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Fedibridge @lemmy.dbzer0.com Blaze (he/him) @lemmy.dbzer0.com

Lemmy as an alternative to Reddit, using European-owned server

Reposting this here as the /r/buyfromEU post has been removed: 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. If you are still reading this, this means you are interested about how things work behind the scenes. If not, you can skip to the FAQ section.

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

Can all servers access the same content? Yes! See for instance, the Europe community hosted on feddit.org: 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

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.

Also, Lemmy is open source and open licensed. If the original developers do anything crazy or try to take control of the whole platform, anyone can “fork” the project, effectively making their own version without those changes.

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

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

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