Welcome New Users!

Salut/Hi there!

Bonjour, all! 🙂

Bonjour all.

Hi everyone!

Bonjour, fellow Canadian Lemmies! I'd deleted my Reddit account in November, and was only lurking, so it's nice to have a voice in the conversation once more.

Not a new user but I'm actually finally deleting my Reddit acct. Just updating all my comments and posts now using redact. The recent news about Elon getting them to massage their content was enough. Fuck them.

edit - 15 years of comments takes a fucking long time to update humourously I've been banned from multiple communities because of using redact.dev

What exactly is an 'instance'?

A couple of notes and unsolicited advice as someone who is almost an old hand already...

(1) Your front-page will be more interesting as you subscribe to more things. You can subscribe to things from other Lemmy servers and they will be pulled into your feed here.

(2) Communities that are hosted on this server will show up under "Local".

(3) "All" shows all of the local content from (2), but also any content that this server had to fetch from other servers for others. Basically, when you subscribe to stuff, it'll end up in All for everyone else on this server as well. If no one on the server has subscribed to specific content from another server, it won't show up in All. As a result, All is sort of a cross section of our users' interests.

(4) If you were to sign up for another server -- say lemm.ee -- you would get a different Local and All. But you should be able to subscribe to the same things regardless of the server you chose.

(5) Some servers are not connected to others, for reasons. This is called defederation. It's basically a means to block an entire server who has a community not behaving in a way that doesn't jive well on your local server. Lemmygrad.ml is blocked from this server, for example. You probably won't notice, but on rare occasions you can't subscribe to a community on a blocked server.

(6) You can help the quieter communities grow by shitposting. Throw your backlog of old saved memes into them. There isn't as much traffic here as reddit, and the niche communities often don't exist (or are silent).

(7) Find a larger community to post to for engagement. For example, on Reddit I would subscribe to the WinnipegJets team sub, but on Lemmy it is too quiet. So instead I post my Jets content to the more general Hockey community so we can have some discussion. This will change over time.

(8) A good place to find communities to subscribe to is: https://lemmyverse.net/communities -- copy and paste the community name -- eg: !technology@lemmy.world -- into the search bar and then subscribe.

(9) Meow

(10) Try different sort options. New or Scales are my favourites.

I'm happy to see new users joining Lemmy and every instance out there big and small.

One thing everyone should consider and think of is .... funding and supporting the Fediverse.

Every new user should consider and think about supporting the fediverse through a donation as they use this new community in order for it to remain free to use, open and freely available for everyone. We all like to believe that these things can be just free to use without any of us having to pay for any of it. We also like to think that people just magically and without reward or compensation just work in the background for free to keep all this software, hardware, equipment and organization running.

We don't have to spend a fortune to keep funding these projects, but we should contribute something to it even if it is a small amount. If thousands of users spend a dollar, then it would add up to thousands of dollars to keep this whole system well funded. I know I've chatted with a few of the instance owners and have read what developers have written in the past ... many of them have well paying jobs and have commercial work themselves that they do and they enjoy doing the work on Lemmy as either a hobby or passion project. However, I also know that as the popularity of these platforms grow, expenses add up for more hardware requirements, new hardware requirements, software management, security management and even having people monitoring everything online around the clock. Eventually, no matter how you cut it ... work, time, effort, equipment all ends up costing money to someone at some point. And those costs only increase as popularity grows. And those payments have to come from somewhere.

Donating a little bit and funding even just a little from everyone should be a new norm we should all accept. Otherwise, any new social media we create, no matter how open source we want it to be will slowly just be affected by corporate rot and get taken over again by those who would like to lock everything behind a wall and make the most money from it.

Donating to Lemmy.ca (run by the non-profit Fedecan)
https://fedecan.ca/en/donate

Donating to the Lemmy Software developers
https://join-lemmy.org/donate

Donating to The Fediverse Foundation
https://fediverse.foundation/en/spenden/

But also ... Donate to the instance you are on and support the people who maintain your instance.

Welcome!

A social network is created by our collective social interaction. We're still small, so your posts, comments and upvotes matter. Don't just lurk, if you can. Every upvote counts! 😊

This one's ours.

I find it way more easy to have civil interactions with people here. On reddit, I would either get ignored or discussions would turn to shit. Lemmy is actually way more fun to use, it just need a bit more of content.

First of all, thanks for all the work you do. I lived almost 10 years in Canada and having an account here makes me feel warm inside (not on the outside :-) ).

Any idea why the recent influx of new users? May it have anything to do with Reddit planning to put some subreddits behind a paywal?

Thanks again!

Glad to be here. I wanted to get off Reddit for obvious reasons.

Hey so as a Canadian, we are about to get attacked by our long time ally and the worlds military superpower. We are probably going to be steamrolled, and then become second class citizens in the Trump dictatorship cult. Am I allowed to say violent things about how that makes me feel? Or will I get banned, like on reddit?

🫶 happy to be here

Just joined today! Deleted all my posts on Reddit (thank you Shreddit) deleted my account, and now I’m here! The US can go to hell, well, it’s half way there already. Thank you Lemmy.ca

Hello! Coming over from Reddit and I'm new to Lemmy. So happy to easily find a Canadian Community!

'morning! I'm in. Though I scrubbed my reddit content back in the 'strike' my eyeballs still regularly contributed to their site. I guess I'm stopping that now too. Small steps, as they say. Looking forward it.

First off, this is great... thanks to everyone who's helped put all this together! It's a relief to finally have a Canadian alternative! And then can someone please explain to me (like I'm 5) what an "instance" is exactly?

Thank you for hosting and for all your work! I am excited to see this community grow. I have already seen a couple of posts on Canadian reddit communities where people name dropped lemmy.ca. It'd be interesting to maybe do a census once the signups stabilize to see how much the demographic changed. (I saw that there was one made in 2023).

Hello. I don't usually make personal posts but I am glad this site exists. I left reddit after 5 years. It was on reddit that I was pointed here. The Fediverse sounds like a beneficial collective and I am excited to see it grow.

Usually I just post stupid puns (which are very clever in my head) and topical quips which offer nothing (but are very genius in my head). I hope to have fun, get informed, and learn something from the pack along the way. Goodbye.

Hi, I'm new to Lemmy Greetings from the Netherlands 🇳🇱🇨🇦🇪🇺

Glad to be here! As Reddit keeps enshittifying, and the boycott USAmerica movement gains momentum, hoping more folks migrate over.

Hello All. I'm another new user hopping over from Reddit. Breaking the ice with this post.

Learned about Lemmy recently and I immediately wanted to join so I can get out of Reddit

Good to be here.

Hello Lemmy.ca,

Super new here, but super happy to find this exists. I hope it grows and keeps gaining in popularity despite the clunky nature which I think is inherent to the Fediverse (am I saying that right?).

My story is probably like a lot of people here. Reddit was my only actual social media account. Never did the Twitter/Facebook/Instagram, whatever else. Reddit was how I got my news and I was fine with that.

But back in January when this whole Tariff thing was first winding up, I decided to go hard and start my American boycott. I cancelled Netflix and Disney+ (I haven't missed them for one second, which makes me wonder why I was paying for them anyway), I cancelled my Xbox Gamepass. I was already boycotting all things Amazon and Wal-mart. You get the idea. Reddit though, it didn't feel like a betrayal - r/onguardforthee was my Canadian politics news source of choice and I wasn't giving them any money.

But it occurs to me, when engagement numbers is how these guys convince investors to prop them up with no sustainable business model - I sort of was doing some damage. So, I set off looking for an alternative and here I am.

We have so little power to influence things these days it can feel pointless to make changes. Changes to our social media site of choice. Changes to our buying habits. How much does it really add up? But my father taught me, and I bet yours did too, you don't do the right thing because it guarantees the right outcome. You do it so you can look in the mirror at the end of the day. Thanks for helping me look in the mirror.

I had no idea that communities had taken off on Lemmy since 2 years ago! I didn't even realize I still had an account on here.

Really excited to see where this goes, and to support a Canadian server. Fingers crossed that this gains more traction in Canada and can act as strong shield against misinformation and bad faith actors.

I'll be certain to spread the word about this community more to fellow Canadians. I think with current events this could be the lightning in the bottle to see more usage here.

Any communities worth looking at?

Woo! I'm from .world but wanted to make an account here too :D

Elbows up!!!

Thanks for having me! I'm glad to have finally made the switch over from Reddit and other conventional platforms. I've always been mostly a lurker but hey, maybe this time will be different. Looking forward to the fresh start!

I challenge every newbies to create 1-3 posts over the first 72 h here : what do you enjoy in social media usually? It doesn’t have to be perfectly new if it’s new on Lemmy: your favourite Reddit group isn’t represented here or silent for a while : show us a glimpse of what you like and see how much engagement you receive.

Hello. Nice to see a Canadian alternative to reddit.

Hi Everyone! I joined today. Have used Lemmy briefly in the past but never got into it fully.

Only question I have right now is - how does one create a Community? I'd like to start one for my small town to post news, events and open discussions for others to find and join as the server grows.

Thanks in advance!

Make yourselves at home!

Please check out !taneggs@lemmy.ca and !modelparliament@lemmy.ca

A quick hello from a new community member. Thank you to the folks who set this up, and to participants in this community generally. You give me hope.

@otter@lemmy.ca, do you know what the catalyst was for the recent influx? It’s great news!

I'm not new. This is my second post already.

Welcome new users! You've made an excellent choice.

Elbows up, hosers!

Another question: My email notifications take me to lemm.ca... is there any way to be directed to https://alex.lemmy.ca/lemmy.ca? Something in my settings maybe?

absolutely new to here (and to Lemmy, just learn that this exist today from.. well .. reddit) Glad to be here and glad to move on from there. Thanks to all the folks who host this, setting this up, and making this happen!

Is there any interest in taking donations on Librapay or Open collective again?

Thank you for Lemmy.ca :) Go #TeamCanada

Welcome new folks!

New here, looking to move from redd it also. Got recommended lemmy by my brother this morning and I like what I see so far. Keep up the good work.

Hello! Still mostly hanging out at Reddit but I see the writing on the wall and am trying to at the very least diversify, and hopefully make a full switch soon. Very grateful that this is here - both Lemmy and this particular resource.

Hello everyone, nice to e-meet you :D

Just joined after being recommended on Reddit. The straw for me was a recent 7 day ban because I stated a historical fact on guerrilla war and America. Not sure when Americans got so delicate and all snowflake like but whatever. Glad to be here.

Bonjour amigos!

Thank you. I'm in, I need something that doesn't feed me an algorithm.

Hi! Great to be here, thanks! First Lemmy post ever, too.

I'm sure I'm not the first one in this Reddit exodus to mention this, but can we assume maybe there's an interest in refining the Lemmy experience to be a bit more streamlined and user friendly? As in, simpler to navigate and less dependent in tech-saviness.

For example, I had some confusion just to create my Lemmy account, or even download and sign-in to the Jerboa app. There's many Lemmy related pages and apps, which can be quite confusing and discouraging for most users showing interest in moving over. And I do consider myself tech-savvy, so I'm sure most people I know would just give up on it.

I know this is a somewhat sudden and unexpected move, and the last thing I want is to create unnecessary pressure on Lemmy, as these things take time, naturally.

Anyways I wish you well, and lots of success. I'll try my best and make this platform my main reddit-like one.

Here are some more tips, put together by @Rentlar@lemmy.ca in this post

Quick FAQ:

Hi hello. Just got my Lemmy account today. A refugee from Reddit. I had been a reddit user for over 11 years. Apparently I pissed off an admin saying something. I'm not sure exactly what because the comment was deleted and they banned me. I assume the comment was related to Canada and Trump nonsense. Whatever.

This is actually great timing because I didn't want to use a social media company in the US given the state they are in now and the direction they're heading.

Being a left leaning Canadian, getting banned from reddit was probably just a matter of time anyway.

Reddit has become just an absolute dumpster fire lately. Anything even remotely negative and bam you're banned. Even the gifs i could post got so limited. I'm done with it, and am joining the exodus.

I start to respond to a post or comment that I see on NEW. I finish and right before I hit post, I notice the instance/server is completely unrelated to my response and I deleted my post :) - It's an added nuance to Lemmy that takes some getting used to.

Accounts and anonymity?

For social media, I don't mind using my real name and email to register as long as only my username shows on posts or image uploads.

When I upload an image, what can other users see?

Can you please add Liberapay as a donation option? I don't see it on your donation page.