Sorry if this seems like a silly question but I have noticed over the last few months my feed(?) has started to act odd.

No matter what I do I don’t see any posts from .world. I checked and mander does not seem to block .world (kinda why I liked this instance) and even weirder is how my feed gets filled with mostly .ml posts with almost no activity no matter how I sort.

This did not happen before and got me thinking, I don’t even know how this works across federated instances.

Does anyone know:

  • How does the sorting work on an instance? Is it all the same no matter what instance it is?

  • Did anything change in the last few months, that would cause all .world (and I assume others) posts to not show?

  • Other then changing instances what can I do to mitigate the weird slanted results?

  • j4k3@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    7 months ago

    The Lemmy algorithm:

    https://join-lemmy.org/docs/contributors/07-ranking-algo.html

    The instances communicate between each other using special bots in the background that transport info between instances. Dot world is too big and makes too many requests to other instances. Most instances are reducing the number of transport bots back to dot world right now. There is supposed to be a fix in the next Lemmy version, but the code base is somewhat slow moving due to only two devs and it is written in Rust. Rust is a hard language like C, and not too many here are able to contribute to it, even though it is like the new gold standard of code.

    So you might see a delay between posting and replies or the interaction may come in bursts that correspond with the transport bots carrying content between instances as the host admin have configured their instance.

    • gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      01·
      7 months ago

      I’m actually mildly surprised it’s still only two devs. Are they treating it like a walled garden, or is there really a complete lack of interest in contributing to the codebase?

      • nutomic@lemmy.mlEnglish
        1·
        6 months ago

        We are two fulltime developers and a handful of devs who regularly contribute in their free time. We could definitely use more devs but the donations are simply not enough.

      • Blaze@reddthat.comEnglish
        0·
        7 months ago

        Rust is a niche language

        It’s like starting a book club in Esperanto compared to English. Sure, Esperanto is supposedly a better language, but very few people know about it

        • gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
          01·
          6 months ago

          Rust is not a niche language. It’s a strict and strongly opinionated language by design. People with background in strongly typed languages, who additionally use opinionated linters and formatters have an easier time adjusting. JavaScript “devs” (note: distinct from “software engineers”) probably pull their hair out over a lot of stuff in because in my experience, many js devs know enough about the language to work proficiently in a couple of frameworks, but haven’t really dug into the nuances of the language, and also have limited experience with strong typing.