts on their main instance, stuff like North Korea not being oppressive, pro-Putin propaganda, etc.

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago

I really dig kbin's interface, so much that I haven't really explored Lemmy too much. My main issue with Lemmy is that the threaded indenting is so minuscule that it might as well not even be there.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Kbin just feels more intuitive to me.

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago

@Jezebelley
I'm really impressed with kbin so far. I'm still learning how to navigate it and all, it's missing the polish of something like Mastodon that is further along its development path. But it looks really promising.

Ultimately, I'm kind of hoping to end up on a much smaller instance possibly even self hosted after things settle down and mature further. The fediverse integration is wild and kind of strange to wrap your head around at first. At least it was for me.

To me, kbin feels the most like old reddit. I liked old reddit, but I'm definitely missing some QoL features.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

I prefer Lemmy's UI but the Lemmy devs are just awful people in general...

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

Started using Lemmy first but ended up staying with kbin. I just prefer the UI, even though it's still a bit rough.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

I realized why I like kbin more while I was writing a front end for Lemmy. On Lemmy you have very limited control over filtering and sorting e.g
"Top" granularity is only at the day level whereas in kbin you can do hours. Lemmy only has a single "hotness" filter whereas kbin has the same granularity for hotness as it does top.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (3 children)

I like kbin, but I'm not in love with the mobile UI, so I'm really just wanting to get a nice app.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

I'm preferring lemmy. That's mostly due to how nicely the Jerboa app works.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

Tried Lemmy, found out the devs are tankies. Came to kbin. Pretty simple.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

Considering we can get lemmy content here anyway and kbin has a better UI, it's a no brainier

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I've been using Lemmy since a couple of weeks ago, but I've made an account here to see what the fuzz is all about.

To be honest, I've already configured my desktop Lemmy experience to my liking so my view will be biased. On the other hand, I am finding the default UI here to be close to what I want to begin with.

What I find confusing, however, is all the extra stuff that Lemmy doesn't have. I already use Mastodon for microblogging, so I doubt I'd be using the microblogging aspect of Kbin.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I use the micro blogging feature inside magazines where I'm asking for help that doesn't require a link to anything. It acts like a standard forum in that mode

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Lemmy is blocked at my work, so there's that. But I do like what I see here!

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

@Jezebelley Kbin, because it looked cleanest.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Kbin for me personally.

  1. I originally tried Lemmy, but I couldn’t get past the constant refreshing on the ‘all’ page. I know they acknowledged it was a glitch they were working on, but it took too long for them to fix it before I found that kbin worked equally well for me.

  2. Then, I learned about Lemmy having its beginnings tied to ‘Tankies’ - People who essentially support China/Russia. (There are better explanations out there.) I’m not sure the platform has moved far enough away from that yet.

Right now my priority is to leave Reddit. And if it can be accomplished by not going to Lemmy, that’s a plus. Hence, kbin.

But, as both grow and change in the coming months, I might change my mind again. They’re both still so young. It’s exciting to be witness to this time!

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Kbin.

I can’t even log into lemmy and i’ve been verified and even tried talking to the mod on discord.

Kbin (at least for me) just seems to work.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

Prefer Kbin, I feel the interface is cleaner and more true to the Fediverse. My complaints are A) It's really hard to just look at a list of your magazines and B) why is the reply box at the bottom of the page?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

kbin for the win! Part lemmy, part mastodon. I can follow users on bookworm and mastodon. What's not to love. Add peertube and rss support and I never have to leave!

The mobile experience is not perfect, but it is improving and I hear there are apps on the horizon.

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