Is there a way to add other "Local" instances?
So, I joined Lemmy.world as it was the biggest instance.
Is there a way that does not include creating another two or three basically pointless accounts to view other instances in the "local" view.
For example: Say that I am Canadian, (I am not, but it works for this example) and I joined the lemmy.ca, but I also want to see what goes on at sh.itjust.works without having to subscribe to every single community in both.
Yes, sort of, in the Voyager app, but it’s awkward and unintuitive.
Pretend you’re going to create a new account or log into a different server through Voyager’s interface. Search up the server you want (sh.itjust.works in your example). Tap it so there’s a checkmark on its entry in the list, but instead of pressing the big blue Next button at the bottom, tap on the three dots in a circle icon in the upper right, and choose “Connect as Guest”.
Then it will be one of the account list entries and you can switch to it like you would switch to another account. Go to the community list from there and select Local. Now do a very awkward dance if you find a post that you want to interact with from your logged-in account. Best way to use this “feature” is probably just as community discovery to then subscribe from your account.
Huh, it's definitely unintuitive and a bit clunky, but at least I can read local news etc even if I can't comment
Same is possible in Thunder through Anonymous Instances but you also can't interact with the posts.
No, you can't even get a list of every community on another instance to subscribe to all of them.
This is something I would love to see added
At first I thought it would be as easy as making a search for the instance name and only show communities. But apparently the name of the instance doesn't play any role.
That's how I ended up with 3 accounts, each on an instance I was interested in.
Nope
Liftoff had this feature, where you could log into multiple instances at once and they would all appear in local. Too bad it hasn't worked since version 0.19 and has been abandoned. 😮💨
Nope. The best option you have is tapping on "All" if you want to view all instances' posts.
*With the notable detail that a user's instance only sees posts from communities that its users are already subscribed to. Some instances have bots that do this for a more comprehensive feed, but that's up to the admins.
You can get the RSS feed and check it in a feed reader, for example for Sh.itjust.works you can use the feed https://sh.itjust.works/feeds/local.xml?sort=Active .
I'm not aware of any Lemmy app having such a feature though.
Sweet!