While typing the title i found some existing posts, but they don’t really answer the question as well as I’d like.
The typical recommendation is to use some external web page that is not actually a lemmy instance.
This means if I’m using lemmy from within an app I have to pop into a web browser, find what I’m after copy anything needed to clipboard and pop back into the app ready to paste / re-format / search.
This sounds really not streamlined.
Other solution is to have a couple of accounts and flip between them and search each home instance for what I’m after.
I’m not sure I’m clear on what I’m asking so i’ll give an example…
I’m on lemmy.world, there is a community on lemmy.radio/c/amateur_radio Let’s assume i don’t know this however.
a) How would i find this while logged into the lemmy.world website? b) How would i find this while logged into the lemmy.world via an app?
If this functionality does not exist that’s fine, but all I’ve heard about federation makes me think it does exist and i haven’t found it or don’t understand it (hence why i think I’m asking a dumb question).
Is there a foolproof legitimate way to browse or search a list of communities on another instance without going to that instance or using a third party site?
That’s currently a pain point for lemmy in general. AFAIK, that’s the standard way for community discovery at present.
I maintain a Lemmy UI called Tesseract, and I’ve built in a community browser that eliminates most of those steps. You still have to know what instance hosts the community you want, but it’s as simple as typing the instance, clicking into the community, and subscribing. You can also search/browse the communities of any Lemmy instance you interact with.
It’s on my roadmap to use the data exports from Lemmy Explorer and integrate that into the UI itself. Then finding/subscribing can be a 1-click affair.
Thank you for your work!