Heyo everyone, hope you’re all doing well.
I haven’t had a lot of time to focus on getting the rules and sidebar set up for this place, but hopefully I should be able to tackle that in the next few days.
Before I did, I wanted your opinions on a few things, as I plan on diverging from the original Reddit BIFL community slightly:
- I’d like the limit the amount of posts of vintage or antique items that are no longer in production. I think the real value of the BIFL community initially was as a resource to find high value, long lasting items that are easily obtained.
However, there is some value in older items that can be found used on eBay, so I think a good compromise (which was suggested in the Introduction thread) would be a weekly or monthly vintage/antique mega thread that people can post in. Are you guys into that?
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Since this is a solarpunk instance, Homemade stuff (which is not allowed on r/BIFL) is encouraged here, as long as instructions on how to make the item are included (text or video).
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I’m thinking about letting a limited amount of self-promotion occur here. I believe self-promotion wasn’t allowed on reddit due to them wanting people to purchase ad-space on the site. But since lemmy isn’t commercialized, I think it’d be okay to allow a bit of it, but with certain stipulations:
The item being promoted would have to be inline with solarpunk ideals. I.E, using reclaimed/recycled materials, be open-source, hackable, user-serviceable, etc. (Open to other suggestions for criteria).
That’s just an idea though.
- I think it’d be pretty neat to compile a list of all the stuff posted here that’s easily searchable in categories. I plan on using a simple Gitlab Readme page, since that’s something I’m familiar with, but I’m not sure if that’s the best option. I haven’t actually contributed to wiki’s before, so I didn’t really look into that. I would like to self-host something eventually (inspired by reading stuff in the selfhost community here), but I’m not currently in a position to reliably do that, so for now I’m just looking at stuff that will host the list for free.
I guess that’s all I had in mind so far. Let me know what you guys think, and any other ideas you have that could make this community better!
Cheers, ProdigalFrog
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I love all the ideas for the community, especially the inclusion of handmade or modified items. Vintage item megathred will be especially good on lemmy since users can post images in the comments.
The only thing im iffy about is self promotion/advertising-- maybe it could be limited certain day of the week or something? I like the other stipulations you listed for self promotion.
Thanks for taking over the comminity! Im looking forward to it becomming more active :)
Or maybe weekly self promotion mega thread?
Yeah! I think that would work well. It would keep things from getting spammy and make it easy for unintested people to skip over
If self promotion is allowed I think it needs to be tagged as such.
Agreed, any self promotion would be required to be clearly marked.
That seems like a solid suggestion
This all sounds great. Thank you for taking the helm on this c/ and keeping it going!
All the ideas are great, save for the allowing self promotion/videos bit
Lemmy already has a big problem with people pushing their YouTube channels in your face at every opportunity
Dear god the thumbnails 🤢
Agreed on skipping self promotion videos but you might be conflating tutorials on DIY BIFL and promotion of products ‘inline with solarpunk ideals’, both of which I’m down for given a subdued tone for the promotion, good moderation required!, and videos only if direly needed for a comprehensive explanation.
Agree with that 👍
Regarding self promotion; I was thinking more along the lines of if someone was making high quality handmade items, they could mention their etsy page/web store or some such. I suspect the amount of people who’ll actually take advantage of that ability will be quite limited, considering both the relative small userbase of lemmy as well as needing to meet the listed criteria as well.
If it did become an issue, I could always change the rules at a later point :D
Lemmy already has a big problem with people pushing their YouTube channels in your face at every opportunity
I think to avoid that, links to videos as the main content of the post will not be allowed. Instead, Video links could be constrained to the text body of the post only, and possibly even limited to providing additional instruction for Homemade/DIY items.
Love all the ideas. Was an avid subscriber on the platform I won’t name - and support them here.
One opinion though - and not a ride or die opinion - just a thought. What if you made tags to categorize certain options. #vintage for things that are old and outdated but may still be obtained.
So still allow it - just make sure it can be quantified and understood by readers/posters.
I’m not a fan of certain days - that just discourages participation - but tagging is a great option to allow posts at any time but allow others to filter.
Couple of tag ideas
- vintage for older items
- promotion for self promotion
- diy for posts that encourage instructional material
This way you don’t push off posters and allow a gentle path to posting and categorizing that will help others later on to filter and search. If I ever went to a sub-thing and saw a rule to not post until x day - I just ignored it and moved on to other communities.
Wise words, unfortunately tags without filters, which I’m unaware of in Lemmy currently, means some being exposed to unwanted content, albeit with the ability to quickly pass over. Still sets the groundwork, and if you’re passing it through a RSS reader you can use those filters…
I was thinking about posting my microwave a while back, but I think it’s in a grey area as far as bifl goes… It’s 40 years old (was built in sept 1983) and the company does still make that line of microwave, but I would think the components have probably changed through out the years so I don’t know if it would be a good fit.
Never been a fan of mega threads. I get they’re convenient for moderations sake, but I find participation is always lacking in them. Less people bother to interact with megathreads as the days go on.
It’s better than drowning in spam on one topic for days. So far the musk hate is the only wave like that that I’ve seen in fediverse, though.
They only show up IN the community. Not when you browsr all.
I only browse “all”
I’d like the limit the amount of posts of vintage or antique items that are no longer in production.
YES. Thank you. This is the kind of community I’ve been looking for.
Seconding this. I’n interested in stuff I can buy, not stuff I have to hunt for. Communitieslike this are great because we can help people skip hunting through the sea of crap.
If the advise is “hunt for this thing that stopped being made in 1962”, for ne that defeats the purpose.
Looking forward to this community and agree entirely with the proposed outline. Homemade/DIY would be HUGELY welcome for me. It’s often the best way when it comes to tools, for example woodworkers making jigs, workbenches, and wooden stuff that lasts longer than what I can buy online.
Curious, how’ll you draw the line at what is vintage but still available in the secondary market? There’ll definitely be some people pushing the envelope on this.
May I suggest a Make It For Life (MIFL) tag, for example, in sewing, somewhere along the line I picked up the idea to triple fold hems, so that the fraying end is sandwiched inside the hem, and resistant to washing, a little more fabric a bunch more life…
If your are willing to wait a bit… I am still looking into a community wiki for slrpnk.net and are experimenting with some options. But it will not happen by this month.
Oh cool! Making a list isn’t urgent, so I’d be happy to wait until you’ve got the wikii situated. Thanks for the heads up!
Sounds good to me! I like the idea that BIfL could also encompass “Build It for Life” on slrpnk
I think if this is allowed it really needs to be tagged and clearly labled. If I come here looking for a product chances are I’m not going to have the skills, tools, or time to make it myself.
