Sublinks.link - Lemmy redirect service

This service is used for linking to Lemmy communities, users, posts etc. in a universal way. When you use this service, you give your users the option to view a community or a user profile on their preferred instance instead of going through a complicated process just to interact with the link.

How it works without this service:

  1. You link to a community (user, post), let's say wwdits@lemmings.world, using a link: https://lemmings.world/c/wwdits
  2. After the user clicks it, one of two things happens:
    1. They have an account on the same instance which means everything is fine and the link works, you're done.
    2. The user doesn't have an account on the same instance, so the process gets more complicated.
  3. The user has to open their own instance.
  4. The user has to copy the link.
  5. The user has to paste the link into a search bar on their own instance.
  6. The user has to click the link in search results.

How it works with this service:

  1. You link to the same community like this: https://sublinks.link/c/wwdits@lemmings.world
  2. After the user clicks it, one of two things happens:
    1. If this isn't the first time the user is here, they will be redirected to their preferred instance.
    2. If this is the first time, the user is given the option to either set their own instance or to continue to the target instance.
  3. Done! Either way the user is on an instance, either one of their choice or on the one the community is hosted on if the user doesn't care.