This is not an attempt to convert Lemmy users, nor is it a slight on Lemmy. I’m sure there are plenty of reasons why Lemmy works better for some, and I love the fact that we not only have multiple choices, but multiple choices that allow us to interact with each other regardless! It’s amazing. Lemmy is great, no shade.
With that said…
Why YSK: I see a lot of users posting frequent questions about Lemmy that are currently answered by kbin.
For example:
- The ability to block a whole domain, or subscribe to one
- The ability to subscribe to individual users
- A built-in search tool to find communities all over fedi (kbin, Lemmy, Mastodon groups, etc.) with an indication of how active they are
- Mitigation for the “tracking pixel” issue
I find that almost every day, I see Lemmy users asking about features and I think, “well, kbin does that.” I think it would be worthwhile for more users to check into both platforms and decide which might be best for them.
It’s obviously not a competition, but this kind of reminds me of back in the day when you had to choose between Betamax or VHS. One seemed superior (kBin)–but “everyone” was adopting VHS (Lemmy).
Isn’t one of the primary benefits of the Fediverse and ActivityPub that you have the freedom to select the better alternative and still benefit from the activity on the “lesser” instances?
Ehhh. kbin’s quite feature-incomplete in its own right, it’s just a different set of features that are incomplete. I don’t think there’s anything about kbin that’s actually superior to lemmy, just… different. Meanwhile, Betamax had inarguably better video, and inarguably worse capacity.
Which features are missing from Kbin that are on Lemmy?
I lurked on both for about a week before going with Kbin so don’t really have experience of using Lemmy apps etc
Off the top of my head:
API’s a big one. Mobile app development for kbin is deeply hampered because of that.
The ability to quickly filter your timeline by Local/Global, which is a big deal for regional or themed instances.
A (more) easily accessible subscribed community/magazine list (slower/smaller communities are kind of totally smothered in kbin).
PeerTube federation.
Meanwhile, the domain block touted by the OP is buried and kind of a pain to get to, and the search claim is… overstated (kbin search still only reaches other sites that the given kbin instance is subscribed to).
kbin has a nicer UI, IMO, and it’s fine. It’s perfectly fine. Is also perfectly fine. Neither is excellent, and that’s ok. Neither has reached version 1.0, either, and both are being developed by small teams (for some flexible definition of “team”).
I personally think Lemmy will have better UI as time goes on. It’s already coming slowly altogether as time goes on.
Yeah, 0.18 came with subtle but really impact changes.
Not being able to collapse comments is why I ended up on Lemmy instead of of Kbin
Not having a quick step to go to your subscribed magazines.
I know you can via settings but honestly on a mobile it’s a mission.
No apps yet support kbin, no way to change post layouts.
All of that said, what works for you works and the beauty of the fediverse is the choice to be able to choose the source and still see everything.
This is the main point for me really, everything else is just quibbling. Although collapsible comments on Kbin definitely need to happen!
Check this: https://greasyfork.org/en/scripts/468612-kbin-enhancement-script
A mobile app (or even api), RSS feeds (AFAICT).
Kinda. If you could watch VHS on a Betamax player and vice versa. The betamax player may have more features or do things a little differently but you can see the same stop on both players.
Good point.
It “seemed” superior but it was super lagging in total recording time
The advantage VHS had was tape length. Betamax standard tapes were 60 minutes. VHS was twice that. Whole movies could fit on VHS. Also, VHS VCRs were far cheaper that Betamax players.
If by “everyone” you mean “porn,” then yeah, I guess. VHS won for the same reason that DVD won and now streaming won:
Porn access is cheaper because of it.
Incorrect. It’s a common misconception that porn was the leading factor that doomed Beta to lose the format wars. In reality, Sony’s strict licensing of the beta technology, short recording times and higher cost doomed the system. A large part of the betamax development history is trying to lower its superior quality just to have the runtimes a standard vhs tape would have.