Lemmy at a glance
Lemmy at a glance
Hi 🙋,
you might be in search for an reddit alternative and don’t get the Lemmy thing, yet. Lemme help you out, shortly.
- Lemmy lets you build
communitiesjust like you are used to. - You need an account to participate. I doesn’t matter on which server you register.
- https://feddit.org/ → German/English community
- https://feddit.uk/ → UK centric
- List of other servers
- Lemmy servers (instances) host communities and can be interconnected.
@user@example.comcan follow local or remote communities!community1@example.com!community2@niceplace.com- identified almost as easy as an e-Mail address.
- Following a community is called
subscribing, you’ll find a subscribe button when browsing communities. - Subscribing will keep you noted on new posts.
- Mobile clients can make the experience more fluffy
Our community is called !BuyFromEU@feddit.org but there are several likeminded communities out there. Make sure to watch out for them, e.g. by browsing an instance's local communities. Also if you want to stick around we posted about What to expect (from this community) and Where to start (buying european).
Feel free to link this post, when onboarding people to this community.
You're viewing a single thread.
Copy-pasting a comment from the pinned post of !fedibridge@lemmy.dbzer0.com. I've posted it to Reddit with a good reception: https://old.reddit.com/r/BuyFromEU/comments/1j0xkqa/lemmy_as_an_alternative_to_reddit_using/
Hello everyone,
This sub seems to get some traction in the last few days, which seems like a good opportunity to present Lemmy, an open-source alternative to Reddit.
What is Lemmy in one sentence?
Lemmy is an alternative to Reddit, you can visit https://phtn.app/ to have a look at the content, and install an app using https://vger.app/settings/install.
The more detailed explanation
That was the very easy version. No need to understand federation, servers, or any technical jargon.
But as we are European, the servers question should be quite familiar to us. Lemmy works like email: you use a provider to get access to the service, providers are operated by different people, but still allow everyone to use the same service. Think about email providers like mailbox.org, posteo, Soverin, Tuta mail, Infomaniak, Mailo etc.
Servers as analogy to countries
Lemmy works the same. You access the same content but via different servers. Most of the servers on Lemmy are operated by European volunteers, sometimes in a non-profit.
A list of links, with most active users first
- 🇪🇪 Estonia: https://lemm.ee/
- 🇩🇪🇦🇹🇨🇭 Germany, Austria and Switzerland: https://feddit.org/ and https://discuss.tchncs.de/
- 🇪🇺 EU-hosted: https://lemmy.zip/ (special mention to their detailed reports like this one: https://lemmy.zip/post/33065677)
- 🇫🇮 Finland: https://sopuli.xyz/
- 🇫🇷🇧🇪🇨🇭 France, Belgium, Switzerland: https://jlai.lu/
- 🇬🇧 UK: https://feddit.uk/
- 🇳🇱 Netherlands: https://feddit.nl/
- 🇮🇹 Italy: https://feddit.it/
- 🇩🇰 Denmark: https://feddit.dk/
- 🇵🇱 Poland: https://szmer.info/
- 🇸🇪 Sweden: https://feddit.nu/
- 🇵🇹 Portugal: https://lemmy.pt/
- Catalonia and Basque country: https://lemmy.cat/ and https://lemmy.eus/
- 🇧🇬 Bulgaria: https://feddit.bg/
- 🇱🇹 Lithuania: https://group.lt/
Can all servers access the same content? Yes! See for instance, the Europe community hosted on feddit.org: europe@feddit.org:
- https://feddit.org/c/europe
- https://jlai.lu/c/europe@feddit.org
- https://feddit.uk/c/europe@feddit.org
So, should you join the server of you country?
You don't have to, as all the content is available from every server. However, there is an added value to use a server you share a language or country feed: the Local feed. This is a feed that shows you communities hosted on that server. Compare for instance
- https://feddit.org/?dataType=Post&listingType=Local&sort=NewComments
- https://feddit.uk/?dataType=Post&listingType=Local&sort=NewComments
- https://jlai.lu/?dataType=Post&listingType=Local&sort=NewComments
The Local feeds are different, and are in different languages.
What are the strengths of such system compared to a centralized site like Reddit?
- Nobody can own the entire platform. If a server admin goes power tripping, people will switch servers, move the communities elsewhere, and leave that server. Same if a mod goes power tripping. It's billionnaire proof.
- Everyone can start their own server and join the network. Admins are people you can relate to, they are not an American CEO only aiming to extract profits from you.
- As the platform is open source, a lot of mobile apps and interfaces are being developed (more on that later).
- Lemmy is not the only technology working on that platform, other project like Mbin or Piefed work too: https://fedia.io/m/europe@feddit.org and https://piefed.social/c/europe@feddit.org
Experiences of new joiners
A few people have been trying out Lemmy after seeing it mentioned in the "Buy European" flyer that has been posted around, you can see their experience here: https://old.reddit.com/r/BuyFromEU/comments/1j0cl2u/ive_actually_moved_to_lemmy_reddit_alternative/
Frequently asked questions
Let's end with a few frequently asked questions
I heard that Lemmy developers have extremist political views, isn't that a risk?
As Lemmy is federated using an open protocol, there are other options to connect to the communities without using Lemmy itself.
The first one is Piefed: https://piefed.social/c/buyeuropean@feddit.uk
The other one is Mbin: https://fedia.io/m/buyeuropean@feddit.uk
However, those are stil a bit less mature than Lemmy, so for instance if you want to use mobile apps a lot, Lemmy is still a better choice.
On top of that, every Lemmy server is managed by different people. You can see regular criticism of lemmy.ml (the server managed by the Lemmy devs) on threads such as this: https://lemm.ee/post/33872586 or even dedicated communities like https://lemm.ee/c/meanwhileongrad@sh.itjust.works
That shows that even the Lemmy devs are not protected from criticism.
What if my server goes down?
This is always a risk. The usual recommendation is to go for a server that is managed by a few admins (feddit.org went the extra mile and is managed by a non profit: https://fediverse.foundation/) and have contact information and status pages in their sidebars (example for lemm.ee: https://status.lemm.ee/ and feddit.uk: https://stats.uptimerobot.com/XzEqqSB3Ay).
Most of the instances listed above have been around since July 2023 and the API fiasco. The cost to host an instance is quite low (can go as low as 0.03€ per user per month https://feddit.org/post/2600584) and admins may ask for small donations if needed.
Can I switch servers?
Lemmy has a built-in feature to export and import your subscriptions and block lists from the account settings. Switching to a new account takes a few minutes. You can keep the same username and avatar if you want people to recognize you from your previous account. As there is no karma system, you're not losing anything.
What interfaces and applications are available?
I've mentioned https://phtn.app/, which is also offered directly by some servers like https://p.feddit.org/ or https://p.feddit.uk/.
For people enjoying old.reddit, there is https://old.feddit.org/ , which can be used for every instance on https://o.opnxng.com/
Alexandrite is another one: https://alexandrite.app/
For mobile apps, there is an extensive list on https://www.lemmyapps.com/, including former Reddit clients like Sync and Boost, but also new ones like Voyager, Thunder, Summit, Arctic, Jerboa all actively developed.
There isn't enough content
That's a classic chicken-and-egg problem. Lemmy currently has 48k monthly active users , which is quite a lot compared to centralized alternatives like Discuit (less than 220 commenters ). Of course, with such a userbase, you can only sustain so many niche topics.
A good way to discover active communities is https://lemm.ee/c/communitypromo@lemmy.ca
Quite a few people on Lemmy use both Lemmy and Reddit at the same time. Lemmy because we believe in the platform, Reddit for the specific niche content.
Several communities have the same name, it's confusing, active communities are hard to find
Reddit has a similar issue: you have /r/games as the main gaming community, but there is also /r/Gaming, /r/videogames /r/gamers, etc.
How does someone know what the main community is, whatever the platform? Looking at the number of subscribers and active members.
There was the example of "patientgamers": if you search for that topic in the search bar, the most active one is definitely https://lemm.ee/c/patientgamers@sh.itjust.works with 1130 users per month.
The others have barely 63 monthly active users: https://lemm.ee/c/patientgamers@lemmy.ml , or 1 : https://lemm.ee/c/patientgamers@lemmy.world
To find active communities: https://lemm.ee/c/communitypromo@lemmy.ca There are regular threads with active communities on topic such as gardening, movies, board games, anime, science, etc.
There is too much political content
You can block entire servers and specific communities in your account settings.
Instances to block to avoid political content
Communities to block
- https://lemmy.world/c/news
- https://lemmy.world/c/politics
- https://lemmy.world/c/world
- https://lemmy.ml/c/worldnews
- https://lemmy.ml/c/usa
With those blocked, you are avoiding 95% of the political content. There might be a few other communities that pop up, but blocking them is still one click away.
On top of that, some apps like Voyager allow you to block keywords directly in the client.
Feel free if you have any questions in the comment
Idk about lemmygrad but hexbear isn’t inherently political. Hexbear hosts the largest trans and em_poc communities of Lemmy.
Interesting, I thought that the trans community was split between hexbear and Blahaj, Blahaj being the largest
I go to hexbear for the trans mega because it’s much more lively than any trans com in blahaj. Hexbear has 3 times as many users as blahaj and about half of its users is not cis. So yeah hexbear likely has a larger trans community
This is like a yes and no. There is a lot of communist talk, I've added comrade to my dictionary thanks to hexbear because I like the sound of comrade more than friend or buddy. They are very pro-Palenstine and hate Zionism. They also don't find Ukraine too favorable. But there are disabled, mutual aid, movie nights, lots of shit posting, dunking, and as you said trans and em_poc communities. There is a shock sometimes, like on 9/11. They hate the US, this is ok for me because I also hate our government. You can wish death on execs/wealthy assholes without getting banned. There is a culture, lots of emoji with esoteric meanings, and you will get banned for saying certain things like comparing China's president to Winnie the Pooh. Generally they favor China to an extent and the Soviet Union to an extent. But you will also get banned for transphobia, they are protective of their trans users/comrades. And they are pro-vegan, anything with animal products needs a content warning. Many things need CW, but I am ok with that. They also introduced me to Disco Elysium, which is an amazing game. Hexbear is ... unique.