Question for you, when I try to go there it makes me log in, but I don’t have an account for that instance. Do I have to create a new account for each instance?
You can make separate accounts on each instance, or you can access content on other instances from your instance. Unfortunately when you click on a URL someone shares that takes you out of your instance, but you can copy/paste that URL into your instance’s search box to access that post from your instance.
Great question. An instance is just the name of the site through which you’re accessing the Lemmyverse. So you’re on the lemmy.world instance, while I’m on aussie.zone.
You can think of Lemmy a little like email. You could be on Gmail while I’m on Outlook, but both of us can communicate with each other just fine, even though our email providers are completely different.
It’s just like with email, you choose which provider you go with. You must have gone to lemmy.world when you first came to Lemmy, so that’s your current provider.
Right now, you can easily just go and sign up with another instance if you like. There are a heap of them, and if you google you can find out more about different ones. Some are general, like Lemmy.world, some have a geographical focus, like aussie.zone. Others are based more on shared interests, like ttrpg.network.
On Lemmy, the equivalent of Reddit’s “subreddits” are called “communities”. And each instance has its own communities. Right now we’re commenting on !showerthoughts@lemmy.world, which you might also see referred to as /c/showerthoughts@lemmy.world. Those both mean the same thing. But there’s also a !showerthoughts@sh.itjust.works, and those two are completely separate communities with their own mods and their own rules. And even though your account is on lemmy.world, you could go into that other community and post or comment.
Each instance has its own admins as well, and those admins have powers similar to that of admins on Reddit. They can ban users, remove communities on their own instance, etc. Most often the thing you’ll see talked about in terms of admin powers is “defederation”. That’s where the admins of one instance prevent users from another instance from interacting with them. Different admins might have different policies for why they would or would not defederate another instance, and you may want to ensure the instance you use has a defederation policy that you’re comfortable with—and one where your own instance hasn’t been defederated by other instances that you want to interact with.
Right now, to move to another instance you just have to create a new account. Your old comments and posts etc. will be left behind. But there has been some talk about being able to migrate your account from one instance to another, and it’s theoretically possible. Mastodon is a fediverse equivalent to Twitter (in the same way that Lemmy is a fediverse Reddit) and I believe account migration is possible on Mastodon. For the most part though, no, you won’t really notice the difference between different instances.
It’s just a general term for all the different federated services. Lemmy is federated Reddit. Kbin is another reddit-like federated service. Mastodon is federated Twitter. There are also federated versions of things like YouTube and Instagram. They all use a technology called “ActivityPub”, which means you can sorta see Lemmy posts from Mastodon and vice versa. It’s mostly not useful, but it does mean if you mention a Mastodon account in Lemmy, they’ll get a notification and be able to reply without being on Lemmy. Kbin and Lemmy can interact with each other much more seamlessly because of how similar they are.
Collectively, they’re all called the “fediverse”. You might also occasionally see the term “threadiverse” (or some other spelling of that), to refer to all the federated services specifically designed to be similar to Reddit. Mainly Lemmy and Kbin.
Realistically though, none of this is stuff you should need to know. It’s all still under development and a little wonky, but as much as possible the goal should be for it to all be transparent to users. It should just work.
I mean, most of them were meant to be silly, but reddit was also around a shockingly long time for an internet community. Consider that Myspace was only around for three years before it started losing status. Reddit, by comparison, was a major site for a decade and is only now starting to drop. And the remindme bot has been around for most of that time. A bunch of those ‘remind me in a few years’ posts were actually tripped.
Of course, but cracks are starting to show. My point was that this is an absurdly long time for something like reddit to be around at all, so the remindmebot comments that were set for years out weren’t as out there as the guy above me seemed to think. Hell, reddit share holders seem to be upset with what’s going on, so there are decent odds they’ll revert the changes and we’ll be back there in a year.
Most of those millions of users are largely irrelevant, as they don’t create content nor moderate. It’s akin to how Facebook can say they have millions of users, but nobody is actually using it anymore.
I’m betting the Reddit posts will be there, but the people who were wrong usually delete there account within a year, in shame as they tend to be wrong about lots of other things. And yep I probably won’t be there either.
In retrospect those were ridiculously optimistic
Question for you, when I try to go there it makes me log in, but I don’t have an account for that instance. Do I have to create a new account for each instance?
You can make separate accounts on each instance, or you can access content on other instances from your instance. Unfortunately when you click on a URL someone shares that takes you out of your instance, but you can copy/paste that URL into your instance’s search box to access that post from your instance.
Oooh ok that makes sense, thanks!
What’s an instance?
Great question. An instance is just the name of the site through which you’re accessing the Lemmyverse. So you’re on the lemmy.world instance, while I’m on aussie.zone.
You can think of Lemmy a little like email. You could be on Gmail while I’m on Outlook, but both of us can communicate with each other just fine, even though our email providers are completely different.
Thanks for that explanation. That was my first post and this place is confusing and full of random exclamation marks lol.
So are instances automatically assigned based on region? Or did I choose this instance? Can I switch, or would I notice a difference?
It’s just like with email, you choose which provider you go with. You must have gone to lemmy.world when you first came to Lemmy, so that’s your current provider.
Right now, you can easily just go and sign up with another instance if you like. There are a heap of them, and if you google you can find out more about different ones. Some are general, like Lemmy.world, some have a geographical focus, like aussie.zone. Others are based more on shared interests, like ttrpg.network.
On Lemmy, the equivalent of Reddit’s “subreddits” are called “communities”. And each instance has its own communities. Right now we’re commenting on !showerthoughts@lemmy.world, which you might also see referred to as /c/showerthoughts@lemmy.world. Those both mean the same thing. But there’s also a !showerthoughts@sh.itjust.works, and those two are completely separate communities with their own mods and their own rules. And even though your account is on lemmy.world, you could go into that other community and post or comment.
Each instance has its own admins as well, and those admins have powers similar to that of admins on Reddit. They can ban users, remove communities on their own instance, etc. Most often the thing you’ll see talked about in terms of admin powers is “defederation”. That’s where the admins of one instance prevent users from another instance from interacting with them. Different admins might have different policies for why they would or would not defederate another instance, and you may want to ensure the instance you use has a defederation policy that you’re comfortable with—and one where your own instance hasn’t been defederated by other instances that you want to interact with.
Right now, to move to another instance you just have to create a new account. Your old comments and posts etc. will be left behind. But there has been some talk about being able to migrate your account from one instance to another, and it’s theoretically possible. Mastodon is a fediverse equivalent to Twitter (in the same way that Lemmy is a fediverse Reddit) and I believe account migration is possible on Mastodon. For the most part though, no, you won’t really notice the difference between different instances.
What’s a fediverse?
It’s just a general term for all the different federated services. Lemmy is federated Reddit. Kbin is another reddit-like federated service. Mastodon is federated Twitter. There are also federated versions of things like YouTube and Instagram. They all use a technology called “ActivityPub”, which means you can sorta see Lemmy posts from Mastodon and vice versa. It’s mostly not useful, but it does mean if you mention a Mastodon account in Lemmy, they’ll get a notification and be able to reply without being on Lemmy. Kbin and Lemmy can interact with each other much more seamlessly because of how similar they are.
Collectively, they’re all called the “fediverse”. You might also occasionally see the term “threadiverse” (or some other spelling of that), to refer to all the federated services specifically designed to be similar to Reddit. Mainly Lemmy and Kbin.
Realistically though, none of this is stuff you should need to know. It’s all still under development and a little wonky, but as much as possible the goal should be for it to all be transparent to users. It should just work.
At those lengths I always just thought it was more for the joke, rather than the actual reminder.
I mean, most of them were meant to be silly, but reddit was also around a shockingly long time for an internet community. Consider that Myspace was only around for three years before it started losing status. Reddit, by comparison, was a major site for a decade and is only now starting to drop. And the remindme bot has been around for most of that time. A bunch of those ‘remind me in a few years’ posts were actually tripped.
You realize reddit hasn’t died and still has millions of users?
You realize reddit hasn’t died and still has millions of users?
Of course, but cracks are starting to show. My point was that this is an absurdly long time for something like reddit to be around at all, so the remindmebot comments that were set for years out weren’t as out there as the guy above me seemed to think. Hell, reddit share holders seem to be upset with what’s going on, so there are decent odds they’ll revert the changes and we’ll be back there in a year.
Not that I don’t believe this, seems plausible to me⎯but would you happen to have a source for that.
Hate to say this but I’m still clinging on to Reddit for some of the niche subs, but hopefully they’ll spring up here.
Most of those millions of users are largely irrelevant, as they don’t create content nor moderate. It’s akin to how Facebook can say they have millions of users, but nobody is actually using it anymore.
@remindme@mstdn.social 5 hours
@mausy5043 Here is your reminder!
@mausy5043 Ok, I will remind you on Wednesday Jul 5, 2023 at 3:03 PM PDT.
@remindme@mstdn.social 6 hours
@JackFromWisconsin Here is your reminder!
@JackFromWisconsin Ok, I will remind you on Wednesday Jul 5, 2023 at 4:34 PM PDT.
awesome!
@remindme@mstdn.social 5 hours
@menemen Here is your reminder!
Good bot
@menemen Ok, I will remind you on Wednesday Jul 5, 2023 at 3:33 PM PDT.
I’m betting the Reddit posts will be there, but the people who were wrong usually delete there account within a year, in shame as they tend to be wrong about lots of other things. And yep I probably won’t be there either.