this post was submitted on 10 Jun 2023
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Asklemmy
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So I am just jumping into it myself (and straight into the deep end with running my own server, lol), so this may not be 100% accurate...
My current understanding is that an instance is where you make your account and log in to. The instance keeps track of all the stuff to show you, including things it gets from other instances.
A "sub" (I think called a "community" in Lemmy parlance) is basically a subreddit, but with the added benefit of being able to subscribe to it from any instance due to the whole "federation" thing. For example, this overall post is on lemmy.ml (in their "asklemmy" community), the comment you replied to is from a user on on the lemmy.world instance, you are a user on the latte.isnot.coffee instance, and I am on the lemmy.nrd.li instance. These instances are all sending messages to each other to keep all of our comments/votes/posts/etc in sync so this can all work (mostly) seamlessly.
Can I visit other instances and view/interact with their local posts from this instance? I'm getting the hang of communities but the instances are throwing me for a loop lol
Well, it's actually a bit simpler than that.
You can directly browse a community that technically lives on another instance without ever leaving your instance.
If you're on the start page of your instance you can e.g. change between seeing Local, Subscribed or posts from all communities (across instances).
You can click around and browse from there without having to leave your instance :)
Thanks!