this post was submitted on 20 Sep 2023
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Buy it for Life

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A place to share practical, durable and quality made products that are made to last, with an emphasis on upcycled and sustainable products!

Guidelines:

Things that are well-made and durable (even if they won't last a lifetime) are A-Okay!

Unlike that other BIFL place, Home-made and DIY items are encouraged here, as long as some form of instruction is included in the body of the post.

Videos links are not allowed as post titles, but you may use them in a text post.

A limited amount of self-promotion is accepted, IF the item you are selling aligns with this criteria:

  1. The item must be made with sustainable or recycled materials.
  2. If electronic in some way, the item must be open-source.
  3. The item must be user-serviceable (if applicable).
  4. You cannot be a large corporation.
  5. The post must be clearly marked with a [Self Promotion] tag in your title.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

Heyo everyone, hope you're all doing well.

I haven't had a lot of time to focus on getting the rules and sidebar set up for this place, but hopefully I should be able to tackle that in the next few days.

Before I did, I wanted your opinions on a few things, as I plan on diverging from the original Reddit BIFL community slightly:

  1. I'd like the limit the amount of posts of vintage or antique items that are no longer in production. I think the real value of the BIFL community initially was as a resource to find high value, long lasting items that are easily obtained.

However, there is some value in older items that can be found used on eBay, so I think a good compromise (which was suggested in the Introduction thread) would be a weekly or monthly vintage/antique mega thread that people can post in. Are you guys into that?

  1. Since this is a solarpunk instance, Homemade stuff (which is not allowed on r/BIFL) is encouraged here, as long as instructions on how to make the item are included (text or video).

  2. I'm thinking about letting a limited amount of self-promotion occur here. I believe self-promotion wasn't allowed on reddit due to them wanting people to purchase ad-space on the site. But since lemmy isn't commercialized, I think it'd be okay to allow a bit of it, but with certain stipulations:

The item being promoted would have to be inline with solarpunk ideals. I.E, using reclaimed/recycled materials, be open-source, hackable, user-serviceable, etc. (Open to other suggestions for criteria).

That's just an idea though.

  1. I think it'd be pretty neat to compile a list of all the stuff posted here that's easily searchable in categories. I plan on using a simple Gitlab Readme page, since that's something I'm familiar with, but I'm not sure if that's the best option. I haven't actually contributed to wiki's before, so I didn't really look into that. I would like to self-host something eventually (inspired by reading stuff in the selfhost community here), but I'm not currently in a position to reliably do that, so for now I'm just looking at stuff that will host the list for free.

I guess that's all I had in mind so far. Let me know what you guys think, and any other ideas you have that could make this community better!

Cheers, ProdigalFrog

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I love all the ideas for the community, especially the inclusion of handmade or modified items. Vintage item megathred will be especially good on lemmy since users can post images in the comments.

The only thing im iffy about is self promotion/advertising-- maybe it could be limited certain day of the week or something? I like the other stipulations you listed for self promotion.

Thanks for taking over the comminity! Im looking forward to it becomming more active :)

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Or maybe weekly self promotion mega thread?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Yeah! I think that would work well. It would keep things from getting spammy and make it easy for unintested people to skip over

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago (2 children)

If self promotion is allowed I think it needs to be tagged as such.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

That seems like a solid suggestion

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

Agreed, any self promotion would be required to be clearly marked.

[–] Vamanos 9 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Love all the ideas. Was an avid subscriber on the platform I won’t name - and support them here.

One opinion though - and not a ride or die opinion - just a thought. What if you made tags to categorize certain options. #vintage for things that are old and outdated but may still be obtained.

So still allow it - just make sure it can be quantified and understood by readers/posters.

I’m not a fan of certain days - that just discourages participation - but tagging is a great option to allow posts at any time but allow others to filter.

Couple of tag ideas

  • vintage for older items
  • promotion for self promotion
  • diy for posts that encourage instructional material

This way you don’t push off posters and allow a gentle path to posting and categorizing that will help others later on to filter and search. If I ever went to a sub-thing and saw a rule to not post until x day - I just ignored it and moved on to other communities.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Wise words, unfortunately tags without filters, which I'm unaware of in Lemmy currently, means some being exposed to unwanted content, albeit with the ability to quickly pass over. Still sets the groundwork, and if you're passing it through a RSS reader you can use those filters...

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago

This all sounds great. Thank you for taking the helm on this c/ and keeping it going!

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (2 children)

All the ideas are great, save for the allowing self promotion/videos bit

Lemmy already has a big problem with people pushing their YouTube channels in your face at every opportunity

Dear god the thumbnails 🤢

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Agreed on skipping self promotion videos but you might be conflating tutorials on DIY BIFL and promotion of products 'inline with solarpunk ideals', both of which I'm down for given a subdued tone for the promotion, good moderation required!, and videos only if direly needed for a comprehensive explanation.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Agree with that 👍

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Regarding self promotion; I was thinking more along the lines of if someone was making high quality handmade items, they could mention their etsy page/web store or some such. I suspect the amount of people who'll actually take advantage of that ability will be quite limited, considering both the relative small userbase of lemmy as well as needing to meet the listed criteria as well.

If it did become an issue, I could always change the rules at a later point :D

Lemmy already has a big problem with people pushing their YouTube channels in your face at every opportunity

I think to avoid that, links to videos as the main content of the post will not be allowed. Instead, Video links could be constrained to the text body of the post only, and possibly even limited to providing additional instruction for Homemade/DIY items.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

I was thinking about posting my microwave a while back, but I think it's in a grey area as far as bifl goes... It's 40 years old (was built in sept 1983) and the company does still make that line of microwave, but I would think the components have probably changed through out the years so I don't know if it would be a good fit.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Never been a fan of mega threads. I get they're convenient for moderations sake, but I find participation is always lacking in them. Less people bother to interact with megathreads as the days go on.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

It's better than drowning in spam on one topic for days. So far the musk hate is the only wave like that that I've seen in fediverse, though.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

They only show up IN the community. Not when you browsr all.

I only browse "all"

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Curious, how'll you draw the line at what is vintage but still available in the secondary market? There'll definitely be some people pushing the envelope on this.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Looking forward to this community and agree entirely with the proposed outline. Homemade/DIY would be HUGELY welcome for me. It's often the best way when it comes to tools, for example woodworkers making jigs, workbenches, and wooden stuff that lasts longer than what I can buy online.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

If your are willing to wait a bit... I am still looking into a community wiki for slrpnk.net and are experimenting with some options. But it will not happen by this month.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Oh cool! Making a list isn't urgent, so I'd be happy to wait until you've got the wikii situated. Thanks for the heads up!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

May I suggest a Make It For Life (MIFL) tag, for example, in sewing, somewhere along the line I picked up the idea to triple fold hems, so that the fraying end is sandwiched inside the hem, and resistant to washing, a little more fabric a bunch more life...

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Sounds good to me! I like the idea that BIfL could also encompass "Build It for Life" on slrpnk

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

I think if this is allowed it really needs to be tagged and clearly labled. If I come here looking for a product chances are I'm not going to have the skills, tools, or time to make it myself.