We are happy to see that many of you are exploring Lemmy after Reddit announced changes to its API policy. I maintain this project alongside @dessalines@lemmy.ml.
Lemmy is similar to Reddit in many ways, but there is also a major difference: Its not only a single website, but consists of many different websites which are interconnected through federation. This is achieved with the ActivityPub protocol which is also used by Mastodon. It means that you can sign up on any Lemmy instance to interact with users and communities on other instances. The project website has a list of instances which all have their own rules and administrators. We recommend that you sign up on one of them, to avoid overt centralization on lemmy.ml.
Another difference compared to Reddit is that Lemmy is open source, and not funded by any company. For this reason it relies on volunteer work to make the project better, whether it's programming, design, documentation, translating, reporting issues or others. See the contributing guide to get started. You can also donate to support development.
We also recommend that you read the documentation. It explains how Lemmy works and how to setup your own Lemmy instance. Running an instance gives you full control over the rules and moderation, and prevents us developers from having any influence. Especially large communities that want to use Lemmy should host their own instance, because existing Lemmy instances would easily be overwhelmed by a large number of new users.
Enjoy your time here! If you have any questions, feel free to ask below or in the Matrix chat.
Interestingly, Reddit was open-source between 2008-2017. I'm hoping we can kind of re-capture the feeling of old Reddit without botspam, adspam, and more focus on community and improving experience than on "premium features" and monetization.
Lemmy looks great, I hope it manages to comes out on top on the upcomming battle of the reddit alternatives because due to it's decentralized nature it's pretty much impossible for lemmy to go south like reddit and digg.
Imo lemmy seems to have more features than Reddit also, like editing post titles, having text alongside an image post, using third party apps (which will stop soon with Reddit) etc. Reddit is very slow to add updates that make sense, but lemmy moves fast and is a great piece of software.
Let me know how I can help. I brought a lot of traffic to reddit, just to find out reddit admins are more sensitive than the mods that work for free.
I spoke up how poorly their mobile app changed towards modding on mobile, instead of taking the issues at hand they limited my number of subbreddits I could moderate.
I have knowledge in automod if that's a feature here, also I am pretty fast at finding information.
A very minor thing, but I really like that you can see the downvotes on posts like you used to be able to do on reddit. Is there any vote confuscation like reddit did/does or is it straight up what the votes are?
This is the way. As a bit of a Reddit-addict I hope Lemmy (and perhaps other interoperable projects one day?) will take off. Centralized social media sites appear to be doomed to inevitable self-destruction. Protocols can survive.
Like Mastodon and other ActivityPub applications however, it is the Federated nature which IMO still needs some work. Not being able to easily browse remote communities, posts, scores, comments, etc. from the comfort of my home instance (which will also be the only portal to the federated world visible to mobile applications) is a problem. On Mastodon I often don't see all replies, and likewise on Lemmy I don't see any comments to this post yet.
I hope ActivityPub apps figure out a way to better synchronize remote and local state so users won't keep seeing incomplete/fragmented views of Fedi content.
Fingers crossed that the rapid decline of "mainstream" social media, news, forum sites leads to more widespread adoption of the fediverse. The internet used to be so good before we were all under the Boot...
anyway, hi y'all. I'd say I'm happy to be here, but I'm not... I'm just so disheartened at what our internet has become. BUT - I am hopeful. I think we're experiencing growing pains as a society and this is but one side effect of that; I truly believe the future is on our side, here.
either that, or we all return to monke and THAT is how we free ourselves of the collective brain rot that is web2.0 and beyond. :)
anyway, cheers to a Good Internet. may it still be possible. <3
Anybody know if we had a spike of new users and activitiy here after reddit's announcement?
I joined lemmy like a week before reddit's announcement after checking it every now and then for months. I didn't see so many comments and upvotes on posts last week.
A long, long time ago
I can still remember how upvotes used to make me smile
And I knew if I just got rollin'
That I could help keep users scrollin'
And maybe there'd be content for a while
But July 1st makes me shiver
With far less content to deliver
Bad news on the frontpage
I can no longer engage
I can't remember if I erupted
When I read apps would be disrupted
But disappointment interrupted
The day that Reddit died
So bye, bye, old Reddit API
Stuck with Huffman through some updates but the updates were shite
And them good ole boys were snortin' gonewild 'n smite
Postin' this'll be the day that it dies
This'll be the day Reddit dies
Did you read the TOS?
And do you have faith in mods success
If users still engage with subs?
Now do you believe in open access?
Can ads save your failing assets?
And could you be less avarice heedless schlubs?
Well, I know that you're in need of clicks
'Cause I see you suckin' Newhouse dicks
You both killed third party apps
Man, I thought that you might give a crap
I was a lonely teenage software dev
With a git repository and a shit to give
But I knew those apps wouldn't live
The day that Reddit died
I started singing bye, bye, old Reddit API
Stuck with Huffman through some updates but the updates were shite
And them good ole boys were snortin' gonewild 'n smite
Postin' this'll be the day that it dies
This'll be the day Reddit dies
Now for ten years we'd moved on from Digg
And greed grows fast for a ventured pig
But that's not how it used to be
When the users came for the cats and memes
From apps made by the community
And content that came from you and me
Oh, and while those cats were growing old
The number crunchers grew too bold
The communities dismissed
Now everyone is pissed
And while Lemmy federates with Marx
The concept knocks it from the park
It's time to migrate to an ark
The day that Reddit died
So bye, bye, old Reddit API
Stuck with Huffman through some updates but the updates were shite
And them good ole boys were snortin' gonewild 'n smite
Postin' this'll be the day that it dies
This'll be the day Reddit dies
Just created an account because Reddit official app is a big no no for me. I really liked Infinity, and since I never use Reddit on my desktop, this is the only way for me to browse it without getting mad. I'm really interested to see where it all goes
I have a pretty good feeling that lemmy.ml is going to be the next reddit.com. Sure, there's different instances of the federation, but this one seems more developed than most of the others.
you can mention or message anyone on any website using their address.
So someone on a Mastadon community of servers could ping me in their server/website and I'd get a notification?
And can posts on one Lemmy server also show up in another Lemmy server? Like could a post be made here, braodcast into the lemmy-verse, and appear on another Lemmy website?
Hi everyone, I heard about the legendary digg exodus many times (I joined reddit in 2013). I have to say it's strange to be a part of this one.
Are there any good iOS clients for lemmy? I found https://github.com/uuttff8/Remmel but it looks like it hasn't been updated in a while, and it's also not available on most of the app stores.
Hi all! Happy to be here. Been thinking about moving to an open source federated reddit-like for a while now, and the imminent death of RiF is what finally pushed me to sign up. Spent the last hour or so poking around different communities, and like what I see.
I just wasted a ton of time trying to create an account here and it not working before realizing that I already made one nearly 3 years ago. Fun times. At least I'm here now. I'm also really scared/frustrated with the direction Reddit is going.
Hi, newbie here :-) How do we see all the posts on a topic like technology, but not just on Lemmy.ml where I happened to join, but from all over the "fediverse"? Could there be big discussions going on on other servers I'd just miss? How to get the complete bird's eye view on a topic across all of Lemmy?
Thanks for the welcome! Hopefully Lemmy will grow with the Reddit changes, I wanted to join a while back but the lack of users held me back; since the news I decided to join anyway, and hopefully others will do the same!
One question: I'm browsing via Lemmy app downloaded straight from GitHub, but some posts don't show the comments, even though I see there are several and if I use the browser everything is there. Bug? User error? Thanks in advance!
Happy to give Lemmy a try! I had a bit of an adventure setting up my instance, but I think I've got it all working now :) Hopefully I'm now "here" to others on the Fediverse!
I joined because of the reddit changes. I'm not going to PAY for a service that should be free, especially when you consider that they're already making a bucket load from users as it is. I foresee reddit dying very soon. No one is going to pay for an API. Well not many, anyways.
Twitter makes a series of bad and user-unfriendly decisions, causing many of it's users to flee to Mastodon. Now Reddit makes a series of bad and user-unfriendly decisions, causing many of it's users to flee to Lemmy. When will the big suits learn?
How do communities work across instances? Among other things, can a community have a moderator on another server? Would the top mod need to be on the same server?
Dumb question i can't find an answer to: You see a post in a different Lemmy server than your own, and if you try to answer it says you're not logged in, because you're not in that server. How do i see posts/communities through your server so that i can vote or comment? Don't see a clear answer to this in the docs, or have missed it completely.
Edit: Partially answering myself: Go to the "search" box of your instance and put the name of the community you want in the format "!linux@lemmy.ml", it should show you that community through your server. Will update if/when i find an answer for direct posts that does the same.
I'm very impressed with Lemmy and the fediverse in general. What a promising future for social media, especially after a decade of capitalism and centralisation slowly eroding the integrity of every commercial equivalent.
Thanks for the welcome! I was a little standoffish about signing up but then found an app for it and it honestly feels like reddit should at this point. (For those curious, it's Jerboa for Lemmy on the play store)
Well, might as well register. Hopefully this works out for everyone involved. Sad that reddit is pushing people out, but a federated model is better in the end.
I have a question about communities. Are communities server-specific, i.e, if is the "Gaming" community on lemmy.ml different from the one on, say, beehaw.org?
@nutomic@lemmy.ml would you be able to provide any general guidance for potential community/sub-reddit/sub-lemmy creators or admins on the trade-offs involved in starting a new community (on an existing instance) vs starting a new instance?
I figure for those new to free and federated social, the case for starting an instance might not be clear, and could, provided technical abilities are available, be an attractive and useful option for some.
Thanks for having me. Even before this API bullshit I was thinking about getting off reddit for something else. Looking forward to spending some time here!
Just joined because of all the reddit shenanigans. Quick question: I'm posting from the beehaw instance and am wondering what happens to my account if the instance goes down? Does it just disappear?
I went from Slashdot to Fark to Digg to Reddit. Already found the Fediverse as @baronvonj@mastodon.online after recent changes over on Twitter.
As my user bio says I dabble in guitar and watch rugby (US MLR, go SaberCats) and hockey (NHL). For reading it’s mostly fantasy, with The Witcher and Discworld being my most recent books, but I also enjoy scifi. I tend to be more visual (ie TV and movies) due to ADHD though. Video games with a strong narrative are great. Games like the Horizon series (Zero Dawn, Forbidden West), Uncharted, Assassin’s Creed, Witcher, and Zelda Breath of the Wild.
Not so much a question, as a couple of comments. One is of course a hearty thank you to the devs who've put so much work into creating something like this. Long ago I was an avid Usenetter, and while Reddit replicates a lot of the feel of Usenet its underlying structure is tragically centralized and closed. Lemmy feels a lot more like the Usenet of old and I would be very happy seeing it take off.
The other is: you've got a month left to iron out as many kinks as possible. :) The real flood isn't going to start until Reddit actually shuts off those APIs, because humans are lazy and I bet most just clicked through the announcement their third-party app gave them and figured they'd worry about it later. I've seen threads on Reddit where there was a lot of odd negativity about Lemmy and a lot of it seemed to come down to a confusing interface or stylistic complaints, those seem like things that can be addressed in a hurry and might be worth focusing on. I'm brand new here myself so I'll see if I can spot some to comment about more specifically in the future, but I'm sure you've got a backlog with that sort of thing in it anyway.
And if Reddit ultimately bans NSFW content, as they keep seeming to be edging towards, the flood will become a deluge. But that will likely be a separate phase of their enshittification process than the API thing, so who knows when that will be.
Hello! Also a reddit refugee here. I was thinking of making the switch before all this since reddit needs an increasing array of tweaks & add-ons just to be usable (RES, old reddit redirect, custom ublock filters etc.) so this seemed like a good time to start migrating.
Hello everybody! I was a Digg refuge, now I'm a Reddit refuge. This is pretty neat that its not funded by a company and relies on volunteers. I think this is going to be a good place. I was wondering if there is an app for IOS?
Thanks for the welcome! I'm loving the idea of the fediverse and I really hope lemmy can help recreate some of the enjoyment I used to get from Reddit.
I have a question about managing communities on different servers. I may be misunderstanding how this works, coming from Reddit, but I wanted to ask...
I have subscribed to a few different communities here on lemmy.ml
However, I noticed for example that there is no "literature" community on lemmy.ml, but there is on beehaw.org.
Is there a way I can get all my subscribed communities to show up in one subscribed feed? It looks like I have to constantly switch between sites to access different communities, which is very inconvenient, especially when using Jerboa.
Just recently made an account with kbin.social. It's crazy how all of this works right? But yeah, I'm really looking forward to this new style of doing social media. Can't wait to see how this evolves.
Idk if that is a stupid idea, but can one host a community that does not allow posting of images and links?
Base idea behind that would be: Text conversations are easier to search and assess quality and topic of.
Here on Lemmy I see many accounts that post links most of the times, no text conversations or in depth conversations. That is why many Lemmy "subs / instances " seems like an oppionated link aggregator atm.
Another Reddit refuge. Came here from the BaconReader apps subreddit. (Apparently I created this account a while ago and just forgot about it till now 🤦. Oh well better late than never)
Good to be here. The main content column is really rather narrow, it's sadly more like new reddit than the old I prefer. Perhaps I'm able to change it? Other than that this all looks quite nice.
edit: (e.g front page of old.reddit I see 20 posts while on here it's only 8)
Thanks for the warm welcome. This is my first time exploring anything fediverse related, and I'm still trying to wrap my head around how all this works. All I know is that I'm really dissatisfied with the decision making that is going on at Reddit, and if there comes a day where I can no longer use my beloved Apollo to access their service, that will most likely be where I officially dip out.
Thanks for accepting my sign up! Really excited for this place. I had an account on mastodon but I much prefer this reddit-style type of site to a twitter clone. Looking forward to having a good dig around this site.
I know the site couple of weeks ago, especially after Reddit makes a very bad decision (everything just gets worse), and decided to sign up today. I hope this community becomes huge and people can contribute in a very good way.
Hi! I've been thinking about jumping ship on reddit for a while, and I think lemmy is looking really promising. Here's hoping it takes off and becomes popular (but not too popular)!
When creating my username, it seemed to spin endlessly if I had any minuses in my name? Is that a known issue or maybe it was just having issues with demand and coincidentally worked when I removed any minuses?
Are upvotes/downvotes federated like posts are or are you only able to see the upvotes from your instance?
Also for looking for communities are you supposed to be able to change how it sorts them? Because it looks like you should be able to click on the columns, however, clicking on those (at least in Firefox) doesn't seem to do anything
Thanks! And LOL @ 1337 being the width. That roxxorz. OMGWTFBBQ.
Also, interestingly, I'm trying to login using the mobile website, and it's just spinning. And using the ios app mlem I'm not able to reply or upvote or downvote. It just doesn't do anything. Weird? I guess these are questions for other communities here, so disregard. :)
I have an account here, and see a community I want to join in another instance... but I the login option only lets me log in with an account on that instance.
Is participating in communities cross-instance not possible yet?
@nutomic I'm a heavy Reddit user, but exclusively through a third party client, and now I'm considering signing up for Lemmy. In the meantime, let's see if I can participate from here?
But absolutely no guarantee that this rule will continue working, if the Lemmy devs do any updates to the UI, nor that it doesn't lead to visual glitches now or in the future.
I mean, that probably sounds scarier than it really is. I'm rather saying, appreciate that a hack like this is possible, don't take it for granted.
people turning their back to reddit are no refugees. They are not fleeing war or violence for instance. I know that this is meant to be a metaphor, but still i kind of dislike the use here. The definition of a refugee according to the UN:
Refugees are people who have fled war, violence, conflict or persecution and have crossed an international border to find safety in another country.
They often have had to flee with little more than the clothes on their back, leaving behind homes, possessions, jobs and loved ones.
Is there a guide on how to get started here? Searching for posts and communities, posting and commenting etiquette, etc.?
For example, when searching for communities focusing on movies, I found 3 communities named “movies”. How are these different?Which one should I be browsing?
If there isn’t such a guide, I can spend some time exploring and write one.