I had noticed that some cross-posted posts showed a different style of link for those cross-posts: some show it as a link under the title and header of the post but above the body, and some show the link (usually) in the body of the post. In addition, the cross-post links above the body are relative links (open in my home instance), but the ones inside the body are hard links (open in the source community’s home instance). Lastly, the links inside the body show only on one of the cross-posts, but the ones outside the body show on both cross-posts.
At first I thought that the second style, the one in the body that’s hard-linked and only on one of the posts, was due to the poster manually adding that link. However, over time I realized that that was not the case because it looked too consistent across different users.
I searched for a mention of this in this community and found this post about it: https://lemmy.zip/post/8016049 - unfortunately, there’s either something I’m still missing or that the explanation is missing.
Here’s an example post I happened to find that is linking to an external article’s URL, but has both styles of cross-post link. It’s a post linking to an article URL too: https://sh.itjust.works/post/64304718
Does anyone know how or why the two different styles of cross-post link get created?
Edit: I’m going to consider this solved. Here’s what I think is the likely solution based on all the comments and examples so far.
It appears that the dynamic, outer cross-post links (outside the body, under the title and post controls) get generated by the Lemmy server and that it seems to require that the OP have a URL that it links to in the title. Lemmy seems to use that URL to identify cross-posts. The hard-coded cross-post link inside the body seems to be generated by some client(s) or front-end(s). I asked someone who had a post containing one what they used and they said Alexandrite, so that may be one of the possible sources of this.
Thanks everyone.
Lastly, the links inside the body show only on one of the cross-posts, but the ones outside the body show on both cross-posts.
The outer list is automatically generated and every post to that link will appear in this list, even years later. Its pretty cool, but nothing new, we had that back in Reddit too. When Reddit existed. The post content is just a link added once. When I do a crosspost, then the content of the original post is added automatically too. This is only one source where the original post was shared from, and will not automatically update (unlike the above outer list). I assume it depends on the software they are using, when generating the crosspost. The post body is managed by the user and the app they are using to generate the content, which is a normal link to the web like any other. The above list is managed by the Lemmy system and out of our control. So it can do the optimized linking with short style automatically.
Thanks, that makes sense. I had been starting to reach this conclusion as well (outer list being generated by the Lemmy server and link in body being generated by the client). It also appears that the server-generated list requires that the original post link to an external “article” to cross-reference. I’ve edited my post to say I consider it solved.
This is actually one of the reasons why I don’t like the way some do their posts (I don’t mean cross-post, but normal post). Instead a link to the article or whatever they are linking, an image is uploaded, and they link to the main article in the body text. This will prevent the Lemmy system from automatically connecting all articles. So it does not matter if the post is shared with cross-post or created from scratch, if they link to an article with the same address, then the Lemmy system will recognize the same article and connect them in the outer list, across all Communities. I really love this feature!
I’m glad this helped in understanding. And also thanks for updating the post.
Yes, that is frustrating that the way some people post prevents the cross-linking from working. I wonder if they don’t know that it has that effect.
Thanks again, and you’re welcome.
It is likely different apps place cross post links differently.
This is what I’m suspecting too. I asked the person who posted this one: https://mander.xyz/post/55967082 and they said that they had used Alexandrite.
This is what it looks like using Mlem. https://slrpnk.net/post/39200275
Thanks for the additional example to analyze. It has no article URL but has both styles of cross-post links. This is a bit maddening.
Both links probably go to the same place. The difference being one link is directly to the post (which is hosted on the OP’s home instance, not the community’s) and the other link is in your own instance
Thanks, but unless I’m misunderstanding what you’re saying, I don’t think that’s the case. The one on top seems to be a relative link (meaning it links to anyone’s local instance) and the one on the bottom is a hard link. It would be fine if it was just that, but the problem is that most cross-posts don’t show both, and also the second one only shows on the new cross-post and not on the original post. The whole thing is unpredictable and confusing, and I’m a techie. I can only imagine how much it confuses non-techies.
the sh.itjust.works link is just the body text of the post, it’s not really part of Lemmy’s UI
Lemmy does fill it in automatically when you start a crosspost and there is body text, but it’s just plain text
it’s useful if your instance isn’t able to find the crosspost automatically, but the automatic links are easier when they do exist like in your screenshot
The whole thing is unpredictable and confusing
I’m not gonna disagree on this lol
Thanks. I think what you mentioned about Lemmy being able to find the cross-post automatically may be close to the explanation for why this happens.
I would just like to know what to expect and why. I cross-posted something a couple of days ago and it did not show or give me the option to show the hard-link in the body: https://lemmy.ca/post/68531648
That’s because the original post did not have body text only a link
In my experience, every crosspost should have the link on the top. That’s the actual crosspost link. The one in the body of the text is kinda a bonus one that can be deleted according to the poster’s preference. But you’re right, the one in the body is also a hard link (goes to home instance of post) while the one in the top is a relative link (goes to your home instance). So I guess if your instance doesn’t federate the community that the crosspost was originally from, then the top link might not show up? I don’t remember encountering that but I guess I wouldn’t necessarily have noticed.
Can you provide an example of a crosspost that doesn’t show the link in the top part?
Can you provide an example of a crosspost that doesn’t show the link in the top part?
Thanks for your response and I’m glad you asked this. Yes, I can: https://mander.xyz/post/55967082
That’s the thing, I’ve usually seen one style or the other. The post in the screenshot (linked in the OP) is the first time I’ve seen both. Notice if you follow the cross-post link on the one I linked on this comment, it doesn’t have any cross-post link back.
I’m just trying to figure out the pattern here, so I know what to expect and why.
Ok, I’m stumped on that one. Usually it works like I explained but I don’t know what happened there.
No problem, thanks for trying! I don’t know either.
That post does not have a link, the URL is how Lemmy connects the posts together, it just finds posts that are pointing to the same URL
Thank you. So you’re saying that the cross-post link that shows at the top, under the title and header, is cross-referenced by the destination article URL. That makes sense. But how about the hard-link in the body? What creates that, and under what circumstances? Going by what you said, I would think that it would be generated if someone cross-posted a post that did not link to an external URL, but then then that wouldn’t explain the one I linked in the OP, which has an article URL but has both styles of cross-post links.
the hard link in the body text is generated when there is body text in the original post
But the original post in the screenshot in the OP has no body text and yet has the hard-link in the body? Thanks for trying to help me understand, but I’m still not seeing the pattern.
