Wow this Lemmy Exists!

ELI5 how do the posts we make on lemmy.ca show up for the rest of the world

That's the point of being federated. All the servers talk to each other and all the posts and other interactions are shared everywhere.

do we need to be posting on lemmy.world for that to happen?

No. lemmy.world is just another server (instance) like lemmy.ca. Those two and others talk to each other and share posts, votes, etc.

As in the title, is lemmy.world like r/all?

Nope. It's just another server (instance) like lemmy.ca

sorting out how to post beyond people on the lemmy.ca server.

All the posts you make on communities you access through lemmy.ca that are outside of lemmy.ca will be seen by everybody on every federated server that is looking at that community. Likewise, all posts you make on lemmy.ca communities will be seen by everybody on every federated server that is looking at that community.

This is true for all the posts everyone else makes everywhere else as well.

The most difficult thing for new users right now is how to find and subscribe to a community on a different server (instance). It's not hard, but you gotta know how to do it. The devs are working real hard to make this easy.

Data syncs between all the servers.

All the servers are linked, sending and receiving data to each other. If someone makes an account, post, comment, or community; it gets sent to every other server that's running Lemmy. This allows someone from different servers to interact with each other.

This comment I'm making is actually an example of this. I am from lemmy.world, but you are from lemmy.ca as shown from our usernames. Because both our servers are talking to each other, I am allowed to see and interact with you.

Posts from lemmy.ca should be able to show up for everyone else, and lemmy.world is not like r/all, they both see the same stuff. Although it's possible to only view data from your own server by selecting "local" at the top of the page.

It's like usenet if you have experience with that.

To be fair, the way it's currently implemented is not the most user friendly. By default, only local posts from your server show up. You need to manually select "all" or "subscribed" to view posts outside of your server. It also makes it hard for users to choose which server to make an account on. Some servers even hide some stuff like downvotes, which is what Beehaw does.

posts show up from all over, as long as the client you're on is federated with the other ones. i'm posting from sh.itjustworks

@doctorplasmatron You've got your explanation already, but I'll be the obligatory Mastodon user chiming in to show you how you don't even need to be using Lemmy to interact with a post on Lemmy!

(Browsing Lemmy is virtually impossible from Mastodon, though. Communities are very noisy in comparison)

The short answer is, your post is already showing up for everyone in the world. For example, I'm seeing and replying to this post from a different instance (not lemmy.ca).

How this works is because my instance (lemmy.blugatch.tube) is federated with your instance (lemmy.ca). As long as neither of our communities decides to block the other (de-federate), we will be able to interact with each other from our respective lemmy instances.

Or using a lemmy.world example, if you search for [email protected] in the list of communities on lemmy.ca, you should be able to read, subscribe, post, and comment there, all from your lemmy.ca account.

You're probably posting in the wrong community - this one is for listing communities. I'd recommend [email protected] for further questions.

But question asked, let's give you an answer.

Each server or instance (like Lemmy.ml, wayfarershaven.eu, Lemmy.world) has its own communities. You can tell by the URL. For example,[email protected] is a community on the Wayfarers Haven instance. Each instance can federate with each other, so as a Lemmy.ca user, you can view your server's copy of a community. You don't need to log into each server individually.

There is no real /r/all because no one server will likely have everything. The closest thing to do is go to the main page of your instance, Lemmy.ca, and then click “all“ instead of "local" at the top.

Here's a good place to start reading more: https://join-lemmy.org/docs/en/users/01-getting-started.html

Mod update: this thread is off topic and has been thoroughly answered. I'm going to lock it now so that we can focus on enjoying new Lemmy communities.

Meta post but it answers a relevant question to the sub, and in the interest of encouraging Lemmy growth and discovery, Ill allow it.

@[email protected], can you edit your post title with a [META], and Ill pin it.

I'm also new here but that's one thing I tried to understand, so I share what I got so far.

AFAIK, there is no equivalent to /r/all across all lemmy instances (servers). While in theory most of them can see and talk to each other, they do not, until a user specifically requests that. Communities on other instances do not show up in your search until one user from your instance "discovers" that community on another instance.

To discover a community, search for it with a bang prefixed: "[email protected]" (just an example, this most probably already is discovered for you)

But once that link is established, it works seemlessly and you can post/comment on other instances as if it was your own.

"[email protected]" is equivalent to "https://lemmy.world/c/pics". If you want to remain logged in, access it through your home instance: "https://lemmy.ca/c/[email protected]".

You can use the community browser to get an outside view (regardless of which instance discovered which community): https://browse.feddit.de/