cross-posted from: https://programming.dev/post/24889
[Disclaimer: Lemmy newb here]
There are currently 3 Rust communities across 3 instances: programming.dev, lemmyrs.org and this one (lemmy.ml). I know it’s still very early for the migration from /r/rust, but it would split the community if there are so many options and nobody knows which is the “right” one. Currently this community has the most subscribers, but it would make sense if the Rust community finds its new home in one of the other instances.
- lemmyrs.org seems like the logical solution if instance-wide rules are paramount and “non-negotiable”
- personally I would love a programming-centric instance and programming.dev seems like a good way. Rust is not the only language I’m actively using (unfortunately :)). Maybe there can be community-specific rules that “enforce” the Rust CoC and the Rust community can find a home there?
Either way, the current situation has the most negative impact.
Thoughts?
My impression is that it is just someone who created a community for each language they could think of. But if programming.dev is a popular instance that is well managed, then sure. But for now, it seems that lemmyrs.org have more users and momentum.
EDIT: On a closer look, it turns out my first impression was quite wrong. programming.dev seem like a quite well managed place, so I do not have anything against using that as a base for rust if that is what the rust community chooses.
Hi! Creator of https://programming.dev here. I am actually the main mod of /r/experienceddevs and created the instance as a new home for all programming topics. One of the communities I was (am?) most excited about hosting is the Rust community. Along with that I really thought that having a general purpose instance that is easy to type is more ideal than several split communities.
People are more likely to participate if the website is easy to remember and type (e.g. reddit, twitter, facebook) compared to all of these very very hard to remember names (not that lemmyrs.org is hard to remember, but many of the other instances are, and I don’t think putting the name of the software in the url is a great idea, but that’s neither here nor there).
Finally, I have already put significant work into making sure that even if I no longer want to host or if something happens to me that the community can keep the site running without me! I have numerous admins, a github org, a chat community, we are working on improvements to the server to make it more stable (we rolled out cloudflare today), and hope to commit many upstream changes to lemmy to improve it.
Of course, if any community is going to choose to run their own instance I would expect it to be the Rust community, but also would hope that the community could look at my track record and moderation style and see that programming.dev would be a good instance for them to call home. I frequent the /r/rust sub, even though I am not a rust dev (I’ve built a few projects, but nothing good), I’ve always wished I was and I thought this was a good chance to finally become one.
Haha, I suppose you’re right about that one.
As I mentioned in later comments, my first impression was nothing more than a first impression. When I learned that it was not just some random person that threw up an instance but some respected mods I circled back and had a closer look. And at a closer look, I admit that my first impression was wrong, it seems like a quite well managed instance with great potential. I actually created an account that to evaluate that, to see where I finally will end up when the dust have settled. So thanks for your effort, and sorry for my poor first impressions. But it really doesn’t matter what I think, what matters is where the prominent rust front figures choose to hang out, I hope that will include one of the lemmy forums.
I completely understand! I don’t expect people to trust random strangers on the internet, so I was just commenting with information about me so that others would know what was up.
I completely agree. Thanks for responding back and I’m hopeful that the Rust community is able to create a new space that we’re able to participate in, wherever that may be.
Actually it’s the /r/experienceddevs subreddit mods who created that instance. I had never heard of the subreddit before though but they had a bit above 100k subscribers
I love(d?) that subreddit. Relatively good quality discussions compared to most of other programming subs on reddit.
I was wondering if this would self-resolve due to the fact that most people choosing which community to join will tend to choose the one with the most people, driving it even farther into the lead. And the other ones would eventually just be deleted…?
But the thing that will decide this is where the leaders and contributors to rust will choose to post their updates, and take their discussions. So, for now I guess lurkers and regular users will have to follow all and see where this will be.
I read your edit but I am still going to make the point: programming.dev has more users than lemmyrs.org at the time of writing this:
I suspect parent was talking about the number of subscribers to the Rust community on each server (currently 174 on P.D, 591 on lemmyrs). Which server people choose as the “home base” for their account so to speak is an interesting reflection of that server’s maturity/impact but not the major driver of community activity.
Ohh, I stand corrected!