What does the /c/ at the beginning of a community mean?

Most communities that I see have very straightforward names like 'asklemmy'. I have also seen '/c/showethoughts'. What does the '/c/' mean here?

4 points · 14 comments · view on lemmy.world

14 Comments

twistedtxb@lemmy.world · 11 pts · 3y (9 replies)

c for "community"

mosthated@lemmy.ml · 2 pts · 3y (8 replies)

Okay, but this is not a standard then, right? Also, it is just naming, and does not actually add any options/functions, correct?

thegiddystitcher@beehaw.org · 3 pts · 3y (6 replies)

It's a part of all community URLs. Including asklemmy.

mosthated@lemmy.ml · 1 pts · 3y (5 replies)

Okay, but then I still don't get why the '/c/' part is only showing for /c/showerthoughts (see screenshot).

RadDevon@lemmy.ml · 7 pts · 3y (4 replies)

I'm guessing the user who created "/c/showerthoughts" named it "/c/showerthoughts". You're seeing the community names, and that one is named the same as the URL.

mosthated@lemmy.ml · 5 pts · 3y (3 replies)

I see. So the '/c/' is an unnecessary prefix here, potentially added in error.

RadDevon@lemmy.ml · 6 pts · 3y (2 replies)

Unnecessary, yes. In error, maybe or maybe not. Some people just may not want to come up with a name apart from the URL and decide to use the URL fragment as the name.

mosthated@lemmy.ml · 5 pts · 3y

Thanks. I understand what threw me off now.

lodion@aussie.zone · 1 pts · 3y

Differentiates the URI from "u" for user/

ElGatoEsBlanco@labdegato.com · 4 pts · 3y

It means community, like how on reddit it was /r/ for subReddit

mrmanager@lemmy.today · 2 pts · 3y

I want to joke about the C word.