Just found this space, I’m trying to play around with this platform. Can anyone help to explain?
For starters, Lemmy – which uses open source ActivityPub protocols – is decentralized and comprised of thousands of independently-run servers, so it’s theoretically impossible to take down Lemmy completely. If lemmy.world goes down today and never comes back, the “Lemmy” network will still be online because of the other servers like lemmy.zip and sh.itjust.works that use Lemmy server software (which is currently at version .19 or around there).
Worth nothing: Lemmy is part of the Fediverse, which is an umbrella term to describe all ActivityPub software types. Yes, other software packages also use ActivityPub protocols to communicate… for example, Kbin (the “main” site is kbin.social, it’s sorta like their lemmy.world) is a news aggregator like Lemmy and interacts with Lemmy almost seamlessly. There’s also Mastodon, a Twitter-like service that currently Kbin users can interact with (but not Lemmy).
In short: it’s kinda complex at the moment, and many parts of the Fediverse (which Lemmy belongs to) don’t interact with each other directly because they provide different services, but it’s important to note that it’s really hard to take it down completely because the Fediverse is independently owned and run by different people in different parts of the world. Contrast with Reddit, a service that does have many servers but is owned and run by a single company in America.
Edit: I was wrong, Mastodon users can post on Lemmy instances, but Lemmy users can’t post on Mastodon instances. Thanks Baku@aussie.zone for the info!
There’s also Mastodon, a Twitter-like service that currently Kbin users can interact with (but not Lemmy).
They can interact with us though, and then we can interact back. We can’t really “post” there, but if a mastodonian makes a post in a Lemmy community, us lemmings can see it, and then we can reply to them. But we can’t do twitter style posts on their forum
The biggest telltale sign you’re talking to a mastodonian rather than a lemming is that you’ll see them @ everybody in the entire thread in every single reply, since that’s how replies start on twitter and mastodon. I’ve never actually received a notification for the @'s, I think it’s functionally closer to just linking to your user profile than an actual mention, but once you get deep in a thread you’ll see every comment starting with 60 different @'s.
Steve Huffman isn’t here, so that’s a huge plus.
It’s kinda cool to go to pretty much any post and go “hey! I know almost everyone in the comment section!”, but that’s a bit of a double edged sword
- You can choose an instance that gives you like-minded people and an intentional community (like feddit.de for a German instance, or programming.dev for all things development and programming related, or ani.social for anime communities, or beehaw.org for a more vetted signup and member approach for a more social and healthy userbase)
- Lemmy is federated meaning despite this separation into instances users can read and participate in communities and posts of other instances
- Instances can choose to not federate or to block other instances according to their choices (another reason to choose your instance according to your intentions and expectations or usage pattern)
- You can link posts, add text to the post, and edit post titles after posting
Those are probably the most obvious and usage facing differences. Additionally:
- Lemmy is a platform of free and open source software, open to customizations and collaboration
- Lemmy instances are run by groups and individuals, it’s open to people and groups joining with their own instances
- As such, both in software source and platform, Lemmy is a community project whereas Reddit is a private company (soon a public company owned by shareholders)
- Lemmy has an open API allowing for custom client, bot, and other integrations
- Lemmy uses the open ActivityPub protocol, so it can interact with many other platforms like Mastodon, KBin, etc
In many other ways, it is similar to Reddit. Like having upvotes and downvotes. Lemmy is still young, so it will improve in terms of functionality and annoyances.
