why so many apps for lemmy but none for kbin?

  • Downcount@lemmy.world
    0·
    1 year ago

    Please, someone with more knowledge, enlighten me please:

    If kbin and lemmy both use the same protocol “activity pub”, why can’t an app designed for lemmy not easily communicate with a kbin server?

    • Zephyrix@kbin.social
      2·
      1 year ago

      They use the same protocol, but so far both of them have only implemented the server-to-server (federation) portion. Neither (to my knowledge) have implemented the client to server interactions.

      Lemmy has its own API, which is completely separate from the ActivityPub spec. Kbin doesn’t have an API yet, but one is actively being developed.

      • Downcount@lemmy.world
        0·
        1 year ago

        I understand there might be a need to develop different server to client APIs if the services that implement activity pub are very different (lemmy / mastodon). But lemmy and kbin are basically the same shit in different colours.This would be a good case to use / reuse / develop a standard API for server-client communications, I would think so.

        • Zephyrix@kbin.social
          1·
          1 year ago

          I agree, standardization would be good.

          It’s entirely up to the developers to collaborate and implement according to the spec though. ActivityPub wasn’t really designed with this use-case in mind, so the spec has limitations that warrant a specialized API, or extensions to the AP spec.

          For example, the outbox is an OrderedCollection. This is how you would list posts in a magazine/community. However, there’s no way to sort by other metrics such as hot, top, or trending. Even Mastodon has its own REST API.

  • mysoulishome@lemmy.world
    0·
    1 year ago

    I don’t really understand the need that kbin fills since Lemmy does most of what it does and they interact with each other. I subscribe to kbin stuff from Lemmy and Lemmy apps.

    Can’t anyone explain?

    • ikantolol@kbin.socialOP
      1·
      1 year ago

      @mysoulishome I think kbin connect better to Mastodon and vice versa as well since it also have the ‘Microblog’ section, this post (as seen on Lemmy) and this reply are posted throught the microblog on kbin.

      also I just think kbin looks nicer and more appealing to casual users rather than lemmy.

        • toasteranimation@lemmy.world
          1·
          1 year ago

          I comes down to what you’re comfortable with. If you were a Redditor, the post/comment/upvote/sub/sort ideas make sense, so you’re going to feel at home in Lemmy using an app like Voyager. But if you were used to twitter, the mastodon world of microblogging will be more comfortable to you,. Kbin developers are specifically trying to make a software that can gracefully present both worlds to the user and unify this experience (as a stated goal).

          I heard another lemming say ‘lemmy is for following interests and mastodon is for following people’. Ask yourself which you do more often, and you’ll know where to go.