Tried Mastodon after Twitter fiasco, seemed like an okay experience, but in the end, it lacked what's most important about any such site: the people. A lot of people I followed on Twitter just didn't make the transition (some did), so after a while of not really seeing content I was used to see, I drifted away. To be honest, I can imagine Lemmy could follow the same pattern (for me, personally, not in general). Even though it's off to a good start after I already found /r/patientgamers alternative here. Now I would love some equivalent of /r/soccer and I think I could make Lemmy my new home.
this post was submitted on 11 Jun 2023
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Asklemmy
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Yes this is my first time and my first comment too :) Glad to be here
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Yes, it is. And I literally have no idea what Iβm doing or what the fediverse is or how to best utilize it and I have a mastodon account but donβt use it because all of this fediverse/instance stuff stresses me out and I just want a cool community to feel like Iβm a part of, not a bunch of stuff I donβt understand and I hope I can feel comfortable here with Lemmy. Oof.
Imagine there were multiple reddit websites. Reddit.com, reddit.org, reddit.social, etc. Doesn't matter what account you have, you can see communities/subreddits across anyone of them.
That's Lemmy.
When you make a lemmy account, it's more like an email address. You are [email protected], I am [email protected]. Someone else is [email protected]. We can all chat and post and have a good time no matter what website/instance we post to.
That's how users work on lemmy. Just like email. Communities on lemmy work the exact same way as users.
If all you're interested in is that, then you can stop there and fully enjoy your time with lemmy as a reddit replacement.
The future potential and complexity comes from the next part:
The fediverse is someone said, "hey, you know how people on reddit can't follow people on Twitter, or people on YouTube can't subscribe to subreddits, or people on Instagram can't leave YouTube comments? Well let's make it so you can.
Now this isn't perfectly implemented at the moment, and there are a lot of growing pains (it's kinda like the wild wild West), but you can make a mastodon account (like Twitter), and follow the this lemmy community [email protected] on it, and you'll see all the posts and all the comments that you would otherwise see on lemmy, just in a twitter-like format.
It's not perfect and compatibility across these decentealized apps is not perfectly impremented atm, but in the future you could theoretically have one giant interconnected web where everything from "Twitter" to "reddit" to "YouTube" to "Instagram" to whatever fediverse equivalent app are all interwoven. And if any instance of them gets a big enough head to pull something like reddit is pulling, or what Twitter has been pulling, the community can just make a new "email" on a different instance/website and continue as of nothing changed. No single website/instance can abuse their power, because another instance can be spun up any time.
I'm not sure I understand the last part correctly. As I understand it, if a community behaves in a way the users don't like, we can just create a new community. The advantage of the federated nature is that it's not as painful as finding for example a whole reddit or twitter alternative because of how modular the fediverse is, right?
Edit: come to think of it, I have a second question and you seem to have this whole thing figured out. I've seen people say that they are on lemma as well as kbin to see which they like better ot which one grows better I guess. But does it really matter since the whole thing is interconnected anyways?
Thanks :-)
Yes, somewhat. Communities are like subreddits. So yes, if a community is doing what people don't like they can pick up and make a new community. A good example is on reddit r/gaming used to be more discussion and news focused but over time it became more popular and filled with memes. Some in the community didn't like this so they made the r/games subreddit which is news and discussion focused.
On lemmy, that new community can be made on the same instance or on a different instance.
What I was getting at, was that in addition to this, if the communities on an instance dont like how an entire instance is being run, they can pick up shop and just move to a new instance. As a user you'd have to make a new account on a new instance, but you'd be able to subscribe to all the same communities on the instances you like.
To simplify: Instances are run by admins, communities by mods. On reddit your only option is to make a new subreddit and change your mods if you don't like something, but you will always have u/spez as your admin. On lemmy, you can ditch your admins and set up shop with other admins.
To answer your kbin vs lemmy question: The only reason you would pick one over the other would mostly be due to their layout and customization. Additionally, instances can block other instances, so you might like kbins layout, but maybe they block an instance that has a community that you like. Conversely, kbin might have a cool community you want to subscribe to, but your specific lemmy instance is blocking it. So you can do what I said above, you pick up shop and you set up in an instance that doesn't block the community you want to join. Alternatively, you can set up your own instance on your own server and then you can join anything you want, provided that you aren't so toxic that other communities potentially block you lol.
I have general helpful additional links in the bottom of my sidebar over on my community https://lemmy.ml/c/ps5 if you want to see how you can do some of what I said above.
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I'm about 24 hours into Lemmy and beyond bamboozled so thank you intensely for your ELI5 response: really helped. My key concern is who pays to keep all the lights on?
Depends where you go. Some servers ask for community funding, some are run by volunteers, and some I'm sure have probably found a way to monetise it, though I'm not sure how.
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Back when the switch from Twitter to Mastodon was recommended I tried it but didn't really understand how it worked, didn't know how to get to the content I wanted and gave up. This is the first time after that
Lemmy's so new that I think a lot of people are still unsure how to curate their feed.
I used mastadon a but but never got hooked. Not because of the app but because the Twitter like format is only good if you have interesting people to follow.
I've always preferred the reddit style discussions.
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Yes... just signed up. I had never heard of Fediverse until 3 days ago. I spent the past 2 days reading up on it and bam, here I am. I remember a lot of chatter about mastodon after Elon stuck his head up his ass but didn't pay attention. I glad to see a lot of people here (smarter than me) are as confused as I am. This will be so fun to watch this evolve.
I agree that this will be a fun evolution to watch!
I first used Mastodon but I was never one to really "get" or use Twitter either so I haven't actually used it much. This suits my needs far better.
Same, I got a mastodon account but never really used it. Reddit and now Lemmy is my shit.
I tried Mastodon and really didn't care for it. It didn't translate quite as cleanly into the decentralized structure I felt. If I wanted to look up a famous person I had to know their instance, which felt like a really messy structure. Still, I have hope for it's future when they clean up a few of the less user friendly elements. Lemmy, I've loved. I think forums like this work way better in this decentralized way. Part of that comes from the fact that forums are anonymous anyways, unlike Twitter-esque social media platforms.
I got Mastodon and liked it well enough but I'm still getting used to it. Lenny, I'll admit, is super confusing, but I can see it's potential and I'm really excited to get more involved. In the 10+ years I've been on reddit, I think I've only posted or commented a handful of times. With Lemmy, I want to make more of an effort to participate.
This is my second comment. Refugee from Reddit
Yes. Actually made this account today, and here are my first impressions: The learning curve is existent, and likely the largest problem with mass adoption. The way communities work is cool, but not easily explained to end users. But now that i see how it works, i like it better. Now we just need the content and community to thrive.
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First time for me. I had heard about Mastodon when Elon first bought Twitter, but I never liked Twitter so I didn't look into it. I think it's okay so far. Kind of reminds me of old internet, which I miss.
I tried Mastodon, but Twitter was never my thing anyways, so it didn't really click. This is been a much better experience. I'm quickly getting the hang of how it works.
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This is my first time using Fediverse accounts but I've always stayed away from other social media other than reddit due to privacy reasons.
I think Lemmy is cool but I will miss all the different communities and information I could find or did find on reddit, but I hope Lemmy grows into what reddit was and what it could have been.
But, yes, I have to admit I am a little heartbroken after about a decade.
This is my first dip into the fediverse.
I have no interest in a personal page like twitter or facebook / meta, so no plans for mastadon as well.
That said, can someone ELI5 the difference between Lemmy and Kbin?
Is there a reference for all the fediverse places outside of those mentioned above?
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Like most other users here Iβve also taken a look around on Mastodon. But Iβm still new to the fediverse and getting used to the decentralized nature of all this.
This is also my first comment on Lemmy, hopefully of many more!
Just joined my first instance was kinda difficult but finally got my acceptance email excited for this platform and fuck you reddit
Yea I hadnt even heard of the Fediverse before Lemmy. I had kind of heard of mastodon but didn't really know what it was.
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This is my first experience with fediverse, I had never even heard of it before. So far it's going okay, there are some things I wish were different or easier, but maybe that's just because it's new and feels clunky because I haven't figured it all out yet.
In general though I am enjoying Lemmy so far, it feels like being on internet message boards back in the old days (20-25 years ago)!
Iβd messed around with Mastodon, but Twitter was never my thing so it didnβt really stick. Lemmy is the first Fediverse thing that will likely see a lot of use from me.
This is my story as well. I follow a few accounts on Mastadon, but I find it much easier to connect with Lemmy. I joined Maston during the height of the Twitter crisis, and Lemmy earlier this week during the Reddit crisis.
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Yes and embarrassed to admit I didn't even know what a Fediverse was until yesterday.
Never heard of Lemmy or the Fediverse until recent times.
been lurkin around the fediverse for years, but only recently found lemmy. nice change of pace, never liked the microblogging format so masto never kept me.
I've been on Matrix and Mastodon for a number of years, but I'm new to Lemmy. Matrix is already better than competitors like Discord, in my opinion. It has a healthy pool of users including several major tech organizations.
I've never been too active on Mastodon for the same reason I never got into Twitter. I just don't enjoy "microblogging," and prefer mediums that are more oriented towards actual conversation. Lemmy does an excellent job in that respect.
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This is my first time and frankly I'm a bit confused by everything but I'm willing to give it a try and learn o/
Honestly, I had never even heard of the Fediverse before, and I'm extremely active on the internet and opensource projects. It feels insane to me that I had no idea what it was, but now that I understand it - I'm here for good.
Nope. I joined a couple big Mastodon instances, then started running a solo on DigitalOcean. It's a hobby. I'll probably give up the self-hosted and continue on a regular Calckey account.
Also played with Pixelfed, and before that all the way back to Matrix/Rocket... and pre-AP good ole diaspora*. Basically, anything but corporate social media. I just don't like it enough to deal with the bullshit.
I liked Reddit though, but haven't been on there for more than a year, now.
Lemmy seems pretty cool though. I'm interested in playing with the tech. Seems like a good way to take my Rust skills to the next level.
Similar situation to some. I tried Mastodon first, but it seemed like more of a Twitter alternative since you follow personalities rather than topics. Been on Lemmy for a few days now and it's a definitely more in line with what I wanted
No. Sometimes i use mastodon.
Yes, this is my first dip in.
Thus far it seems promising and near, but with a huge downfall of slow adoption/scale to where many instances are hosted in either un-scalable or unstable environments so some instances go down easily.
Apart from that, though, it's very reminiscent of Web1.0 and early Web2.0 and I like that a lot.
First time, liking the experience though the no central login is my biggest concern. What works for Reddit is that itβs really easy for a non-technical person to get in to it; Setup an account, login in, find, view, subscribe, post, and comment all in one place. With Lemmy/Fediverse there is a barrier with trying to explain it straight away e.g is it called Lemmy or Fediverse or Kbin etc
I get why itβs better, and I donβt know what a solution could be, but at the moment the simplicity of it in one place will keep Reddit a viable solution for a lot of people who would like it to βjust workβ. And itβs those people that helps build large communities.
As an example hereβs a comment and reply from PrequelMemes
squabbles.io is a pretty good reddit alternative. I hear a lot of people suggesting lemmy and other federated options, but those are just confusing to me tbh. Squabbles works very similarly to reddit, so the transition should be painless.
And the reply
Thank you! Iβm heading to squabbles.io right now, based upon your description of it!
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I dabbled a bit in Peertube but never made an account or anything, so Lemmy's the first one I've engaged with.
I signed up for Mastodon too now to try it out, but I never had Twitter so never really had much interest in Mastodon either. Still this fediverse stuff is exciting, so trying it out now.
PSA: there is PixelFed which in an image publication platform. ("Instagram-like")
Yes, I had briefly heard of Mastodon but knew next to nothing about it, and Twitter never interested me so I ignored it. After using Lemmy for a week I have now signed up for Mastodon and PixelFed, massive potential with these.
I first used Mastodon but I was never one to really "get" or use Twitter either so I haven't actually used it much. This suits my needs far better.
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