Sometimes it feels like the about pages/sidebars across the fediverse are underappreciated to the point of being underused, so I thought it might be nice to see what some most appreciate in those abouts/sidebars that are used.

For me personally? If it’s something kind of niche or obscure, or even something basic but kinda ambiguous, I dig a concise little description like “[blank] is a [genre/type] [band/game/tv show/etc.], [additional relevant info]”.

Although if it catches my interest enough I will just post and ask because how else might I figure out the secret arcana of the Deep Hobbies?

  • OtterEnglish
    8•1 year ago

    I’ve been experimenting with this for the communities I help with!

    See sidebars for some examples:

    I agree with the concise description, and I try to have that as the first thing in the sidebar. After that, I’m playing with the following, depending on how relevant each is:

    • A badge showing the total subscriber count, like this (click the badge for more info):
      • I swap out the community name and play with the colors for each one
    • Community rules, as concisely as possible
    • Other helpful tips, little starter tips, etc.

    I try to keep the sidebars clean and collapse as much info as I can. Here’s a guide to the markdown you can use.

    If there’s something in one of the community sidebars that you want to replicate, let me know and I’ll share the direct source :)

    • OtterEnglish
      2•1 year ago

      Say there was a community for Pandas being silly: [email protected]

      A community for images and clips of pandas being silly

      The giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca), sometimes called a panda bear or simply panda, is a bear species endemic to China. It is characterised by its bold black-and-white coat and rotund body. The name “giant panda” is sometimes used to distinguish it from the red panda, a neighboring musteloid. [source]

      Rules

      1. Content must involve a panda. Red pandas are ok!
      2. The panda must be doing something silly. Silliness is subjective, but aim for silliness
      3. Follow lemmy.example.com instance rules