Some years ago we used to post weekly development updates to let the community know what we are working on. For some reason we stopped posting these updates, but now we want to continue giving you information every two weeks about the recent development progress. This should allow average users to keep up with development, without reading Github comments or knowing how to program.

We’ve been working towards a v0.19.0 release of Lemmy, which will include several breaking API changes. Once this is ready, we’ll post the these changes in dev spaces, and give app developers several weeks to support the new changes.

This week @nutomic finished implementing the block instance feature for users. It allows users to block entire instances, so that all communities from those instances will be hidden on the frontpage. Posts or comments from users of blocked instances in other communities are unaffected. He also reworked the 2-Factor-Authentication implementation, with a two-step process to enable 2FA which prevents locking yourself out. Additionally he is reworking the API authentication to be more ergonomic by using headers and cookies. Finally he is adding a feature for users to import/export community follows, bocklists and profile settings.

@dessalines is currently implementing a redesign of the join-lemmy.org website. He is also keeping the lemmy-js-client updated with the latest backend changes 1 2 3.

@phiresky optimized the way pagination is implemented. He is also fixing problems with federation workers which are causing test failures and performance problems in the development branch. These problems were introduced during a complex rewrite of the federation queue which was recently finished, and is thought to allow Lemmy federation to scale to the size of Reddit.

@SleeplessOne1917 is implementing remote follow functionality, which makes it easy to follow communities from your home instance while browsing other instances. He is also fixing problems with the way deleted and removed comments are handled .

@codyro and @ticoombs have been making improvements to lemmy-ansible, including externalizing the pict-rs configuration, adding support for AlmaLinux/RHEL, cleaning up the configuration, as well as versioning the deploys. These will make deploying and installing Lemmy much easier.

Support development

@dessalines and @nutomic are working full-time on Lemmy to integrate community contributions, fix bugs, optimize performance and much more. This work is funded exclusively through donations.

If you like using Lemmy, and want to make sure that we will always be available to work full time building it, consider donating to support its development. Recurring donations are ideal because they allow for long-term planning. But also one-time donations of any amount help us.

    • Zeth0s@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      I would say that that’s is what you want. We don’t have a survey on user intentions.

      I for instance would like to block furry instances, as an example, but I have nothing against their users. I don’t care if someone is into furry, I simply don’t want to see it myself

      • notabot@lemm.ee
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        10 months ago

        Just adding another voice agreeing that I just want to block instance posts, not comments from their users.

        If people really don’t want to see anything from an instance then they should join an instance that is bit federated with the one in question.

        If blocking all users from an instance does get implemented I believe it should be separate to blocking posts as they’re very different use cases.

      • Coelacanth@feddit.nu
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        10 months ago

        Completely agree. I can think of many examples of an instance whose content I don’t want on my frontpage (foreign language instances for example) but whose users I still want to interact with in communities on other instances.

    • Anony Moose@lemmy.ca
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      10 months ago

      Strongly disagree. I want to block certain instances from my feed to remove posts I’m not interested in (eg NSFW, repost bots), but I have nothing against the users.

      If users are blocked too, please add that behind a setting toggle.

      • ladfrombrad 🇬🇧@lemdro.id
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        10 months ago

        but I have nothing against the users.

        Absolutely, and in 12+ years of using reddit the only accounts funnily enough I’ve had to block are admin accounts, and I liken the above to users from other subreddits being able to able to interact in other subs until they either

        • get banned by the sub /c/ mods

        • individual users using the block function

        Tarring users from instances is like using that SaferBot bullshit which I’ve never liked.

        • Anony Moose@lemmy.ca
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          10 months ago

          Funnily enough, I block very liberally.

          I find that having the option to block by keywords, instances, communities and users let’s me curate my feed exactly as I want. What I wouldn’t want is for the blocks to be too broad of a brush (like in the users of instances example), which would lead to missing out on valuable conversations.

          • ladfrombrad 🇬🇧@lemdro.id
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            10 months ago

            Exactly, and the way it work(ed) on reddit was a non-plus from the start, especially if you modded moderately large subs hence me never blocking anyone other than those annoying accounts.

            The art of ignoring is key ;)

    • poVoq@slrpnk.net
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      10 months ago

      Both is kind of useful, but making the distinction UI wise is not an easy task.

      • Die4Ever@programming.dev
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        10 months ago

        I guess

        “Block communities of abc.xyz”

        vs

        “Block users of abc.xyz”

        I also think both options would be useful

        • MBM@lemmings.world
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          9 months ago

          Similar options for defederating would also be nice, like “disallow users from this instance from posting/commenting in your communities” vs “do not fetch communities from this instance”. There may be some higher-priority things though.

    • WarmSoda@lemm.ee
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      10 months ago

      You can join an instance that has defederated and it’ll be exactly what you’re looking for.

      • Rentlar@lemmy.ca
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        10 months ago

        I agree with this. Instance blocking should be for that instance’s content. If you are opposed to that instance’s users’ ideology then pick servers that match what you want.