We have Lemmy.world, Lemmy.ml, beehaw.org, I think even yiffit.net. If I log in using wefwef it asks me where I want to login. And when I make a new account using another instance, it says ”… Lemmy is federated, so you can interact with everything on lemmy.ml even if you’re registered on a different instance.“ So if I’m registered on lemmy.world, how can I interact with lemmy.ml?
Think of them as different email servers. It’s all federated and connected. As long as you’re looking at the “all” timeline it will show you posts from across every instance. And you can follow communities across instances. For example I’m on a different instance than you but I can see your post and comment on it. Just start subscribing to some. check out the list below for a couple migrated subreddits.
https://www.quippd.com/writing/2023/06/15/unofficial-subreddit-migration-list-lemmy-kbin-etc.html
From what I’ve heard, only communities from other instances that users in your instance are subscribed to will show up. This is because (as far as I know) the instances only request data from other instances of what users have requested, and not a constant stream of updates that no one has a need for.
This is exactly correct.
This means there is a slight advantage to being on a larger instance. Of course, you’re gonna have to deal with a laggier experience as the server gets overloaded. If you don’t mind using the lemmy explorer to hunt down the subs you want to subscribe to, it’s a better experience on smaller instances.
Federation can lag too. Someone made this to track federation lags on big instances: https://aftershock.lemmy.management/public/dashboards/oT7pdcoeHWccpvZCNmTpJKoGZND8ZdRO3wDWpMug?org_slug=default
Wow, didn’t realize Beehaw.org was struggling that hard. Thanks for the link.
Now it completely missing from the list. Maybe they were doing some maintenance which explain the lags.
Thank you for this.
I couldn’t see the community I made on lemmy.world in lemm.ee until I searched for it multiple times until it finally showed up. So some users may believe the community they’re searching for may not exist, even though it does on an another instance. Best to use Lemmy Explorer just in case when looking for a community.
It requires searching for the community to start the federation process. Depening on how bloated your instance is that speed can vary.
This “It’s just like email” makes no sense at all to me. My email is nothing like Lemmy. It is the most confusing description I have ever heard.
It is “just like email” in a sense you can send email from your gmail to someone using yahoo, hotmail or even their own self hosted server and it still gets delivered despite all those different servers. And that’s where analogy of similarity to email ends.
I can (could) post to reddit with Boost, my friend uses Apolo, this other guy uses RIF. To the layman what’s the difference between my instance, your instance, wefwef, jerboa, etc. The general public don’t know about email servers any more than Lemmy instances.
You have a gmail address. Your friend has a yahoo address. Your other friend has an outlook address.
It doesn’t matter at all because they all work together. That’s what they mean
But I can’t read any of their emails so it isn’t like email at all.
But if you both subscribe to the same mailing list you will both receive the same message.
I’m confident that “mailing lists” are not a thing most people will know about or understand today, and for a lot of people “email” and “gmail” are completely synonymous terms. A lot of people will have never interacted with an @yahoo account, I wasn’t aware they were even still in business.
But I can’t read any of their emails so it isn’t like email at all.
What part of the comparison confuses you?
I can’t think of how it is even close to the same as email other that both Lemmy and email use the @ symbol.
If I send an email to a friend, no one else can see it. That is a note between him and me. The comparison is perplexing.
The analogy isn’t meant to reflect who receives the message, but how communication interacts.
Each lemmy/federated instance uses a prefix and a suffix to create a name. So for example, I’m [email protected] here, where Melpomene is me and kbin.social is where I reside. This is similar to email because it works similarly… I might be Melpomene on Gmail, but my actual user name reflects both me (Melpomene) and the email instance I call home (gmail.com.)
If you want a specific analogy to messaging, though… when you send a message to a lemmy community, you’re basically responding to a distribution list. [email protected] is akin a distribution list, the distribution list is (technically) visible to anyone on the instance, so anyone can see the message. If you’re on a federated instance that allows private messages, though, sending to an individual user would still function like email in that only the person messaged would see it.
Edit: The comparison is not exact, granted. It’s meant to de-mystify the prefix/suffix format of federation, not to offer a one to one comparison to email.
Another way of looking at it is cross platform videogames where Kbin.social is playstation Lemmy.world is xbox and a third one would be Nintendo Switch. If the game has a chat feature what one person posts from xbox would appear for the playstation players and visa versa. Federating is basically when they first connect to each other to become multi platform.
The comparisons to email are a good analogy. Your email is hosted on a service (e.g. @gmail.com or @hotmail.com) each has its own rules and setup. They also run independently. However, you can happily email someone at a different host. The hosts sort it out in the background. It’s completely transparent.
With Lemmy, the instances are the equivalent of email hosts. You might use your work email service, or use a free one, or even pay to host your own. They will all play happily.
De-federation even has a good comparison. If an email server is sending masses of spam emails, the other hosts can decide to not accept emails from them. They get cut off. The decision is made on a host by host basis however. This contains power tripping to individual instances.
From a user’s point of view, there are 2 main things to note. Local and All. Local only shows you posts on the instance you are logged into. This can be useful, of the instance is specialized, and you want to focus on that specialty, but not be limited to just 1 channel. This could be something like programming.dev, furries, or a NSFW instance.
All does what it says. It shows all posts on both the instance you are logged onto, and any your instance is federated with (basically everyone, other than those your admin has blocked).
As for which instance to choose? 3 main things matter, Focus, Ideology, and Stability. Focus is for if you have a specific interest. You are aren’t limited to it, but a programmer basing themselves in a programming instance makes local channels more useful. Ditto for someone posting NSFW content.
Ideology is related, but slightly different. Different instances have different mentalities. E.g. Lemmy.world is the “default” while beehaw is more focused on providing a safe space over open access. Lemmygrad is full on tanky communist, and de-federated from Lemmy.world. Each has pros and cons, producing unique internal cultures.
Stability is likely the most important right now. Instances are run by individuals right now. This means they can only scale so far. One of federations goals is to spread the load. By using a smaller instance, you can gain a lot of stability, while losing little to nothing in access. Lemmy isn’t one thing supreme, it is a legion under 1 banner.
Hope that helps.
Fediverse New User Orientation
Welcome to the Fediverse New User Orientation! If you’re just starting out on Fediverse or planning to join in from Reddit, here’s a rundown of what you need to know and how to navigate this new space.
What is Fediverse?
The Fediverse is a network made up of diverse platforms, such as Lemmy, Mastodon, PeerTube, and several others, that use a common protocol known as ActivityPub. This allows for seamless interaction between users across these platforms. With Fediverse, you have the freedom to join any instance (server) that caters to your interests, and you can interact with users from other instances as well.
Lemmy
The Reddit-like federated forum app that runs on ActivityPub within the Fediverse
Lemmy is one of the platforms within the Fediverse. It shares quite a bit similarity with Reddit, hence it has been referred to as the “Reddit of the Fediverse.” It provides users with the opportunity to create communities (like subreddits). The federated forum app runs on ActivityPub, meaning you can follow, comment, and share posts from different Lemmy servers.
- Lemmy Intro
- Guide to finding Lemmy Communities
- Lemmymap
- Lemmyverse Explorer
- lemmy the-federation.info
- Lemmy Community Browser
- Lemmy/Fediverse Mod Openings
Reddit Migration
Here from reddit? Find your new home. Lookups and mappings of Reddit subs to Fediverse communities including Lemmy.
- Reddit migration - Maps Reddit subs to their equivalent communities on Lemmy.
- sub.rehab - Another useful tool for finding Fediverse communities similar to Reddit subits.
- Unoffical Subreddit Migration List - A compiled list of subreddits that have been migrated to Lemmy and other Fediverse platforms.
- Reddit Megathread - Keep up with relevant discussions about migrating from Reddit to Fediverse.
Fediverse
The “network” of instances that uses ActivityPub
These guides should provide you with a more detailed look into the Fediverse and how to make the best use of it:
- A 5-min Tour of the Fediverse - A quick look into the basic workings of the Fediverse.
- Fediverse Guide - An in-depth guide exploring the nuances of the Fediverse.
- Fediverse App List - A list of apps that are compatible with the Fediverse, allowing you to get connected and stay connected.
On top of what other people have already said each instance has different rules. One instance might have rules against NSFW content and defederate from NSFW instances while others may be fine with it.
And you can have multiple accounts. One on non-nsfw side, and one on nsfw side. Then add both accounts to your favorite client. This way you have clean “safe” account and dirty perv account.
Just like Reddit
you can interact w/ lemmy.ml through lemmy.world. for instance, you can subscribe to furry_irl on yiffit witj your world account, if you visit that something like lemmy.world/c/[email protected] (url may be incorrect, it’s just an example)
In the context of Lemmy, an instance serves as a collection of communities with various registration processes, rules, identities, and more. Lemmy.world and Beehaw are general-purpose instances that accommodate communities on any topic. Beehaw stands out by removing the downvote button and limiting community creation to moderators exclusively. On the other hand, Yiffit is a specific instance dedicated to queer and furry art.
To engage with communities on an instance, you don’t necessarily need an account. For instance, to interact with lemmy.ml, you can browse the list of communities on that instance without creating an account. If you wish to subscribe to a particular community and view its posts, you can search for the community on the instance where you have an account. For example, if you want to subscribe to the “asklemmy” community in Lemmy.ml instance, simply search for “[email protected]” on your Lemmy instance and subscribe to it. The posts from the subscribed community will then appear in your subscribed tab.
Yes you can! For example, click this: [email protected]
That’s a lemmy.ml community. But you can post there, comment, vote, etc. You’ll see posts and comments from users on different instances all the time. Sometimes you’ll see different platform users like Kbin and Mastodon users posting and commenting!
- Log in on your preferred instance
- Browse all
- See content from another instance
- Interact with it
It’s pretty seamless. Like I can switch from instance to instance, and all is exactly the same (minus instance specific admin stickies) across everything, for the most part. It’s going to depend on the white/blacklist of each instance, but so far I have not found too much that was blocked off on one that I could access from another.
You can use Lemmy Explorer to explore. Type your home instance in the top by tapping the home and it will create all the proper links for tapping and getting to other instances.
Essentially a link like [email protected] will get you there from any instance. The first part being the community and the second being the instance.
These also should lead to the same community. https://lemmy.world/c/[email protected] https://lemmy.ml/c/asklemmy
Also if you sort by all on an instance that’s populated well you should see most of the fediverse as it is already and can just search within it for what you’re looking for.
