This site is currently struggling to handle the amount of new users. I have already upgraded the server, but it will go down regardless if half of Reddit tries to join.

However Lemmy is federated software, meaning you can interact seamlessly with communities on other instances like beehaw.org or lemmy.one. The documentation explains in more detail how this works. Use the instance list to find one where you can register. Then use the Community Browser to find interesting communities. Paste the community url into the search field to follow it.

You can help other Reddit refugees by inviting them to the same Lemmy instance where you joined. This way we can spread the load across many different servers. And users with similar interests will end up together on the same instances. Others on the same instance can also automatically see posts from all the communities that you follow.

Edit: If you moderate a large subreddit, do not link your users directly to lemmy.ml in your announcements. That way the server will only go down sooner.

  • Slashzero@lemmy.mlEnglish
    19·
    2 years ago

    First post for me!

    Sorry, I applied and got approved here. Still waiting to hear back from beehaw…

    I’m really digging this UI compared to Reddit, but I am 99.9% a mobile user via the native Reddit app (don’t @ me!)

    I am very tempted to setup my own instance. Wondering what resource usage looks like for an instance.

    • pefak@lemmy.mlEnglish
      4·
      2 years ago

      Yeah, I think I have two accounts (I registrated in a community and then came here and had to create another one because I couldn’t log in). It’s kind of confusing for people who are not as tech savy as myself.

      • Slashzero@lemmy.mlEnglish
        7·
        2 years ago

        Well, my understanding is your user exists on whatever instance you signed up on. You could technically create users on every single instance, but that is not necessary. You only need one user to exist somewhere, and then you can subscribe to, and post to communities on other instances.

        For example: from lemmy.ml, if you search for !gaming@beehaw.org you can then open the sidebar and subscribe to, and post to, the gaming community on beehaw.org with your lemmy.ml user.

        [email protected] is not the same community as [email protected]

        • StoicLime@lemmy.mlEnglish
          6·
          2 years ago

          An easy way to understand this is that instances are like email providers. You can sign up on Gmail, but still email someone using Outlook or something else.

  • rusty_spoon@lemmy.mlEnglish
    19·
    2 years ago

    I applied for a few other instances but this one came through first. Your downfall is being too good compared to the competition.

  • zouhair@lemmy.mlEnglish
    18·
    2 years ago

    This is one of the biggest hurdles to get into Lemmy. I consider myself quite tech savvy but I am at a stage of my life that I cannot read hundreds of page of documentation just to use a forum.

    There need to be a way to seamlessly move people from instance to another without them having to do it themselves or at the least a way way shorter documentation that goes to the point in one page.

    • Slashzero@lemmy.mlEnglish
      4·
      2 years ago

      I’ve only been here a day or so, but having to search for the community doesn’t seem that bad? It’s almost exactly like searching for a subreddit to join.

      /r/subreddit turns into !community@address, like [email protected]

      And once you are on that community you can open the sidebar and subscribe (join in Reddit terms).

  • radarsat1@lemmy.mlEnglish
    16·
    2 years ago

    I would be happy to use another instance but my account is on this one. Is there a way to migrate an account, or perhaps “link” accounts on multiple instances somehow?

    • TrippyTortuga@lemmy.mlEnglish
      8·
      2 years ago

      AFAICT no. There is an open issue on the Lemmy GitHub repo. In general, all ActivityPub services I’ve used have this same account stratification problem.

    • Einar@lemmy.mlEnglish
      1·
      2 years ago

      I think this is key. Have the possibility to move an account to another instance or have it spread out somehow. This would also secure the account in case an instance dies for some reason.

    • Nick Cocklin@masto.ai
      1·
      2 years ago

      @radarsat1 @nutomic I’m still working this out myself, but you can browse Lemmy on any account, and then comment from your mastodon account by searching the commenter (@radarsat1 in the search field did it for me), and then replying to them on mastodon. Pretty cool how it’s linked, plenty of opportunities to build apps that make interacting between servers easier.

    • pingveno@lemmy.mlEnglish
      11·
      2 years ago

      I would appreciate this as well. Besides the flood of users issue, this server’s theme (Marxist-Leninist) doesn’t mesh with my politics. I created my account in the early days of Lemmy, so I have an extensive history that I am loath to sacrifice.

  • Gecko@feddit.deEnglish
    16·
    2 years ago

    You might wanna consider temporarily closing sign-up requests on lemmy.ml similarly to how mastodon.social did it during its large influx. Making a sign-up request and just receiving an infinite loading icon is a very frustrating experience.

    Similarly, you want to make it as easy as possible to financially contribute to lemmy, even if it means using proprietary platforms like Patreon.

    Overall, the current Reddit API change is probably one of the largest opportunities for lemmy right now, so smoothing over the user experience as fast as possible in the coming days will be of atmost importance if we want lemmy to become a viable Reddit alternative…

  • Ghostalmedia@beehaw.orgEnglish
    15·
    2 years ago

    IMHO, selecting an instance is definitely the biggest user experience problem Lemmy has at the moment. New users who are unfamiliar with the platform are going to pick the biggest instances, and that’s going to create performance problems.

    We’ll need to prioritize work on instance browsing. Lemmy has outgrown the experience over at join-lemmy.org. If I could wave a magic wand, instance browsing and onboarding would have a way to show instance capacity / performance, a way to categorize and filter instances, and a way to recommend instances based upon interests. That would probably help to spread people out more evenly.

      • Ghostalmedia@beehaw.orgEnglish
        14·
        2 years ago

        You probably don’t want my code if you want a stable platform. ;)

        That said, I dig what y’all are doing, and I’m veteran experience / interaction designer who’s been around the block for a few decades. So I might be able to find some time to mockup some experience concepts and or help to run user tests with audiences that your curious about.

        • usernotfound@lemmy.mlEnglish
          1·
          2 years ago

          I’m more of a backender myself, but I think some UX mockup would go a long way in getting this improved.

    • Flannel Bear@lemmy.mlEnglish
      3·
      2 years ago

      There’s a website I highly recommend called fediverse observer, it doesn’t really go based on interest, but it has some other factors it uses and I really like it.

    • vocornflakes@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      2 years ago

      I think that there should be some meaningful way to “preview” aspects of one instance that may make it more attractive than another instance to a new user. I just joined lemmy.world today simply because it seemed the most generic. Onboarding process could use some work; https://lemmy.world/post/37906 is great at explaining it but people will only really see it for the first time once they join…

      Also I have no clue if that second link works. ¯\(ツ)/¯

  • sunaurus@lemm.eeEnglish
    11·
    2 years ago

    If anybody else is lost and wants a basic general-purpose home for their account, https://lemm.ee is on good hardware and open for signups.

  • mook@lemmy.mlEnglish
    10·
    2 years ago

    I applied for behaw about 24 hours ago without response nor success logging in. Wondering if they have temporarily suspended applications?

    • Slashzero@lemmy.mlEnglish
      5·
      2 years ago

      Same here! I was starting to think my application was rejected. So I signed up here on lemmy.ml and was approved fairly quickly.

      • mook@lemmy.mlEnglish
        1·
        2 years ago

        It’s been 72 hours now since I applied to beehaw and still radio silence.

        • Slashzero@lemmy.mlEnglish
          4·
          2 years ago

          I haven’t heard anything either. They are probably slammed. 🤷🏻‍♂️

          You can still subscribe to and post to their communities from here. You don’t actually need a user on beehaw.org

          Open the hamburger menu, then click the search icon and put !gaming@beehaw.org in the search box and click search. You’ll then be able to look at that community from lemmy.ml, and in the sidebar you can subscribe. You can also up and downvote, comment, etc.

          Replace gaming with whatever community you are trying to join. Also beehaw.org is just an example. You can “join” any instance that isn’t currently blocked by lemmy.ml AFAIK.

    • local_taxi_fix@lemmy.oneEnglish
      4·
      2 years ago

      They might just have a massive backlog. They’re at the top of the “Suggested instances” section.

  • erbs@lemmy.mlEnglish
    10·
    2 years ago

    I signed up on lemmy org uk originally (day or 2 ago) and now it seems to be gone. If I could have kept my account some how that would have been better, but here I am instead.

    • suoko@lemmy.mlEnglish
      4·
      2 years ago

      Was it badly aministered or it has been done on purpose so that people think lemmy is not reliable ?

      • erbs@lemmy.mlEnglish
        2·
        2 years ago

        I have no idea. Pretty sure it only lasted a week or so. Maybe the server owner had some issues they couldn’t resolve.

        If it comes back, maybe I’ll find out

    • 𝒍𝒆𝒎𝒂𝒏𝒏@lemmy.oneEnglish
      3·
      2 years ago

      I was contemplating signing up on that instance but couldn’t find anything about who runs it, or how likely it was to stick around. I think there was also a thread on there where they refused to accept donations too.

      With an average VPS running you about 100-200 quid a year, as a hobby I think it’s gonna get expensive when you need to upgrade cores, storage etc. Not to mention you also need to moderate the instance.

      For hosting a federated Lemmy to work I think you need a team and possibly a plan for accepting donations if it can’t be run out of pocket

      • erbs@lemmy.mlEnglish
        1·
        2 years ago

        I wish I’d noted the user name of the server owner, I think they were on mastodon.

  • TheYang@lemmy.mlEnglish
    10·
    2 years ago

    Is scaling the server a largely financial issue, or not? @[email protected]

    could you reasonably confidently say that you could 10x the amount of users for something like 1000$/mo on liberapay?
    If so, would you mind setting a “goalpost” for the community to help lift the financial burden?

    • SturgiesYrFase@lemmy.mlEnglish
      5·
      2 years ago

      I think they said they’re at the highest tier of their provider. May need to migrate to a different provider and get a beefier setup.

        • TrippyTortuga@lemmy.mlEnglish
          2·
          2 years ago

          In theory, they can. But it depends on how it’s deployed.

          From my cursory look at the deployment docs, Lemmy’s default deployment option is via docker. It relies on a postgreSQL server, which may or may not scale horizontally depending on the admin’s choice of implementation. For example, a deployment on AWS using Aurora would theoretically utilize auto-scaling.

          I haven’t personally deployed an instance so, grain of salt.

          EDIT: A good discussion about DB scaling here: https://github.com/LemmyNet/lemmy/issues/3005

        • SturgiesYrFase@lemmy.mlEnglish
          31·
          2 years ago

          They do, but I’m not sure how well, I’m not a dev, and have no programming knowledge, so looking at the documentation looks like arcane hieroglyphs.

          I’m pretty sure I read a comment about it from one of the devs, but can’t recall the fine details of the conversation.

  • interdimensionalmeme@lemmy.mlEnglish
    122·
    2 years ago

    lemmy.ml should be a roundrobin dns that sends you to a random instance in the pool. Or else you will re-centralize lemmy and curmble under the IT bill.

    • Neil@lemmy.mlEnglish
      4·
      2 years ago

      Except (as far as I’m aware) your account only exists on one instance. So, if I end up on beehaw.org due to the round-robin, my account on lemmy.ml will not authenticate to that instance. I would have to have a separate account per instance which is hundreds of accounts.

  • Bilb!@lemmy.mlEnglish
    9·
    2 years ago

    I’m going to set up a general purpose instance tomorrow with the intention of handling a relatively large number of users. The main problem is choosing a domain!

  • anji@lemmy.anji.nl
    101·
    2 years ago

    Sadly, I feel like the Fediverse, based on ActivityPub, was fundamentally designed wrong for scaling potential. I do like Fedi and I like ActivityPub, but I think instances should not have to be responsible for all of this:

    • Owning user accounts
    • Exclusively host communities
    • Serving local and remote users webpages and media
    • Never going down, as this results in users and content becoming unavailable

    Because servers “own” the user accounts and communities it’s not trivial for users to switch to a different instance, and as instances scale their costs go up slightly exponentially.

    I wish the Fediverse from the beginning was a truly distributed content replication platform, usenet-style or Matrix-style, and every instance would add additional capacity to the network instead of hosting specific communities or users.

    I guess it’s a bit too late for a redesign now… Perhaps decentralized identifiers will take us there in some form in the future.

    • poVoq@slrpnk.net
      3·
      2 years ago

      Not sure why you reference Matrix, which has even worse scaling issues as it indeed tries to replicate nearly the entire network on every server.

      The Fediverse is really just working how the general web does, just with some standardized API for websites to interact. It’s not perfect, but it works and has proven to be relatively scalable.

      It sounds a bit like you had a bit too much of the Bluesky cool-aid, which indeed replicates nearly all of the mistakes of Matrix and makes it impossible to scale via small community owned servers instead of big company owned data-centers (which might be by design?).

      • anji@lemmy.anji.nl
        8·
        2 years ago

        Well yeah, point taken that replicating everything everywhere and forever might be impossible. But I do believe at a minimum my identity should be portable and accessing Fedi (ie. in microblogging: posting and viewing a feed of the latest posts of my follows) should be decoupled from which instance I pick to access the Fediverse.

        I don’t particularly like how owners of instances which grew are now essentially locked in to having to spend 100s or 1000s of dollars a month keeping their now expensive instances running and providing service. This is a bad place to be for a platform ran by volunteers. Letting instance owners scale their service down as well as up would be ideal. But this requires at least decentralized identity, and at best some form of content hosting redundancy…

        It’s easy to say the current architecture of Fedi works when it’s still small. Your instance has 139 users… That’s not intended as a slight. Hosting instances is good and I applaud you for it! But I wish it were easier to more equally share the load once the platform becomes more popular.

        • Daxtron2@lemmy.ml
          0·
          2 years ago

          Is there any group of devs that work on this issue that you know of? I’d be interested in looking into it.

          • anji@lemmy.anji.nl
            1·
            2 years ago

            No. And I think it’s a really hard problem. poVoq was right to call me out on full replication being a bad move, because duplicating all content on every server is obviously inefficient. But a solution in-between, with decentralization and redundancy, is probably a very complex challenge. Doesn’t seem impossible, but very complex network protocols rarely seem to succeed.

            Edit: Sorry I was still thinking about some fabled perfect protocol. But if you’re looking into decentralized identifiers, W3 is working on one approach. It’s not something I have seen used anywhere or integrated with ActivityPub yet, but that could be the future I’m hoping for. Probably.

            • kiwi@lemmy.one
              1·
              2 years ago

              It almost sounds like you’re describing RAID 5 of content across fediverse servers.

              • anji@lemmy.anji.nl
                0·
                2 years ago

                Something like that. But also with fully decentralized identity. So all content is signed by a keypair which is local to the user, and can be used to access Fedi through arbitrary instances. Probably I am too wishful.

                • dleewee@beehaw.org
                  1·
                  2 years ago

                  I could envision a 2nd class of server, running something like OAuth/OIDC, which handles the authentication into any Lemmy instance (or better yet, any ActivityPub based instance).

                  This server would also be self-hostable, and provide only authentication services, so it would be rather lightweight. But would help reduce the load on the content servers.

                • Phazei@lemmy.ml
                  02·
                  2 years ago

                  I feel like for decentralized identity maybe a page could be taken out of Blockchain. Ethereum ledger is duplicated in its entirety on every host, and there are L2s that help spread the load but roll up to the L1. If identity could be attached to something like that, each person has a key to identify themselves. Identity I think would be best separated from all content related to the identity, the user could choose a server to host that data, as well as back it up with like a shared user data backup agreement between a few servers in case one dies. It’d be very similar to raid but the data only needs to be on 2-3 servers. I suppose community data could be the same. I can envision when a new server joins the federation, it could be auto assigned to share with 2-3 similarly sized communities with algorithms making sure there aren’t any closed groups of sharing (a->b&c, b->a&c, c->a&b) wouldn’t ever want that. They all seems to be the most reasonable solution in my head.

    • gnoop@lemmy.ml
      2·
      2 years ago

      While it might not be too late for that update, it would require some reconciliation to happen. There’s the potential for multiple users and communities of the same name across servers that would need to be considered.

    • CoinOperatedBoi@lemmy.ml
      1·
      2 years ago

      Yeah, the fact that the user auth and permission models were intentionally left out of the W3C spec initially really ended up locking ActivityPub into particular dialects and patterns that are now proving problematic for scaling.

      I’m not sure it’s 100% too late for a redesign, though. The committee is still active and the Fediverse could still theoretically grow by an order of magnitude or two. Does that seem likely right this minute? No, but sometimes that kind of vision is what an ecosystem needs.