What is Lemmy?
Lemmy is a fast-growing link aggregator and forum platform similar to Reddit, but without the ads and corporate greed.
Lemmy is divided into what are called “instances” but really they are just servers. Each instance is separate from each other, but they all talk to each other through the ActivityPub protocol, creating part of what is known as the Fediverse. So if you join one instance server, you can see what’s happening on all the others without having to create multiple accounts on each server.
Here’s a quick example using US states.
Let’s call Pennsylvania an instance. Inside that instance are Communities, based on specific interests, topics, locations, regions, etc.
There are 49 other instances in this example. As a member of the PA instance, through federation, you can see what’s happening in the NJ, AZ, FL, etc instances and communities if you subscribe to them.
Now, through the ActivityPub protocol, you can also see and interact with other platforms, like Mastodon or KBin. For the sake of the example, think of these platforms as other nations. You can see what’s happening on those platforms because they have that interoperability layer underneath, but there may be certain things you can’t do cross-platform. Same as in real life.
Now, the fun part. Let’s say you don’t want to see anything from the FL instance. You can block it outright. Or, maybe you want to see the Miami community, but not the Everglades community. You can block individual communities or even single users.
You can create your account (where you live) anywhere in the fediverse. I personally recommend having two accounts on different instances. You can subscribe to all the same communities from both accounts, which can be a good backup in case one instance goes down or has an issue.
Which instance should I join?
It’s generally recommended not to join the largest instance. Currently, the largest by far is lemmy.world. They are experiencing significant issues due to overload, having grown from a few hundred users two weeks ago, to almost 90k accounts.
I have an account there and it is currently quite slow, with many errors (due to the problems mentioned above). I also have an account on a smaller instance, lemmy.one. Most of the smaller instances are running very smoothly.
In any case, go to lemmyverse.net or https://join-lemmy.org. They are searchable directories of instances and communities. When you find an instance you think you’ll like, read about it, and any specific rules that may pertain to you. Some instances don’t allow users to create communities on their own. Some communities block NSFW (adult content) by default. Some instances are focused on geographic areas (lemmy.ca for example is mostly Canada-focused).
In conclusion, there’s a bit of a learning curve, but in my opinion it is worth it. We as a society need to be more in control of our social networking, it shouldn’t be run by mega-corporations that get to dictate what content is allowable or what speech is acceptable. The internet is not just Facebook/Meta/Twitter/Google. They are centralized, authoritarian censorship machines, owned by billionaires who are buying and selling every piece of information they can get from you.
Lemmy and the fediverse are mostly run by volunteers, creating a truly free and open ecosystem for all.