this post was submitted on 11 Jun 2023
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This question is especially for people who have joined in the last week. Have you used other fediverse platforms or is this your first time really using one? What do you think of it so far? Are you aware that you can comment on Lemmy posts with a Mastodon account?

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[–] dingus 30 points 1 year ago (1 children)

First time user here. I have heard of Mastodon, but never attempted to use it. I always was under the impression that it was sort of a Twitter alternative, and I've never had any interest in Twitter, Instagram, etc.

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[–] aclarkc 27 points 1 year ago (8 children)

I’d messed around with Mastodon, but Twitter was never my thing so it didn’t really stick. Lemmy is the first Fediverse thing that will likely see a lot of use from me.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

This is my story as well. I follow a few accounts on Mastadon, but I find it much easier to connect with Lemmy. I joined Maston during the height of the Twitter crisis, and Lemmy earlier this week during the Reddit crisis.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

Same thing here. Twitter has always sucked and has been intolerable the last few years. Lemmy feels like Reddit from back in the day.

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[–] [email protected] 24 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Yes, it is. And I literally have no idea what I’m doing or what the fediverse is or how to best utilize it and I have a mastodon account but don’t use it because all of this fediverse/instance stuff stresses me out and I just want a cool community to feel like I’m a part of, not a bunch of stuff I don’t understand and I hope I can feel comfortable here with Lemmy. Oof.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 year ago (5 children)

Imagine there were multiple reddit websites. Reddit.com, reddit.org, reddit.social, etc. Doesn't matter what account you have, you can see communities/subreddits across anyone of them.

That's Lemmy.

When you make a lemmy account, it's more like an email address. You are [email protected], I am [email protected]. Someone else is [email protected]. We can all chat and post and have a good time no matter what website/instance we post to.

That's how users work on lemmy. Just like email. Communities on lemmy work the exact same way as users.

If all you're interested in is that, then you can stop there and fully enjoy your time with lemmy as a reddit replacement.

The future potential and complexity comes from the next part:

The fediverse is someone said, "hey, you know how people on reddit can't follow people on Twitter, or people on YouTube can't subscribe to subreddits, or people on Instagram can't leave YouTube comments? Well let's make it so you can.

Now this isn't perfectly implemented at the moment, and there are a lot of growing pains (it's kinda like the wild wild West), but you can make a mastodon account (like Twitter), and follow the this lemmy community [email protected] on it, and you'll see all the posts and all the comments that you would otherwise see on lemmy, just in a twitter-like format.

It's not perfect and compatibility across these decentealized apps is not perfectly impremented atm, but in the future you could theoretically have one giant interconnected web where everything from "Twitter" to "reddit" to "YouTube" to "Instagram" to whatever fediverse equivalent app are all interwoven. And if any instance of them gets a big enough head to pull something like reddit is pulling, or what Twitter has been pulling, the community can just make a new "email" on a different instance/website and continue as of nothing changed. No single website/instance can abuse their power, because another instance can be spun up any time.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I'm about 24 hours into Lemmy and beyond bamboozled so thank you intensely for your ELI5 response: really helped. My key concern is who pays to keep all the lights on?

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (5 children)

I'm not sure I understand the last part correctly. As I understand it, if a community behaves in a way the users don't like, we can just create a new community. The advantage of the federated nature is that it's not as painful as finding for example a whole reddit or twitter alternative because of how modular the fediverse is, right?

Edit: come to think of it, I have a second question and you seem to have this whole thing figured out. I've seen people say that they are on lemma as well as kbin to see which they like better ot which one grows better I guess. But does it really matter since the whole thing is interconnected anyways?

Thanks :-)

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[–] OldIndianMonk 17 points 1 year ago

Yes. I did try Mastodon during the Twitter fiasco. But the whole fediverse concept seems a little more suited for specific forums like Reddit

[–] cities 16 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Yes, it is my first time, and don't know what i'm doing

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[–] aion 14 points 1 year ago

This is my first Fediverse, unless XMPP counts, but I never used that across multiple instances.

I curious to see what happens with "duplicate" communities across instance, for example there are a number of "3D Printing" communities. Will one eventually become dominant and the others die off? Or what happens when the admins of one server decide not to continue running it? Will there be a way to migrate accounts and communities between servers?

[–] Flipht 13 points 1 year ago

First time user. No issues so far, but I don't fully understand what I'm doing. I've seen pro/con threads that don't make sense to me yet, but maybe that will come with time.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yes... just signed up. I had never heard of Fediverse until 3 days ago. I spent the past 2 days reading up on it and bam, here I am. I remember a lot of chatter about mastodon after Elon stuck his head up his ass but didn't pay attention. I glad to see a lot of people here (smarter than me) are as confused as I am. This will be so fun to watch this evolve.

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (5 children)

Tried Mastodon after Twitter fiasco, seemed like an okay experience, but in the end, it lacked what's most important about any such site: the people. A lot of people I followed on Twitter just didn't make the transition (some did), so after a while of not really seeing content I was used to see, I drifted away.

To be honest, I can imagine Lemmy could follow the same pattern (for me, personally, not in general). Even though it's off to a good start after I already found /r/patientgamers alternative here. Now I would love some equivalent of /r/soccer and I think I could make Lemmy my new home.

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago (7 children)

Just joined today, and definitely first experience. So far, it SEEMS pretty straightforward. Kinda waiting for the gotcha that trips me up.

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago

This is my first time using Fediverse accounts but I've always stayed away from other social media other than reddit due to privacy reasons.

I think Lemmy is cool but I will miss all the different communities and information I could find or did find on reddit, but I hope Lemmy grows into what reddit was and what it could have been.

But, yes, I have to admit I am a little heartbroken after about a decade.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I first used Mastodon but I was never one to really "get" or use Twitter either so I haven't actually used it much. This suits my needs far better.

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago

Not my first. I also am on Mastodon over at https://infosec.exchange. I far prefer using the Fediverse versions of services, but without critical mass, you can't move away easily imo.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Yes this is my first time and my first comment too :) Glad to be here

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I tried Mastodon first but I never really was much of a Twitter user. I find that format in general makes it difficult to find information about specific topics and there's not as much discussion. I'm liking Lemmy way more because I like the forum style format. It's certainly interesting watching all the "duplicate" communities across the instances though, I'm hoping it'll settle down a bit.

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

This is my first dip into the fediverse.

I have no interest in a personal page like twitter or facebook / meta, so no plans for mastadon as well.

That said, can someone ELI5 the difference between Lemmy and Kbin?

Is there a reference for all the fediverse places outside of those mentioned above?

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I used mastadon a but but never got hooked. Not because of the app but because the Twitter like format is only good if you have interesting people to follow.

I've always preferred the reddit style discussions.

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago

I tried Mastodon and really didn't care for it. It didn't translate quite as cleanly into the decentralized structure I felt. If I wanted to look up a famous person I had to know their instance, which felt like a really messy structure. Still, I have hope for it's future when they clean up a few of the less user friendly elements. Lemmy, I've loved. I think forums like this work way better in this decentralized way. Part of that comes from the fact that forums are anonymous anyways, unlike Twitter-esque social media platforms.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago

Just joined my first instance was kinda difficult but finally got my acceptance email excited for this platform and fuck you reddit

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

I got Mastodon and liked it well enough but I'm still getting used to it. Lenny, I'll admit, is super confusing, but I can see it's potential and I'm really excited to get more involved. In the 10+ years I've been on reddit, I think I've only posted or commented a handful of times. With Lemmy, I want to make more of an effort to participate.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (2 children)

First time for me. I had heard about Mastodon when Elon first bought Twitter, but I never liked Twitter so I didn't look into it. I think it's okay so far. Kind of reminds me of old internet, which I miss.

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[–] buttermilkDelight 8 points 1 year ago (2 children)

This is my first time and frankly I'm a bit confused by everything but I'm willing to give it a try and learn o/

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (3 children)

I like it though the no central login is my biggest issue I think I have right now. What works for Reddit is that it’s really easy for a non-technical person to get in to it; Setup an account, login in, find, view, subscribe, post, and comment all in one place. With Lemmy/Fediverse there is a barrier with trying to explain it straight away e.g is it called Lemmy or Fediverse or Kbin etc

I get why it’s better, and I don’t know what a solution could be, but at the moment the simplicity of it in one place will keep Reddit a viable solution for a lot of people who would like it to β€œjust work”

As an example here’s a post from PrequelMemes

squabbles.io is a pretty good reddit alternative. I hear a lot of people suggesting lemmy and other federated options, but those are just confusing to me tbh. Squabbles works very similarly to reddit, so the transition should be painless.

And the reply

Thank you! I’m heading to squabbles.io right now, based upon your description of it!

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Elon Musk made me jump to Mastodon. Spez made me jump to Lemmy.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I heard about the fediverse before, but never made an account until a few days ago. It is kinda cool how Mastodon, Lemmy, and Kbin can interconnect somewhat, but it does not feel like a fleshed out feature to me yet. There are still too many bugs when interfacing with other parts of the fediverse.

I like how maluable it feels right now. I really feel like if I dedicate a bit of time and effort I can make changes to and improve things. Or at the least break off and do my own thing that interacts with the fediverse.

I don't like how spread out and small all the communities feel. I think piracy has 5 different communities at this point. I am also torn on not having at least a centralized login. I kinda trust sh.itjust.works with my account, but there is little assurance that the instance, and my account on it, won't just disappear or attempt to do something malicious with my email and password.

I want Lemmy to take off and I think it has potential, but I also believe it will take at least another year before I am completely satisfied with it.

[–] Dalek 7 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Not having a centralized login is a downside for me. Not a dealbreaker but I definitely don’t like it

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Back when the switch from Twitter to Mastodon was recommended I tried it but didn't really understand how it worked, didn't know how to get to the content I wanted and gave up. This is the first time after that

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

Lemmy's so new that I think a lot of people are still unsure how to curate their feed.

[–] Violet 7 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

This is my first experience with fediverse, I had never even heard of it before. So far it's going okay, there are some things I wish were different or easier, but maybe that's just because it's new and feels clunky because I haven't figured it all out yet.

In general though I am enjoying Lemmy so far, it feels like being on internet message boards back in the old days (20-25 years ago)!

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

Like most other users here I’ve also taken a look around on Mastodon. But I’m still new to the fediverse and getting used to the decentralized nature of all this.

This is also my first comment on Lemmy, hopefully of many more!

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I tried Mastodon, but Twitter was never my thing anyways, so it didn't really click. This is been a much better experience. I'm quickly getting the hang of how it works.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I've used Mastodon briefly for about 4 months or so. Decided to give Kbin a try after seeing it in the comments on Reddit, so here I am. Still trying to get the hang of the UI here, but it's looking like a promising platform to move to after giving up on Reddit. Looking forward to growing an account here. Would love to see a Kbin mobile app come along someday.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

How do I comment on posts with my mastodon account?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (10 children)

I've been on Matrix and Mastodon for a number of years, but I'm new to Lemmy. Matrix is already better than competitors like Discord, in my opinion. It has a healthy pool of users including several major tech organizations.

I've never been too active on Mastodon for the same reason I never got into Twitter. I just don't enjoy "microblogging," and prefer mediums that are more oriented towards actual conversation. Lemmy does an excellent job in that respect.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

Honestly, I had never even heard of the Fediverse before, and I'm extremely active on the internet and opensource projects. It feels insane to me that I had no idea what it was, but now that I understand it - I'm here for good.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

Nope. I joined a couple big Mastodon instances, then started running a solo on DigitalOcean. It's a hobby. I'll probably give up the self-hosted and continue on a regular Calckey account.

Also played with Pixelfed, and before that all the way back to Matrix/Rocket... and pre-AP good ole diaspora*. Basically, anything but corporate social media. I just don't like it enough to deal with the bullshit.

I liked Reddit though, but haven't been on there for more than a year, now.

Lemmy seems pretty cool though. I'm interested in playing with the tech. Seems like a good way to take my Rust skills to the next level.

[–] yaboiweeaboojones 5 points 1 year ago

First time user still trying to get in the swing of things, seems intuitive so far tho.

[–] ComradeMiao 5 points 1 year ago

I really don’t get it at all and am unsure how to do that with a mastodon account but I’m here

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Yes, this is my first dip in.

Thus far it seems promising and near, but with a huge downfall of slow adoption/scale to where many instances are hosted in either un-scalable or unstable environments so some instances go down easily.

Apart from that, though, it's very reminiscent of Web1.0 and early Web2.0 and I like that a lot.

[–] displayerror 5 points 1 year ago

First time doing anything fediverse related. It took a while to wrap my head around it, but all the reddit drama is helping since people are trying to encourage others to move over and are offering guides/explanations.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

I still use mastodon to this day, but I find I get more interaction rather than just lurking and viewing pictures here. Aka more actual conversation. It's easier to participate and not feel like you're posting to a void

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

First time. I don’t know what I’m doing but I’m happy to be here.

[–] metic 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I tried Mastodon a few years ago, but I just have no interest in the microblog format. Glad to see there's a threaded forum version now.

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