You can now test the alternative Photon UI for Lemmy on:

https://photon.slrpnk.net

It’s one of the few alternative UIs for Lemmy that includes moderation features, so that makes it interesting as a replacement for the default Lemmy-UI.

Right now it is still early days and Photon is very actively developed, so don’t expect a perfectly polished experience. Once it stabilizes, there is a chance we will switch over to it as the main UI for Slrpnk though, as the current official Lemmy-UI is not very actively maintained any more with the main developer working on a re-write.

Update: Linked in the sidebar now. Will probably take a few more weeks/months before it can be used as a full replacement of the lemmy-ui though. Looking very nice overall though.

  • Charliebeans@slrpnk.netEnglish
    4·
    1 year ago

    Thank you so much! I’ve been using Photon for a while and was even wondering to ask if there are any plan to host it! Thanks for reading my mind 😅

    Photon dev creates new releases almost every day though, how often this instance will be updated?

    Also it would be good to have this link in instance description.

    • poVoq@slrpnk.netOPMEnglish
      5·
      1 year ago

      I am still testing it, but I configured it to auto-update the container, so it should check for new versions on a daily basis.

  • ProdigalFrog@slrpnk.netMEnglish
    4·
    1 year ago

    After messing around with it for 30 minutes, I think I can safely say I prefer Photon to the default UI. I especially like the addition of being able to moderate posts without having to actually go to that post’s page first.

    The only thing I miss from the old UI are the themes, as I find the dark theme to be a bit too dark, and a bit lacking when it comes to distinguishing separations between UI elements, since everything is the same color. But I’m sure more themes will come in time.

    Really enjoying seeing how nicely the lemmy ecosystem is growing and becoming more polished. with the new Eternity app for lemmy and now Photon, I lack for nothing.

    Thanks for setting up the Photon trial, poVoq!

  • Track_Shovel@slrpnk.netEnglish
    3·
    1 year ago

    I really like that layout. The one we’ve got now is good, but some of the things, like ellipses leave me wanting.

  • Treevan 🇦🇺@aussie.zoneEnglish
    2·
    1 year ago

    I’ve been using your Photon link as a local browser for slrpnk.net when I’m sitting at the desktop (so I can test it out).

    It’s my choice out of the 2 (photon/alexandrite) but that doesn’t take away from alex, choice is the spice of life. I do like old for the nostalgia but being able to read into the posts a little bit on photon is a bonus.

    If @Xylight@lemmy.world is still into developing then all the better. Some of my apps that I was trialling have gone dead, same as our instance, same as my love for posting news so if Xylight is keen, good on them! Keep it up!

      • poVoq@slrpnk.netOPMEnglish
        1·
        11 months ago

        Do I understand the changelog correctly that you added an automatic login cookie migration for using Photon as a drop-in replacement for Lemmy-ui recently?

        • Xylight (photon dev)@lemmy.worldEnglish
          1·
          8 months ago

          Yea if you’re logged in to lemmy-ui and then photon is put on the domain of lemmy-ui then it will see the leftover cookie and create a photon account

          you have to enable it manually, though

  • j_roby@slrpnk.netEnglish
    2·
    1 year ago

    I somehow missed this post.

    I’ve tried both Photon and Alexandrite for a little bit now. I didn’t like Alexandrite at all tbh…

    Photon feels nice and smooth and I like the customizations that are available, but it lacks a few features of the original UI that I really like. I could probably get used to using it tho if needed.

    As buggy as it can be, I’ll probably stick with the original UI for now and give Photon another shot at a later date.

      • j_roby@slrpnk.netEnglish
        2·
        1 year ago

        Oh hi there dev!

        I could probably get used to using it tho if needed.

        I hope that didn’t come off as offensive in any way! I’m just stubborn and slow to change habits once I form them.

        As far as the features, they’re trivial in the long run and more of my personal preferences. But I do like being able to see the individual upvote and downvote totals separately. And for posts with a text body, I really like the original UI’s button to view the text/body without having to open the whole post or leave my feed. The rest is just me needing to not be so stubborn and getting used to using a new UI.

        I will say tho, the original UI search functions are probably the most buggy, and yours seems to have fixed that entirely. Overall it definitely feels much smoother and faster than the original UI. So, thanks for putting in the work!

        Edit: I should probably add that I use Lemmy exclusively on my mobile device, if that’s of any help.