Lemmy Today

I use alexandrite to switch between different lemmy instances and change the default post layout to card style. When I first started using lemmy, the I found the difference between the reddit and lemmy in the post feed to be jarring as I was used to a card style layout.

I find on a desktop browser, I prefer to be able to see images without opening a thread. I initially used kbin.social exclusively for this feature but disliked the way their sorting algorithms are setup. Having the ability to easily switch instances is also a nice feature particularly for new users who are unsure what lemmy instance they want to use.

I'm the dev of Alexandrite, a desktop-first alternative Lemmy web UI. If you missed it, here's my announcement.

alexandrite.app - !alexandrite@lemmy.world - Github

I've been working on a load of stuff lately and I wanted to post an update on all the things I've added since the first announcement.

There's a new feed layout! Now when scrolling on a feed of posts, in addition to the old overlay view, you can now view a post side-by-side with the post list, which makes it easier to casually look through posts. By default it will pick the best layout for your screen size, but you can force it to use either the column or the overlay layout in the settings.

I've added some basic theming! All of the purple colors in text/borders/backgrounds you see on Alexandrite are based on the same hue, now you can completely change the look of the site with a slider in the settings. Here are some examples:

You can now block/unblock communities, as well as block communities directly from post lists!

You can now choose if NSFW thumbnails are either: hidden (unless you click it), blurred, or always shown.

Markdown formatting is much better. Most things are supported now, and Alexandrite will automatically detect links to users/communities/posts and change their URLs to their page on Alexandrite, making it easier to browse.

All of the Lemmy API calls are now client side, previously it would be proxied through Alexandrite's server, but that has been removed, so now nothing is sent to Alexandrite's servers. This should make it easier to self host, but I haven't yet explored that.

That's all the big important things. Lots of bug fixing behind the scenes too. Hope you like it!

Website, community, Github

I've been working on an alternative web UI for Lemmy for a couple weeks now and it's got enough features I wanted to share it. I love that somehow people have found it despite me never having posted online about it until now (until a couple days ago it was called sx-lemmy, sx being an abbreviation of my username) so you might have seen it in a list already.

Alexandrite is a (for the moment) desktop-first Lemmy interface, I primarily use Lemmy on my computer and I wanted a more convenient way to view posts and comments without juggling tabs or losing my place in the feed (with infinite scrolling). It's still very much in beta, and I have a lot of work to do still, but it's got most of the basic features.

You can view a post and comments in an overlay without losing where you scrolled to:

A non-exhaustive list of things you can do:

• view home/community/user/communities feeds
• post/comment
• subscribe to communities
• vote
• save posts
• search
• inbox stuff

Noteworthy missing features:

• reporting
• blocking users/communities
• mod tools
• image uploading
• automatic linkifying of urls/communities/users in comments/posts

For those who care, it's all Sveltekit which is a dream to work with. Alexandrite is the name of the kind of gem in my wife's wedding ring, it looks cool and changes color in the light.