this post was submitted on 10 Jun 2023
8 points (90.0% liked)
Introductions
9 readers
1 users here now
This is the community for users to introduce each other, talk about their interests and hobbies, and potentially create new connections!
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Each server (or "instance") of lemmy is completely independent, but instances can interface with each other through a standardized API to display content from another instance or interact with content from another instance.
When you use a client, it interfaces with your instance through its client API, which is also standardized.
I think Lemmy uses the ActivityPub protocol/API for client/instance and instance/instance communication, just like Mastodon, PixelFed and other federated social networks, so it creates a huge network of independent but compatible instances (and even allows compatibility between completely different social networks!) with no central authority or storage.
You can read more here about lemmy specifically: https://join-lemmy.org/docs/en/index.html
Here you can find more info about the Fediverse in general, which is what we call this federated network of instances of all the different softwares, including lemmy: https://joinfediverse.wiki/Main_Page