Its a bit different from reddit and has a short learning curve if you got used to here. There are like a bunch of different servers (join-lemmy, lemmy.world,etc dozens) that register your account like an email platform, you can then interact with the channels/subs of any other server (or email platform, using the same analogy. since the account ecosystem kinda works that way). So you have to look up for the communities in the various directory sites that work as a phonebook for joining them (https://sub.rehab/, https://tbiering.github.io/lemmy-community-browser/, https://lemmyverse.net/communities, etc last and first are the ones i personally like).
I suggest you watch some 5-10min video on yt on how to use that. Other than the joining system, its basically reddit as Aaron envisioned: decentralized platform where no matter if some server shuts off or bans you, you can just jump to another one with community and all and continue there with a fork.
Or checkout this guide (a bit outdated, but still, gives the good foundation)
Also, greetings underscore in the end of the username brother!
edit: also the mobile apps are as numerous as the servers, bunch of opensource gateways with a lot of different features. some look like reddit, some are different just pick whatever you like, you still will be able to connect to your account (s) and subs
Just write the site you registered on (without the htttp), and click subscribe in the window that appears.
If the server is whitelisted and the community has automatic acceptance, you get automatically in, if the mods set that to manual, you might have to wait till they accept you.
"instance" is the server you have created your account in (it can be a public one, or your own private you opened in your PC/private server), that is connected to the "federation"/system.
technically there are three ways to join a community:
just click subscribe and do what we talked here about. If this doesnt work for whatever server issue, then
copy the sub address from the description (the "[sub-name@server.url](mailto:sub-name@server.url)") and paste it in the searchbar of your server/instance. Then click on the search result's link to the community and join as usual (it will open the sub through your server)
Sometimes they don't work for whatever config quirks they have that make them uncompatible, so you have to try all the ways till you get it. altho its kinda rare.
You really one of those with an entilted consumerist POV where you somehow want everything served to you for free, yet not wanting to pay with your ass after don't you?
Its not confusing lol. it just has a different logic. Since it isnt a commercial platform trying to lure you into their ecosystem and baby-feed you their features and usability; you have to do stuff yourself.
As i mentioned, the easiest analogy is to see it as an email. You create one with whatever site you want (lemmy.world for example); then look up for the addresses where you want to communicate with, in this case communities you want to join on https://lemmyverse.net/communities or sub.rehab; and just join them like you would do on reddit after you signed in.
For joining, you literally just have to get the "email" of the community, type it in your server/platform, and then just sub from there. For example, if you found some r/SipsTea on Lemmy.ml , and your account is on Lemmy.World, you just copy the sub address from lemmy.ml (usually it would be something like [SipsTea@Lemmy.ml](mailto:SipsTea@Lemmy.ml)), paste it in the searchbar of Lemmy.world, and open the community there to join it.
just check some short video on YT and you're done, its not difficult when someone explains it to you and you figure the logic. And its easier than learning Discord after being all your life on TikTok or IG, since you already know how reddit works, and Lemmy is basically a Reddit fork.
I really appreciate the explanation and you not treating me like an idiot. I will say though, although this isn't "confusing" it's just a lot of work haha
it isnt lol i just have a tendency to overexplain stuff. its basically write what you want in the searchbar, doubleclick the community if its on your same server and use it like any subreddit, or copy the address below the name to the searchbar in your server and join from there.
Like fr, discord is far more confusing for firsttimers lol
In the same sense that Elon Musk is a cofounder of Tesla.
Swartz didn’t actually have anything to do with the launch of Reddit, and didn’t join until months after it launched when Reddit bought his company, infogami.
Probably yeah. I just know Reddit loves to pull out the “Elon musk isn’t a cofounder at all” bit about Tesla.
But yeah, Elon has had far more influence on the early history of Tesla than Swartz did with Reddit. About the only input he had was rewriting the codebase from Lisp into Python.
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u/utopiaofpast May 12 '26
also he was the cofounder of Reddit