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Is this somehow an intentional choice or a feature? I consider it insane ...

https://discuss.tchncs.de/comment/9436237

@MachineFab812@discuss.tchncs.de
(replaced with my own user profile, as I'm not trying to fill other users' inboxes for no real reason)(also, this somehow worked right when making this post, but not the original comment)
[@MachineFab812@discuss.tchncs.de](/u/MachineFab812)
https://discuss.tchncs.de/comment/9293054 https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/comment/9620373 https://jlai.lu/comment/6487794

While we're at it, am I missing at instance-agnostic method for linking posts as well?

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  • Instances can themselves handle links agnostically, and clients are able to access that via the API.

    Using the autocomplete in the webUI can mess things up, as it is from back when community mentions weren't even turned clickable. The link is then an explicit markdown link to the user, and may not be correctly clickable in whatever client others are using, but may instead open an off-instance page in a new tab/browser app.

    Even if you link to a post using its local url and ID, a client can, and some already do, open that link in-client from your instance. But this is something that still needs to become more widely implemented.

    The "manual" way to open off-instance links locally is to enter their full source url into search on your instance, which should give you their local version as the sole result.

    User mentions do not need to be links, same as communities. Just write @username@instance.com and nearly all clients will correctly make it clickable, and Lemmy will also detect and notify the user about the mention.

    • I don't use any client besides the web-ui. There is no reason for the webui to not impiment obvious features found in multiple client apps, but yes, you've hit the nail on the head as to a desirable version of this behavior.

      • There is one big reason: it requires time and effort.

        The vanilla web-UI is inferior to other clients in a variety of ways, and any feature requires that someone somewhere get it done.

        You could make an endless list of things that are "no-brainer" features for someone to add, but the development still requires that someone somewhere go down that list, one item at a time.

        For example, Lemmy only recently got the ability to show the real number of subscribers that communities have, instead of showing the number of subs from the instance you were looking at that community from. That's nice, but each update can only come with a subset of the endless number of obvious improvements that could be made.

        No client currently does everything that the Lemmy server can technically be made to do with the currently implemented API calls. But the solution to agnostic links already exists. Any instance, when handed the url to a post or comment, no matter what instance it is for, is able to turn that into the corresponding local url/ID, the work to make use of that to make all links work everywhere simply hasn't been put in yet.

        Not that long ago just mentioning communities and users was a pain, but that's mostly solved now. Posts and comments will be too. Eventually.

        • You literally dismiss the necessity for any effort in your first paragraph and claim extentions/apps are somehow preferable, then in your last two paragraphs call out that the function is already present on the servers and the servers more feature-complete than the apps.

          Pick a narrative. Letting the apps represent the more useful/enjoyable experience is a big reason the eventual API rugpull on reddit was such a shit-show. If your lesson-learned was "more app, more gooder"/"everyone should constantly reinvent the wheel in pursuit of fun and profit, so long as no one asks anything of the original devs", you haven't been paying attention.

          When devs can no longer be bothered to impliment obvious features, its time to fork, not present a new compatability layer that you control as the solution. Its both a shitty user-experience, and an almost impossible path to fun and profit for any dev who has no control over the original code. Then you get dozens of others having to reinvent the wheel every time the original dev DOES impliment anything that breaks compatability with their apps, all in pursuit of dimes they will likely never see.

          I, and most users, are here to participate in discussions, not promote the LateStageCapitalism rate-race for the next disposable-and-planned-obselecence-baked-in-to-its-very-nature digital widget.

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