Fedibridge

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A community to organize and discuss the growth of the fediverse as a whole

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Everyone is welcome!

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Here is a 5-lines comment I usually use on Reddit when people ask about Lemmy or a Reddit alternative


"
Lemmy has 47k monthly active users

Feel free if you have any questions
"


A few questions that get asked quite often about this comment.

Why no explain what federation is?

Most of the users don't care about federation. They want a jump-in Reddit replacement, and it's usually better to keep the message short and simple.

There are users on Sync or Voyager who only use their app, and don't even know what instance they are on. And they are doing okay, they can still use the platform, see content, vote, comment, post.

People who want to understand more will figure it out later. No need to overwhelm them.

Why those two instances?

Long story short, there is no ideal generalist instance. If you open the top 20 instances (https://fedidb.org/software/lemmy/)

  • Lemmy.world is too big
  • Lemm.ee is federated with hexbear and lemmygrad, something that is not very welcoming to new users (see this thread: https://sh.itjust.works/post/28798607/15305964 )
  • sh.itjust.works names contains "shit", which can deter users
  • lemmy.ca is Canadian-centric
  • feddit.org, is German-centric, but technically English speaking too
  • dbzer0 federates hexbear
  • programming.dev is topic-centric
  • blahaj is queer-focused
  • discuss.tchncs.de has a difficult name
  • lemmy.sdf.org does not defederate anyone
  • lemmy.zip is federated with hexbear and lemmygrad
  • beehaw is way outdated
  • infosec.pub is topic-centric
  • aussie.zone is country-centric
  • midwest.social is region-centric and admin can power trip at times (https://sopuli.xyz/post/20038037)

That's how I came up with sopuli.xyz (neutral name, stable, defederated grad and hexbear) and discuss.online (same).

Mentioning one per continent allows users to make one choice, so that we avoid the Lemmy.world situation where users realize that the server follows European laws (remember the announcement following Luigi: https://lemmy.world/post/22920690 )

I also have no way to know what the person I'm replying to is interested in. Of course if you are commenting on a specific subreddit, feel free to adapt the message for a fitting instance.

Why Voyager?

Same logic, people want one app. Voyager is feature rich and is available on both Android and iOS, and follow the Apollo design that a lot of people might be familiar with.

If people want to change, they will later https://www.lemmyapps.com/

That's it for now, see you in the comments for any feedback!

Why not use join-lemmy.org?

This website can be hit or miss, with some very negative experience recently: https://lemmy.world/post/24220536

I prefer to just point out to two instances that I know are stable and reliable.

Why not Discord?

Discord is a poor replacement for Reddit. Here are 4 reasons why:

  • Format: Discord’s main strength is chat-style messages, not forum-style discussion threads, like Reddit and Lemmy. Discord groups with more than a few dozen active users can quickly become disorganized.
  • Barrier to entry: Content on Discord is inaccessible unless you have a Discord account, while almost all content on Reddit and Lemmy is available without registration.
  • Discoverability: Google (and other search engines) index Reddit and Lemmy, and relevant threads show up in searches. Discord content cannot be indexed, and won’t show up in searches.
  • Censorship: A Discord community is ultimately still controlled by a single Big Tech company, which can delete your community on a whim if they so choose. Lemmy, being a distributed social network, is inherently resistant to censorship.
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submitted 1 month ago* (last edited 1 day ago) by fxomt@lemmy.dbzer0.com to c/fedibridge@lemmy.dbzer0.com
 
 

I have a draft designed for all types of fediverse software, but i narrowed it down to just threadiverse stuff

This is a guide meant to be linked for beginners, to explain the fediverse in as short time as possible.

Concepts

What's "federation"?

In easy terms; it's a concept where instances seamlessly integrate with each other. Users can talk to each other and participate in their communities. For example, my account is on lemm.ee and the community i am posting to is on slrpnk.net, yet i feel no friction.

What's an instance?

An instance is a server running software, with users, and communities, etc. (Each of these is like a mini-reddit/twitter/etc!) The software part is important, since instances can either be forums, microblogs, video-sharing sites, etc etc. And they can all interact with each other!

What's the "fediverse"?

The fediverse (federation + universe) is a coalition of federated instances running all types of different software, so a user from a forum instance (lemmy) can interact with a user from a microblog instance (mastodon)

Another example is bluesky, but that uses a different protocol, and is much less effective than ActivityPub.

A picture of bluesky, representing how users can interact from different instances.

Why should i use the fediverse over normal social media?

Many reasons. A few:

  • it can never truly die - People can always create software and run instances, and if one goes down, the others will still be up.

  • No one person controls the fediverse. We are all on equal grounds.

  • Unlike corporations who back social media platforms, fedi is 100% ran by normal people. You can talk to developers, instance hosters, the mods, all as normal people, and they (unless you use their server) have no control over you.

  • There is no need to appeal to advertisers

  • Freedom of choice. Disagree with an instance's values, or a developer's? Easy, defederate or just don't use their software. You will still have the fediverse as a whole accessible to you, without the parts you do not like.

I'm convinced! How do i begin?

Excellent!

First you must choose what software you want your instance of choosing to run:

  • Lemmy if you care about apps
  • Piefed if you care about features/fast development, or a lightweight instance
  • Mbin if you want both your blog and forum account in the same place

Instances

Lemmy

Piefed

Mbin

Apps/clients [everything after this point is optional]

some people may not like the default frontends or want to access their instance through mobile, here is a curated list:

Lemmy

Mbin

Communities

Here are some good community recommendations, based on topics:

Memes

Software

Politics

Casual

Knowledge

History

Animals

Art

Postface

That's about all there's left for you; have fun!

Finally... im done writing this...

Sisyphus carrying a boulder to the top of a mountain.

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!fediverse@piefed.social

One thing to note is that this community being on Piefed allows us to use some unique Piefed features, such as only subscribers to the community being able to downvote.

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I think people who want to signup for something will not ask this many questions, they will just jump in. These are often just excuses to stay complacent on Reddit.

Edit: they signed up! They were just being analytical I guess.

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If you still have a Reddit account, feel free to chime in with your thoughts on the Digg relaunch compared to Lemmy/Mbin/Piefed :)

https://old.reddit.com/r/RedditAlternatives/comments/1jizbyz/reddits_new_block_update_will_adversely_affect/

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https://old.reddit.com/r/50501/comments/1jg6r8o/reddit_isnt_safe/mj6qhaw/?context=10000

Already signed up. Got the login verification email, followed through and did the security thing, “type the word from our sidebar below” passed all that and can not login.

I appreciate that but don’t bother. I tried with the instance listed in this post and still got the same login issues even after receiving the email to login and passing the security check etc. I deleted the app. I’ve tried enough times and never had any success so I won’t be trying again.

I think they signed up at 50501.chat.

It's a shame that Lemmy is missing out on new users just due to signup issues.

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Some account lists to help people get started on Mastodon/Sharkey

Some accounts to get your feed going

I put together and made public several lists of accounts by topic to try to help newcomers to Mastodon/Sharkey. It may be more useful to people on some of the *key instances, but it's closer to home this way regardless.

As I mention, I tried to keep this to non-personal accounts to not bother people, so many of the options are larger media outlets that some may not care for. However that's not unlike some of the big social media sites, so nothing new there.

If you've found this helpful, pass it along, or better still: if you're on one of the *key instances, put together and publish some lists of your own (with individuals' permission if including them) to help others.

@fedibridge@lemmy.dbzer0.com

#Fediverse #Feditips #Fediblog

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Most instances have a support community for discussing technical issues with that particular server.

As each instance names these slightly differently, I thought I'd create a thread to collect as many as possible.

Lemmy:

Mbin:

PieFed:

Please comment below with equivalent communities and I'll add them to the list.

I would also recommend that instance admins include a link to their meta/support community in the sidebar of their instance.


On a somewhat related note, do any instance admins still have Reddit accounts they would be willing to reveal here?

I've come across many Redditors who are interested in Lemmy but give up after experiencing issues on signup. I think the ability to have instance admins reach out to users on Reddit directly could be a useful tool in reducing the friction of the Lemmy onboarding process.

If you are an instance admin and are comfortable sharing your Reddit username, please do so below.

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A lot of us are in tech and we come across these problems and just troubleshoot our way around them and don't really think about them, so I figured a "case study" might be helpful. ~~Image unrelated.~~

Anyway, yesterday I tried making an alt account on lemmy.world. When last we left the situation, I had been notified that my registration application had been denied, but I'd been asked to confirm my email and https://lemmy.world/u/sergio had been created. A couple helpful commenters suggested my account might still be under review.

  • Today I tried logging in again. But when I entered my username and password, I got a popup that said "incorrect login credentials". Maybe I needed to verify my email again? I went to my email, clicked the "verify your email" link, and just got a page with text that said "verify email" and nothing else. Maybe it didn't like me using my username to log in? So I tried logging in with my EMAIL and my password, and still got that "incorrect login credentials".
  • Maybe something's wrong with my password? I'm using a password manager but OK, let's just try changing my password. I clicked on the "forgot email" link on the login page. I entered my email address and clicked "reset password"... and nothing happens. No feedback, and I don't get an email. (10 minutes so far).
  • maybe I should check https://lemmy.world/u/sergio ? Hey, that's no longer there, I just get an error! I check the user page of another lemmy.world user and it works, so it's not a server problem. Maybe my application really was denied? Was it really reviewed? What do I do now?

(my intuition is to try again with a different username, email address, computer, and browser from a different location at a different time of day...)

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So I post a fair number of links to youtube videos on !sumo@lemmy.world and !gothindustrial@lemmy.world and sometimes a couple of movie-related comms. Anyway, recently lemmy.world updated their server software and the way that they handle youtube thumbnails. So I wanted to check it out.

So I went to create an account on lemmy.world. So I entered my email info, and where it asked for an explanation I explained that this is sergio@slrpnk.net wanting to post to those communities.

  • First of all, their captcha is really difficult. I could not figure out the first 3 that it presented so I kept hitting the icon to get a new one. The 4th one I thought I knew so I entered it.

  • So I tried to log in and it said "did not verify email." OK, so I go to my email, find the link, click it and enter my password and it says "registration application denied"

I'm not complaining about either one. I don't really mind having a tough captcha if it keeps out bots. I guess I don't mind having my registration application denied, though I wish it told me why. Did I get the captcha wrong? Did I say something wrong in my application text? Should I try again later? Weirdly enough, https://lemmy.world/u/sergio does exist and it was created at the time that I signed up for that account.

Anyway, that's one example of the problems a new user can have trying to join lemmy.

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Although ActivityPub does a lot to help share content across federated sites, it goes without saying it doesn't always go smoothly for a variety of reasons. Different post formatting, different overall focus and structure of other software, and so on.

With that in mind, it's as important to create different local accounts both on the same software (at times) and on other software to help polish up the content sharing.

As an immediately obvious example in the case of Lemmy: creating other accounts to help moderate a remote community due to issues of cross-site moderation.

However, it can go beyond that. Due to the minimal algorithmic design of a lot of federated software, many across these sites may not even be aware of some of the others. Some using Mastodon or a *key variant may have no idea of Lemmy, Mbin, or Piefed and vice versa, so may still be using corporate alternatives.

This means that it may also be beneficial for those trying to grow these respective communities to create accounts on Mastodon, *key, etc. sites and share links from Lemmy/Mbin/Piefed there, or vice versa. It's by no means ideal, but it's the reality of the situation at the moment.


Speaking of multiple accounts, it's important to try to correct misconceptions of only needing one account for this very reason.

For the moment, if you want to participate on federated forums, it's better to make an account on whichever site software supports it (like Lemmy/Mbin/Piefed), largely the same with federated microblogs (like Akkoma/*key/Mastodon), and so on.


Ultimately despite some of the inconveniences, taking this approach may at least be less of an uphill battle than navigating the increasingly closed corporate networks trying to keep people trapped there. Across the federated sites one may find more receptive audiences to checking out other open social networks that they may have completely overlooked.

p.s.also maybe you're just a software sicko like me and you enjoy checking out other software from time to time and seeing what different approaches people are trying.

if you consider checking out microblogging i highly recommend the *key variants (e.g. Sharkey or the like) 'cause they're a much different vibe from the more Twitter-like stuff like Mastodon

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Note that r/coolguides is a very "normie" subreddit and may require extra handholding. There are a lot of people who don't seem to understand what "open source" means. Some looking for "The Lemmy app" etc. Be patient and helpful!

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Previously this week I released a Lemmy guide in Finnish, as the platform has started to gain a bit more traction here. Based on that, I made an English version on my blog. I tell about what is Lemmy, how to choose an instance, how to find communities and how the interoperability with Mastodon works. I also tell a bit about mobile apps and my own experiences as an instance admin.

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