this post was submitted on 02 Jul 2023
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Showerthoughts
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A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. A showerthought should offer a unique perspective on an ordinary part of life.
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- All posts must be showerthoughts
- The entire showerthought must be in the title
- Avoid politics
- 3.1) NEW RULE as of 5 Nov 2024, trying it out
- 3.2) Political posts often end up being circle jerks (not offering unique perspective) or enflaming (too much work for mods).
- 3.3) Try c/politicaldiscussion, volunteer as a mod here, or start your own community.
- Posts must be original/unique
- Adhere to Lemmy's Code of Conduct
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Lemmy is just the software this website uses. You could download lemmy, install it on your own server, and have your own community -- AKA instance. It would be your website, but running the standardized "lemmy" code/interface.
This instance (website) is federated with the one I made an account on. I can browse communities, read posts, and comment on this lemmy website (lemmy.world) through "my" lemmy website (midwest.social), and vice versa.
"Federated" means two sites running lemmy have that agreement. "Defederated" means they don't allow their users to interact -- you'd have to make an account on each site.
The distinction between communities and instances is often poorly displayed in many cases which adds to the general confusion I feel. For example, feedit.de describes itself as "Deutschsprachige(German-speaking) Lemmy Community" and their Logo also states "lemmy community".
But it's not a community, it's an instance. The "subreddits" inside that instance are the communities, so feddit itself shouldn't be called community to avoid confusion.
Edit: Of course there's also more added confusion when we talk about the Fediverse as a whole, where users on /kbin use the terms magazines and articles instead of comunities and posts and they also have different names for likes and dislikes.
Community is not the same thing as an instance.