It has a ton of potential. I really hope it takes off because even if it doesn't replace Reddit immediately it's good to have another place to communicate with others. I have a tech background so it was fairly easy to figure out. I think once folks get used to it that it will be no more difficult than other social media sites. Mobile users will probably have the hardest time adapting but who knows.
Asklemmy
A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions
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If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!
- Open-ended question
- Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
- Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
- Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
- An actual topic of discussion
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Looking for a community?
- Lemmyverse: community search
- sub.rehab: maps old subreddits to fediverse options, marks official as such
- !lemmy411@lemmy.ca: a community for finding communities
~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_A@discuss.tchncs.de~
Overall it's going well, and experience from both browser and Jerboa is great, especially considering the lack of maturity and large influx. It's been amazing to see how quickly communities have shown up. A couple of weeks ago when I first heard about Lemmy and plans for Reddit subs going dark, I looked at Lemmy and walked away with a meh because of lack of content, and what was here was not my thing. However, throughout the day today I watched the number of communities grow like crazy, with new topical communities popping up every time I checked.
I do think lack of a centralized /c/ namespace makes things confusing for a lot of people, and will result in a lot of topical duplication between servers - even with federated access and searching. I get why lack of a centralized namespace is also a design feature, but it comes at a price, in my opinion, and it'll be interesting to see how it works itself out over time. Just an observation/opinion on my part.
Still a bit early to call it, but it's looking good!
I'm having a great time. Lemmy is a little bit harder than Reddit but I have been on Mastodon for some time now so I know how federation works. The only thing about Lemmy I don't like is that it feels kinda buggy and unpolished as it is very early stage and the same posts often reappear. But I like the community and it actually seems to be working so that's pretty cool!
Excited to be here. Waiting to see how this week things pan out with the subreddits I follow and hope they will move here eventually, so I can get cozy. Also Long Live Jerboa , I reckon my experience wouldn't be the same without it. See you around Lemmy, peps.
So, honestly, the only thing that concerns me is duplication of various "subreddits", for a lack of better term.
I searched for Technology, and I found two different ones. I know that's how the Fediverse works, but it may cause confusion and drive down user engagement
The user fragmentation is going to make it hard for communities to reach critical mass.
Explain Like I'm Five is a subreddit where niche experts come out of the woodwork to make the sub phenomenal. However, that doesn't work if those users are split over 100 different subs named the same thing on different servers.
I think the subs/communities need to automatically mirror or aggregate, but I'm not sure if that's practical with this platform topology.
not great. reaching my feed or finding communities requires multiple clicks, like why is the local community selection the default in the community tab, it's just stupid. collapsing comments requires more mouse movement and clicking in a different location every comment because of name length, very dumb. communities are too small and not reliable news aggregators yet, not sure why we couldnt just have subreddits move their culture over and agree of a server, or at least set up bots with RSS feeds from news sites or popular stuff in the mean time. lacks customizability for visuals and usage in general. i'd like to have it autocollapse or autohide posts i've already seen, but now i just see the same threads from 2 days ago. user and community pictures in every post on my frontpage are visually noisy. and more and more issues. the devs definitely need help with creating a reasonable browing experience.
undefined> why is the local community selection the default in the community tab
This can be changed in your account settings: [your server address]/settings Scroll down to "Type" (and you may want to have a look at "Sort type" too.
Edit: this being my first reply, I have no idea why it came out with undefined>
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thanks, yeah unfortunately it doesn't work for the communities tab, that still defaults to local for me.
I personally still don't understand the point behind instances. It seems to just introduce confusion about the sign-up process, and also makes usage unrealiable. I don't understand why it can't just be one large decentralized instance, in a similar (though obviously not exact) way as blockchains were distributed account systems.
All these introduced technical details are deterrance for non-technical users. I would consider myself a very tech savvy user and still have been offput by both Mastodon and Lemmy, but have still pushed myself to both due to their recent corporate counterparts going to shit.
Totally this. Not just confusion. What if Lemmy.ml shuts down one day because who ever hosts it doesn't want to anymore? All I have done on Lemmy will be wiped. Makes me hesitent to actually go in 100%.
Comment syncing to my instance is a problem. I get posts but comments, not so much.
I've been lurking pretty much on reddit with my 12 year old account, but the new experience here is pretty much ok. The usual teething problems on how to find what is manageable.
Is there one overall community just mirrored across all instances? Or is the βNintendoβ on lemmy.ml different than the βNintendoβ on bee.haw or whatever? (Just an example - no idea if these communities exist)
I definitely do agree with the old school vibes, I wasn't really born in that era of the internet, but it really is giving me those vibes.
Overall though, I'm finding it pretty intuitive. Certainly better than other social medias. I've tried tumblr and Twitter, just can't get the hang of them yknow?
I definitely prefer reddits app ui though. But I might just be so used to it anything else just feels weird.
It seems more logically laid out and functioning than Kbin.
I like it here.
The content isn't here yet, the UI needs a review, but its funcional and cool.
We just need to get everyone here and endure the growing pains as lemmy matures.
here's a cohertly sound Answer.
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What happens to the communities/comments/accounts if a Lemmy instance goes down? Do they just disappear?
When a specific Lemmy instance goes down, local users won't access their accounts, communities, or comments until it's restored. The data seems to "disappear" but it's not lost if the instance comes back online. Content copies exist in other federated instances but the original data is tied to the creating instance. BTW, you can backup your toots, comments and anything else on your account on your current instance and start again -
Can people on other instances use your username? Could others tell which is which in comments/posts?
Yes, usernames are instance-specific, so the same username can be used across different instances. However, usernames include the instance, making identification clear. For instance, 'username@instance1' and 'username@instance2' indicate different users. -
How can people afford to host an instance? Aren't there costs to hosting a server?
Indeed, hosting an instance involves costs for server, bandwidth, and potentially maintenance. Individuals hosting instances usually cover these costs themselves or use donations or sponsorships. -
Is there anything stopping corporate interests from hosting a Lemmy? I fear that these corporate instances will be the only ones that can handle large traffic and we're just back to Reddit.
Theoretically, a corporation can host a Lemmy instance. But federated platforms like Lemmy ensure that no single instance controls the entire network. Even with a popular corporate instance, users can choose other instances or create their own, allowing diverse moderation policies and community norms. -
Can an instance go from fully federated to partially without telling its users? How would they know?
An instance changing its federation policy can impact the available content and the reach of users' posts. Although there's no built-in notification system for such changes, a responsible administrator should inform the community, potentially using the instance rules listed in the sidebar or other official communication channels. Users may notice a change if they stop seeing content from certain instances, or if their posts aren't visible on instances they used to federate with. Such a shift in federation policy could also alter the dynamics of moderation and community interaction on the instance. you can see what instances is blocked on /instances. and /modlog shows all moderations.
The worst part of the experience is actually figuring out how to make an acount