SOLUTION: literally write out [exclamation mark]community@instance. Do not use the autocomplete function. This works in both the sidebar and comments.
Using the URL markdown method (to have the display text be different from the dynamic link) impacts other UIs.
If you enter this:
You get this:
The links in the screenshot above will work in a graceful manner irrespective of what instance (or even what UI/platform?) you use.
Original Text
What are the best practises for adding links to other communities in your sidebar?
I mod the LW hardware community and all the links are tied to LW.
So https://programming.dev/c/linuxhardware
is linked via https://lemmy.world/c/linuxhardware@programming.dev
But that would mean anyone not on LW would get a logged out view of LW accessing the programming.dev/linuxhardware community. I don't have a programming.dev account so I added an LW-specific URL.
Is there some sort of markdown code that would "auto redirect" the user to a view based on their instance without any use of explicit URLs. For a second I thought that's what the exclamation mark does, but turns out it's just a shortcut for adding community URLs.
I 100% agree regarding lemmy.ml (let alone hexbear and lemmygrad). One of the reasons I started https://lemmy.world/c/hardware was because I didn't want to contribute to an ML instance (!hardware@lemmy.ml). And to be honest considering it has 5K subs, it is pretty dead (the community on LW gets more "organic" engagement, i.e. not posted by me). !firefox@lemmy.ml isn't the only instance that's like that. There are many others. Hopefully they will eventually move to an non-ML instance (doesn't have to be LW).
Yes, there is no single guide source that offer both a hyper concise intro + FAQ and links to more in-depth guides for those who are looking for more detailed information. It is very difficult to navigate the functionality and overall structure of lemmy. And I say this as someone who is comfortable with technology, reading manuals and guides.
!fedigrow@lemm.ee seemed like a good place for both general discussions and troubleshooting, so I use it as a reference guide of sorts. But happy to cross-post to to !newtolemmy@lemmy.ca. Although to be honest, at this stage I do thing we need a single threadiverse. If/when the threadiverse gets to say 1+ million DAUs, it would make more sense to have multiple support communities both based on topics (noob support forum, mod support + platform growth) and regions.
A few people, like Blaze, are helping move whole entire communities off of Lemmy.ml, and also off of Lemmy.world (too much centralization likewise leads to problems).
e.g. I recall a recent conversation with a mod of an art community there and myself where we explored the idea that even they as a mod could get booted from the entire instance at the drop of a hat, perhaps over a simple misunderstanding, and then where would that leave their community, without mod support?
Or, even if it was merely a user getting kicked out ("first they came for..."), how an errant statement about e.g. China or Russia could then end up with them being deprived of the ability to either contribute or discuss content within that art community.
For the sake of preservation of the content, and of access by the users to it, it should not remain on the "political" lemmy.ml instance to be held hostage by having the "correct" political beliefs displayed 100% of the time by each member, with again those failing to comply being booted out (especially newer ones who do not yet know the rules to not criticize Russia or China - which are nowhere written down!? plus those could change at any time, and again not being written, how would people be informed of such a change?).
Many other things though, e.g. !memes@lemmy.ml, already have a counterpart outside of that instance. I don't view having multiple communities as a failure, especially compared to the situation of having only one, who due to an intolerant admin following unwritten rules, is not available to many people on the Fediverse.
Yes !fedigrow@lemm.ee is a great community for that purpose, though as you say there are many noob users not trying to grow a community but just to talk. Really it is the UI tools themselves that should be fixed to become less confusing - there's only so much that having a guide should be expected to compensate for, especially as the software keeps changing continually:-).