Disclaimer: I'm not an instance admin, just a user. I hope it's okay to post here.

Problem

I had several photos which wouldn't post for some reason. After poking around a bit, I found out that my home server has an upload size limit of 5 MB.

Now, an upload size limit is perfectly reasonable. Storage is expensive, and Lemmy is primarily designed for link aggregation and discussion, not file hosting.

However, the way Lemmy currently behaves when it encounters a large file is not ideal, and varies depending on the app/UI.

At best, you get a cryptic error message like {"data":{"msg":"Exceeded maximum dimensions","files":null},"state":"success"} or {"data":{"files":null,"msg":"Too many pixels"},"state":"success"}, and at worst, your webpage/app stalls for an indefinite amount of time.

Solution?

Obviously, it would be prudent to improve the comprehensibility of the error messages, but if there were a way to automatically compress large images to below the size limit, that would eliminate the error messages in the first place.

I believe most instances use Pict-rs to host images, is that correct?

I came across these discussion threads in the Lemmy and Pict-rs source code repositories:

• Allow resize to be set in config to reduce max image size, pictrs does support this #2416
• Support pre-processing uploaded media #3
• support resizing to a maximum area #6

Has anyone implemented automatic image compression on their Lemmy instance? If so, would they be willing to share their methods with other instance admins?

This feature would make things smoother for users, especially for new users who might not be aware of the upload size limit and just think "Lemmy doesn't work, I guess I'll go back to Reddit".

Original static webpage version: https://what-if.xkcd.com/25/

Share your favourite Lemmy enhancement tools in the thread below!

Perhaps we can compile a list for new users.

https://old.reddit.com/r/LemmyMigration

I've come across someone from India who is looking for an instance recommendation, and I'm not sure what to recommend. Any suggestions?

Blaze's US/EU recommendations are a good rule of thumb, but I think It might be useful to compile a more detailed list of country recommendations, or at least one for each continent.

A redditor is looking for Reddit alternatives for the following subjects:

• Pop culture/fandom discussions and recommendations (Ex: Avatar: TLA, Star Wars, Star Trek, Mass Effect, Ghibli, Muppets etc.)
• Any and all subjects involving history.
• Alternate history discussions
• Movie, tv, anime, books, comic, video game, and theatre recommendations
• Discussions and news with fellow ABCDesis
• Worldbuilding and in-depth discussions about pop culture franchises (Ex: Mawinstallation, Daystrominstitute, Templin Institute etc.)
• Specualtion on what the future might look like.

r/Lemmy has a single moderator, u/MarcellusDrum.

r/RedditAlternatives has a few:

• u/ryan_II
• u/RedditWater7
• u/RedditLiquid8
• u/Madbrad200
• u/Dukkani
• u/Zakku_Rakusihi

Are any of them active on Lemmy? These subreddits are proving to be key spaces for onboarding new users to Lemmy. Might it be prudent to establish good relationships with these people?

None of them seem to be particularly active in the above communities. It would be nice if they could swap out some of the pinned threads, many of which contain outdated information.

Original static webpage version: https://what-if.xkcd.com/94/

Best explanation wins no prize, but could be used as a template when Discord is suggested as an alternative on Reddit.

!hydrogen@fedia.io

Original static webpage version: https://what-if.xkcd.com/124/