this post was submitted on 06 Jul 2023
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Fediverse

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A community to talk about the Fediverse and all it's related services using ActivityPub (Mastodon, Lemmy, KBin, etc).

If you wanted to get help with moderating your own community then head over to [email protected]!

Rules

Learn more at these websites: Join The Fediverse Wiki, Fediverse.info, Wikipedia Page, The Federation Info (Stats), FediDB (Stats), Sub Rehab (Reddit Migration), Search Lemmy

founded 2 years ago
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I used to browse Reddit 90+% of the time from my phone through the RiF app, so after June 30th, here is what I did and what I recommend as a starter pack for others in the same situation:

  • Create account on lemmy.world, so the browser part is covered
  • Search for the information on which app provides the closest to the RiF (Apollo, etc.) experience
  • Instal Liftoff and be happy - it is just like RiF :-) (for Apollo and others, it could be different - find your own favorite!)
  • Dial back dramatically on using Reddit at all. I only load 4 subs in my phone's browser, because I did not find the Lemmy / Fediverse alternatives yet
  • Constantly look for the communities to replace the subreddits you are still visiting
  • OPTIONAL - once or twice a week, look at /r/pics and /r/videos and laugh at the creativity of the still ongoing protest :-)

So that is where I am right now, posting this via the web browser on the lemmy.world site, by pressing "create a post". Seems easy enough for now, but I find it a bit confusing that other people can post from Mastodon and other Lemmy instances... Do they see the same communities I do? Do I see all Lemmy communities if I use lemmy.world....? So many questions, but it's exciting to explore this brand new structure.

Even after reading the Fediverse and ActivityPub articles on Wikipedia my head is spinning, and I don't really understand how everything fits / works together, but here I am! An ex(-ish) Redditor after the APIcalypse, looking for cool new communities, and excited about the future that the Fediverse can bring!

(I'm willing to learn! Someone please link me a FAQ where I can find the answers to my questions :-) )

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[–] [email protected] 89 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Welcome to Lemmy. Here is your free Lemming:

Go wild!

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago

LOL, thanks!

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

We are Lemmyins now. Lemmy In! Lemmy In! ...That was a good shitpost, IMO.

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[–] [email protected] 47 points 1 year ago (5 children)

For apollo: use https://wefwef.app, it’s nearly identical.

[–] [email protected] 50 points 1 year ago (2 children)

The speed at which all apps are updated is insane! Not only wefwef.app but also Memmy. The community really wants this project to succeed.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago

Definitely rooting for it!

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[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 year ago

Plus Memmy is out on the App Store! Doesn’t help OP of course.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I'm not sure if I'm just technologically challenged, but I can't seem to find a way to log into wefwef from a smaller instance. Does it only support the big four?

//edit: Turns out you can only pop in as a guest from the bigger instances. You can log in to any instance, and I'm just dumb.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

For Sync, try Thunder, it's similar. Sync will eventually come out, but Thunder is FOSS.

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[–] [email protected] 44 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Lemmy is a piece of software. Lemmy software is a link aggregator - same as reddit.

So you’re signed up to a server that's installed an instance (a copy) of the Lemmy software. Other servers also run the Lemmy software making them also instances of Lemmy. As well as you being able to talk to users in Communities (think subreddits) on the lemmy.world server, you can talk to users in Communities on other Lemmy instances. For example, lemmy.ml, feddit.de etc etc

KBin is also link aggregator software, just like Lemmy and Reddit. Same things apply there, same software on multiple servers, all able to talk with each other.

Mastodon software is a microblogging service - same as Twitter (and Threads). Just like instances of Lemmy, instances of Mastodon can talk to each other. So a user on mastodon.world can talk to (for example) a user on kolektiva.social which is also running the Mastodon software.

There’s also Pixelfed (Instagram), PeerTube (YouTube), Friendica (Facebook), Plume (WordPress) and a large variety of others.

Now, as well as all these different types of software (Lemmy, Mastodon, KBin, PixelFed etc) being able to talk to other instances of the same software on other servers, because they are all underpinned by a single method of passing information called ActivityPub, each type of software can also talk to each other - so you as a Lemmy user can also see posts and comments from a user on a server running an instance of Mastodon (or Plume, or PixedlFed, or...you get the idea). All these things are loosely joined together making a joined (federated) universe - the fediverse.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I thought I was getting the hang of this until I read your comment and learned about all these cool technologies in the fediverse. Thank you, I found this super helpful.

Do I need to setup accounts for these other ones like mastodon, pixelfed?

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago (2 children)

No problem :)

It really depends on your intention...if you intend to just interact with (for example) Mastodon users that appear occasionally in the Lemmy communities you're a part of then there's no need at all. Or if you want to communicate occasionally with a Mastodon (or any other type of software) user then you could use their Mastodon handle to do so - for example go to the Search box on your Lemmy instance and type in @[email protected] (which is the 'official' Mastodon account on the mastodon.social server but it can be any handle) wait for a few seconds (or longer depending on the speed of the server) and the user account with the ability to private message them appears. There are currently some issues but it used to be possible to post directly to a Mastodon user's timeline from Lemmy. Mastodon users can post to Lemmy. It's worth remembering that Mastodon is a LOT more mature as a product than Lemmy, which is still in its infancy.

For now, at least, Id say if you're looking to spend a lot of time on each different software type then register an account at an instance of it. The integration will come, but the fediverse is young, Lemmy in particular is very young so it'll take time.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Thank you for this explanation! Lemmy really needs an award function to allow me to give people awards for going above and beyond.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

No need :) if you're not already, make a donation to the instance you're on instead.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

Technically, no, but you may want to. All of these services are federated and interact with one another. Mastodon users can interact with pixelfed posts and lemmy communities and anything else in the Fediverse. In reality, though, these services, and their clients, are built for specific types of content. If you're spending much time at all on those other Federated communities, the "round peg, square hole" nature of using a Reddit-like app to use a Twitter-like service (as an example) may start to chafe.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I've seen numerous posts trying to explain what is going on here but this is the one that made sense to me. Thanks.

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[–] [email protected] 38 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I would discourage telling everyone to go to Lemmy.World as not only could it overload the server, the centralisation problem starts all over again.

The vast majority of instances are federated to all the big ones anyway, so I would recommend looking around to see if there are any instances that better fit your wants before going straight Lemmy.World. You won't lose anything from it, and you'll be supporting the wider fediverse.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Spread out communities makes it easier to avoid a single admin deciding to go crazy. Like imagine if Reddit had been composed of different instances, so people were able to just pack up and leave the instance he was on and not lose all their communities by quitting the Spez reddit instance. So you make a good point. Maybe over time there will be topic based instances popping up like an instance for entertainment, and an instance for games. Which would be pretty cool over a swiss army knife do everything approach instance where everyone starts migrating communities too because it has the largest user base.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago

This already is a thing, see StarTrek.website, Lemmy.film and LemmyNSFW.com for just a few examples.

The admin paranoia is tough because it goes both ways. Yes, big instances mean huge losses if they get abandoned, defederated or the admin loses his mind. At the same time, smaller instances are often run by regular people who can't or aren't interested in running an instance long term, or don't have the ability to have 99%+ uptime.

At the moment momentum is important to reach critical mass of users and it's just not feasible to tell most Reddit refugees "Okay so go to look up the handful of instances closest to your geographical location. Research their uptime, the reliability of their admins, their funding, their rules and whether they're defederated from any major instances. Just pick the one that best suits your needs! Oh, also remember to use [email protected] (don't forget the exclamation point!) when searching for communities because many small instances haven't connected yet to everyone. This also means these subs will appear empty at first because old content doesn't get propagated but don't worry about it. Oh and also sorting topics by Hot is bugged on small instances currently."

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[–] [email protected] 23 points 1 year ago (6 children)

Optional extra point to add on to #5: if the community that needs to replace a subreddit isn't here yet, MAKE IT. And advertise it, so it can get popular. Be the change you want to see!

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (5 children)

Newbie here and apologies if these are FAQs but just want one line answers

What's an instance?

What's a community?

What are federations?

Whats the difference between all these?

What's mastodon?

What's Kbin?

What's ActivityPub?

Just jargon I'm trying to get my head around, I'm still confused on signing up to different communities?! I guess and yeah.. a bit lost I suppose. If there are FAQs to all this please direct me to them, thanks!

[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 year ago (2 children)

What’s an instance?

An instance is a server running the Lemmy software (or some other federation software such as Mastodon, Kbin, Pixelfed, and others). Instances can talk together (similarly to how you can send email from gmail.com to outlook.com), so you can sign up on one instance and subscribe and comment to communities on other instances

What’s a community?

A community is to Lemmy what a subreddit is to Reddit. on

What are federations?

Federation is the machanism allowing different instances (servers) to talk together. Federation is automatic, so two instances becomes federated, when you as a user on one instance subscribe to a community on a different instance

Whats the difference between all these?

Many instances are general but have somewhat different values and rules for what you can post or not. "lemmy.world" is a good choice for a general instance. There are also topic specific instances, such as "mander.xyz" that is science focused.

What’s mastodon?

Mastodon is like twitter but is part of the federated universe (the "fediverse").

What’s Kbin?

Kbin - like Lemmy - is like Reddit. The impelemntation is different and focuses on different fetures. Some (myself included) like Kbin more than Lemmy - others the other way around.

What’s ActivityPub?

ActivityPub is the common technical protocol that allows all of the software in the Fediverse to talk together. Both Mastodon, Kbin and Lemmy (and others) are build "on top" of the ActivityPub protocol.

Hope this helps

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'm just not sure about how much I like that on kbin, upvotes and downvotes are publicly viewable. I don't mind publicly viewable comments of course... but your votes? Eesh.

Sorry about the reddit link. It's old.reddit though: https://old.reddit.com/r/RedditAlternatives/comments/14gyay8/on_kbin_upvotes_downvotes_are_public/

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (4 children)

I'll give it a try, though I'm new here too:

What's an instance? -> A server on which you can register your account

What's a community? -> same as a subreddit

What are federations? -> Information exchange between servers

What's mastodon? -> Twitter alternative. As lemmy is to reddit

What's Kbin? -> Similar to lemmy, but kbin can interact better with Mastodon

What's ActivityPub? -> the protocol used within the fediverse

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Lemmy has definitely been able to replace Reddit for me. And although I don’t fully understand the fediverse either, I am super intrigued by the concept. I hope this style is the future of social interaction on the internet.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

I explain the fediverse a bit like all those "local" newspaper websites (that have names like Chathamgazette.org or GainsvilleAdvertiser.com or ChanningtownTimes.net), that in actual fact share 90% of the content on articles (usually all articles written as adverts but that is not part of the analogy here). They have 10% local content that others could access then the pages are made up of material they all share.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Essentially, lemmy.world is an email provider right? Like Gmail.

And communities [or subs!] are forums. While these forum posts are made by people who are on the lemmy.world instance, every other provider [instance] can see them, provided the instance owner has not decided to block other providers [defederated].

As long as you are browsing ALL instead of Local [local only shows subs on your own instance], it's effectively reddit.

It may be worthwhile to make an account on an instance which features your country for Lemmy performance purposes, plus the local communities [subs, remember] may be very relevant for you, albeit probably very small in terms of users.

Signing up for lemmy.world is like signing up for shit, monopolised, slow internet in America? It has lots of customers, but that new upstart fibre company [small, fast instance] will let you see the same pages as shitty, slow Comcast.

(I'm not knocking Lemmy.world, just using it for this analogy)

That's what I make of the fed so far, pretty cool.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

Welcome. The confusion will fade away after a few more days of using lemmy. :)

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

www.fedi.tips it's tailored to Mastodon but similar rules apply. It's written for non technical users.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

I haven't found anything like Joey, but I like liftoff a lot

Connect is OK but I don't like comment threads having the color line extended the whole way down. I also don't like connects font size options. Too big or too small.

I also don't care for Connect's comment option bar between comments. Too spread out

Font size options are a big miss on most reddit apps

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I still need an app that does the RIF thing of hiding the little links under a post (time it was posted, by whom, also links to share share, save, hide, comments, etc.) on the main feed until I click on it. It saved a lot of screen real estate.

But until an app does that, I've been switching between Liftoff, Connect, Jerboa, wefwef, and the kbin.social PWA. They all seem to sort posts in different ways so it's actually provided a different experience each time lol.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I highly recommend trying the Summit for Lemmy app. It doesn't have an Inbox or Profile pages yet, but browsing is much smoother than all alternatives

[–] Decide 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Can confirm. Instantly better than any other app I've installed for Lemmy. Also, Liftoff requires you to login to each individual instance to upvote anything from that instance for some reason. Summit is great, is what I'm saying.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Also, Liftoff requires you to login to each individual instance to upvote anything from that instance for some reason.

Uh, I just upvoted you and this post from feddit.it using Liftoff

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