this post was submitted on 11 Jun 2023
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Asklemmy

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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@lemmy.world 23 points 1 year ago

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.

[–] Evolone@lemmy.ml 22 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.

[–] cosmicsploogedrizzle@lemmy.ml 23 points 1 year ago (9 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 evolone@lemmy.ml, I am cosmicsploogedrizzle@lemmy.ml. Someone else is joeblow@beehaw.org. 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 !asklemmy@lemmy.ml 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.

[–] SmolderingSauna@lemmy.ml 6 points 1 year ago (1 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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[–] thesilencenoise@beehaw.org 5 points 1 year ago

I feel you. What's cool though is to see the growth over the last few days. It's nice that here are a lot of people sick and tired of these giant tech companies and their terrible behavior. I think treating it the way you're describing is fine enough.

[–] aclarkc@lemmy.world 21 points 1 year ago (7 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.

[–] Cralex@lemmy.one 6 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.

[–] GuyDudeman@lemmy.ml 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.

[–] chaNcharge@beehaw.org 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I was never really into the idea of twitter and I really only lurk on a couple of people's twitter accounts but the idea of reddit is good for me because I can find a community of people who like similar things as me easily and see what's been popular. It's also a decent news feed on the side.

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[–] johndoe@lemm.ee 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.

[–] Violet@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago

I agree that this will be a fun evolution to watch!

[–] ThorfinnOfThors@lemmy.ml 11 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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[–] elroon@lemmy.one 11 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 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.

[–] kimli@lemmy.ml 5 points 1 year ago (4 children)

There are currently a few communities about football (soccer)

Try to search in the community section using "All instances"

If you can't find them, comment below and I'll gather links to the ones I can see

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[–] cities@lemmy.world 10 points 1 year ago (2 children)

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

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[–] Daeraxa@lemmy.ml 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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[–] Gray@lemmy.ca 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.

[–] mrmanager 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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[–] TechnicolorRex@beehaw.org 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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[–] zelkami@feddit.de 9 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

[–] Ghast@lemmy.ml 7 points 1 year ago

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

[–] andyj@lemmy.ml 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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[–] RoquetteQueen@sh.itjust.works 8 points 1 year ago (1 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.

[–] SameUser@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It reminds me of the early internet, too. What a wild time

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[–] MaryAnna@lemmy.ml 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.

[–] CrateDane@feddit.dk 8 points 1 year ago (2 children)

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

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[–] mitchell@lemmy.ca 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!

[–] jcb2016@lemmy.ml 7 points 1 year ago

This is my second comment. Refugee from Reddit

[–] Violet@lemmy.world 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)!

[–] fern2k@discuss.tchncs.de 7 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

[–] cryomancer20x6@lemmy.ml 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.

[–] xangria@lemmy.ml 6 points 1 year ago

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.

[–] Chekhovsgun@lemmy.ml 6 points 1 year ago

Yes and embarrassed to admit I didn't even know what a Fediverse was until yesterday.

[–] ikiru@lemmy.ml 5 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.

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/

[–] notroot@lemmy.sdf.org 5 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.

[–] FreezingInFuckingHell@lemmynsfw.com 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yea I hadnt even heard of the Fediverse before Lemmy. I had kind of heard of mastodon but didn't really know what it was.

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[–] metic@lemmy.world 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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[–] KonQuesting@lemmy.sdf.org 5 points 1 year ago (8 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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[–] Sowatee@lemmy.ml 5 points 1 year ago

Never heard of Lemmy or the Fediverse until recent times.

[–] 0x0f@lemmy.blahaj.zone 5 points 1 year ago

been lurkin around the fediverse for years, but only recently found lemmy. nice change of pace, never liked the microblogging format so masto never kept me.

[–] PurpleErestor@lemmy.ml 5 points 1 year ago

Similar situation to some. I tried Mastodon first, but it seemed like more of a Twitter alternative since you follow personalities rather than topics. Been on Lemmy for a few days now and it's a definitely more in line with what I wanted

[–] EGirlEnthusiast@lemmy.fmhy.ml 5 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Yes. Actually made this account today, and here are my first impressions: The learning curve is existent, and likely the largest problem with mass adoption. The way communities work is cool, but not easily explained to end users. But now that i see how it works, i like it better. Now we just need the content and community to thrive.

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[–] displayerror@lemmy.world 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.

I run my own Calckey instance. :3

[–] Vrazel106@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Is there an app for lemmy? It seems to work well in mobile browsing but dont like leaving tabs like this just open..im lazy..

[–] goddamnpipes@lemmy.world 10 points 1 year ago (4 children)

I'm trying out an app called Jerboa for Lemmy on Android, it's okay so far. Better than using a browser most of the time.

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[–] daan@lemmy.vanoverloop.xyz 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I tried Mastodon before, but I never understood how to use Mastodon/Twitter. How am I supposed to find interesting posts? Should I follow... people? Who should I follow?

[–] SterlingVapor@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago

Oh...I think I just understood why I've always hated Twitter so much.

I haven't read your username yet, because I don't particularly care who you are (or anyone really), only what you say. And what you said was a good thing to say, so now I actually read your username to see if we run into each other later

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