Could we add redirects for Reddit convention links? i.e. lemmy.ca/r/xyz > lemmy.ca/c/xyz
I can't be the only reddit migrant who often instinctually goes to a given community by typing /r/community, only to be 404d. If the /r/ path isn't being used for anything else, is it possible to have it dynamically redirect to /c/ instead?
Sure, why not? Added. It's just a 301 for people typing in the URL by hand.
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The canonical convention here for community names on Lemmy is:
![community name]@[instance]
It's actually discouraged even to link it as /c/, (though people here often refer to communities in that way). Example: instead of https://lemmy.ca/c/canada, use
!canada@lemmy.ca. this way, for users visiting us from other instances such as lemm.ee, their Lemmy app or interface will automatically convert the link to https://lemm.ee/c/canada@lemmy.ca which is how they can stay logged in and comment on posts there, instead of navigating directly to lemmy.ca where they have no account.
Edit: !canada, on some UIs make a link for local users, but chances are that will run into the 404 problem for other instance users.
That's interesting, I've seen links in that format but was never quite sure what was going on, thanks for the explanation! I get why it would be done that way, but at first blush it seems somewhag inherently problematic to establish a convention where you provide someone with an address and yet when they follow it, their browser will always leave them at a different address then what they clicked.
Though in this case, it didn't even arise for links, but just me typing the old Reddit style URL into my browser bar by hand because I'm ancient.
I know it's a change to get used to, but I wouldn't get your hopes up. On Reddit, 'r' makes sense but I think Lemmy considers them communities, thus the 'c'.
I know, and I get it, I'm not talking about changing the actual root page URLs of the Lemmy communities, I'm just talking about adding some additional redirects so that if you try to go to /lemmy.ca/r/something it would redirect you to the right URL of lemmy.ca/c/something.
From the user's perspective, they're making a typo, and the Lemmy server would be catching it and assuming by /r they meant /c, and sends them that way. Once you as a user land at a page you would be at the /c/ url.
/r/ is for Reddit, /c/ is for community. Lemmy is not a collection of subreddits it is a collection of communities.
email is not mail but it still borrows conventions, metaphors, and terminology.
this comment has embedded "carriage returns" and "line feeds".
I still don't like OP's idea but I also don't like your argument against OP's idea.