Signing up
Pick an interface. Do you prefer to browse Reddit with:
- apollo: try https://wefwef.app
- old.reddit.com: try https://lemmy.world
- reddit.com: try https://kbin.social
Flip a coin, pick an instance. Are you:
- indecisive: use https://lemmy.world
- decisive: see https://github.com/maltfield/awesome-lemmy-instances
- using https://kbin.social: you already have an instance
Building momentuum
- Jumpstart your subscription list using https://redditmigration.com
- Try commenting or posting. Just try it! Many people who stopped engaging on reddit find the community more rewarding here.
- Try sticking with Lemmy / Kbin for a few days. Until your fingers learn to get their fix a new way, and you get your subscription list built up a bit.
What next?
Many people are happy at this point… but what to do if you want to help the switch to fediverse but you’re still jonesing for reddit after a few days? A few ideas….
- Its OK! Reddit simply has more volume and a bigger stack of communities as of Jun 30, 2023. Its /probably/ (?) not going to disappear overnight. Its not an either/or, you can use lemmy / kbin more and more over time.
- Start your internet browsing time on lemmy / kbin first. If you’re “still hungry”, supplement with reddit.
- Consider instituting a “read only reddit” policy: no posts, comments, or upvotes. Its MUCH easier to stop adding to Reddit than it is to quit cold turkey. If you don’t like reddit’s behavior, this is a good way to collectively switch momentum toward the fediverse without making big personal sacrifices.
It’s honestly the best progressive web app I’ve ever used.
what is a progressive web app? Is it like a pseudo-app built into a browser like Safari?
A PWA is an app that’s built on web platform technologies and use the browser engine to emulate a native platform app that uses platform specific technologies (Android, iOS). Since they use the browser to serve functionality, they can be presented on any operating system, and the browser UI is supplanted by the app UI. It can still be deeply integrated into the device, so you can install it to your phone, you get the icon, they can access functions of the device, like notifications, running in the background, running offline even in some use cases. Just instead of the device OS providing the backend, the browser functions as the backend. It’s basically a website wrapper, though I hesitate to call it that for fear of being reductive.
Oh, that’s good to know. That actually makes a lot of sense. Is this the future way of making apps for devices? Can a PWA work on both iOS and Android by just having the url? Sorry for all the questions, it’s actually quite interesting to hear about.
My knowledge is really surface level as I’m not a developer. I’m just fascinated by stuff like this and seeing how far they can push it. It doesn’t seem like web apps have taken off the way that native apps have, but part of that is people getting better and better internet over time and more powerful phones, so that things can run without the jank. It does work on both iOS and Android in modern browsers just by going to the URL. Wefwef really is quite stunning, especially if you take into account how new it is and how much they’ve done in so little time. Another good one is https://weather.com, which you can install the same way.