this post was submitted on 01 Jul 2023
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Think of it like email.
An account on gmail can still talk to a Yahoo account. Now just apply that to users and communities on lemmy.
I'm on iusearchlinux.fyi but can still engage with communities and users on lemmy.world and sh.itjust.works
So, but, forgive my ignorance, but why? Is it a hosting/capacity issue? Why multiple instances with different addresses?
I couldn't sign up on lemmy.world or lemmy.ml (I think) but registered on redd.that. What does that mean for me?
Not much really, just that your admins are the admins of redd.that. They can block other instances and ban users if they choose to. You have a choice of different instances. Some will block porn, some will ban users who hold certain political views. But you have the choice at least of which to join.
As to why: it means nobody owns Lemmy. Nobody can ever just ruin the whole place like Spez did Reddit. That's what we mean by "decentralized".
Also worth noting that you can sign up to multiple instances too. You aren't beholden to your admins in the same way that you are over a barrel at other social media websites with a single account. Your browser and all of the apps support multiple accounts out of the box.
It's honestly superior once you are used to it. I'm looking forward to the day we have federated ID to go along with it too without having to spin up a whole instance yourself.
This whole thing takes me right back to wild west internet days, or the first steps for Blockchain.
It's exciting to see what the community decides is best, and I'm looking forward to seeing if this takes off or at least becomes as natural to me (and others) as R*ddit was.
A lot of things I need to learn and un-learn.
Thanks for your insight - small comments like this are really helping me get my bearings here. 💚
It is a lot like the origin of the www where much of the best content were personal web sites. The technology got so complex that running your own website wasn't very practical for most people anymore and so they moved to platforms like Facebook, Google, Twitter, etc. I think we are at a point where enough people are starting to realize that having all content controlled by a for-profit company ends up being very bad for users and the fediverse is about building tools that allow individuals and communities to take back control of their own content.
Well I'll definitely raise a glass to a new tomorrow! And here's hoping this is a first step in getting us out from under the thrall of for-profit organisations more broadly
Apps also make it great. Lift off for example let's me sign in to both of my accounts and use them seemlessly. Like if a beehaw community appears in my feed I can comment from my acct there without switching anything.