Hi, new user coming from Reddit, as many. Trying to orient with Lemmy, I realize that I still don’t understand the idea of instances well enough. Or maybe the fediverse. So there are plenty of instances, and each is supposed to be dedicated to a topic, but this is a very fluid definition. Anyhow, how do I search for instances? I mean, if I’m in Lemmy.world, I can click “instances” and I get the list of instances that are relevant. Sure, I can use google for that, but my logic tells me that there should be a more organic way.

And this leads to another question, how can I browses communities on other instances with my already existing account? What about platforms such as mastodon where I’m supposed to be able to browse and submit and such?

And finally, is there a search per community possibility?

Sorry, I’m still confused about these.

  • Kresten@feddit.dkEnglish
    4·
    1 year ago

    To answer your question regarding what an instance is.

    Think of e-mail. Imagine you use Gmail.com, your email would probably be a_new_sad_me@gmail.com. You can send emails to everyone, even someone@outlook.com. You send and read emails you receive on gmail.com. You can’t log onto outlook.com with your gmail login, but you can still email outlook.com.

    I’m not sure I understood your post properly, so I just tried explaining instances. Let me know, if you’d like me to expand my analogy.

    • a new sad me@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      I’m not sure I understand that email analogy, especially where it ends. My Gmail account does not allow me to access others users mail box. So what is the mailbox in that analogy?

      And for that matter, what is outlook here? Another instance or another platform? To communicate with a mastodon post I need to get the link from there somehow?

      (I admit, I’m confused as hell)

      • Kresten@feddit.dkEnglish
        1·
        1 year ago

        Your mailbox is lemmy.world You log into lemmy.world You send emails from lemmy.world You read the emails you receive on lemmy.world

        The only website you ever use is lemmy.world (gmail in the analogy)

        Outlook.com, gmail.com, protonmail.com so on, they’re all examples of singular ‘instances’ of e-mail. Lemmy.ml and lemmy.world are examples of lemmy ‘instances’. You choose one instance, and that’s the one you use for all your communication. There are apps available, but they still communicate through your instance, similar to e-mail apps built-in in phones.

        Not sure how else to phrase it. I’m sure someone else can do it better than me though.

        To communicate with a mastodon post I need to get the link from there somehow?

        I still haven’t figured this out.

        • a new sad me@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
          0·
          1 year ago

          Hmmm… I understand the analogy, but I’m still not sure I accept it. I mean, with emails I need to actively search for specific people elsewhere. The basic idea is not to discover new users and such. I don’t think it is only semantics and the reason is exactly the reason I’ve placed my original post. My intention with it wasn’t clear enough, probably.

          To crystallize my question: what’s the point of making theme-based instances if I cannot browse specifically these instances for their local community. E.g., my account is registered on lemmy.world, and I see an instance dedicated to sad things. If I want to browse specifically that instance, see what sad communities I can find there. How can I do that? And if I can, how does that works with the statement I saw on the beginner’s guide that it doesn’t mater which instance I register on?

          • Kresten@feddit.dkEnglish
            1·
            1 year ago

            That’s actually the main issue I had with mastodon. Because it was just an instance and users, there weren’t any way to group them (except for hashtags, they are a great tool, but still bot quite what I was looking for).

            The advantage of Lemmy is it has Instance > community > user. Think of an instance theme as more of a grouping of communities, it doesn’t really serve a real purpose. If you subscribe to all communities under an instance you’d get the local experience. This wouldn’t make sense for mastodon, why would you follow every single user on an instance.

  • CoachDom@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    So, the way it works: Instance is a server your account is created and hosted on. Within the instance you registered with, people create communities - just like subreddits. You can search for communities within your instance but also from other instances. When searching for a community of interest, make sure to check option All. This will result in showing you communities from across various instances. You can participate, comment and post in the communities from other instances just as if they were created in the instance you are registered in.

    One exclusion is when the instance you are registered with decided to defederate with some instance. For example Instance B is promoting illegal content so your instance decide not to federate with it. Then you won’t be able to access the content on Instance B.

    Makes sense?

    • Spzi@lemmy.clickEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      the instance you are registered with decided to defederate with some instance

      This might explain why I can’t find communities which allegedly exist, or why I can’t choose my home instance in the android app to log in.

      It might. I’m not getting any error which clearly states the malfunction is due to defederation.

      How does one achieve clarity? Is there a map, which shows which instance is (de)federated to which other instances?

      • CoachDom@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
        2·
        1 year ago

        Sure you can!

        If you scroll all the way down in a desktop browser, click into Instances. On the right it will tell you what instances are defederated.

  • Kresten@feddit.dkEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    To answer one of your questions-- you can browse communities by opening the ‘communities’ tab at the top of the website of your instance (if you use lemmy.ml, then it’s on that website), then you can press ‘all’ and see all communities federated with your instance (these are the ones someone else on your instance already follows).

    If you’d like to search up communities, you should try browse.feddit.de. I used that to find equivalents to the subs I used to follow. Protip, if there’s multiple of communities with the same topic, then just follow them all. Just them of them as mailing lists with moderators attached.

    Please correct me if I’m wrong

  • PriorProject@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    1 year ago

    You’ve gotten some good ad-hoc answers here, but here are some sticky posts that might help more:

    • On getting started in general and federation: https://lemmy.world/post/37906. This is aimed at lemmy.world users, but except for the support community link at the end, it’s mostly broadly applicable.
    • On finding communities to join: https://lemmy.blahaj.zone/post/61827, including links to the major external community browsers that are essential to finding stuff that you’re the first user on your instance to discover.
    • a new sad me@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      0·
      1 year ago

      Thanks for the answer.

      My question, when I think about it, is actually about what’s the point of instances topic. I mean, I understand the strength of having multiple instances, and how this prevents anyone from controlling Lemmy or shutdown Lemmy (pretty much the point of the internet as a whole and not having it running on a single server, when you think about it). But… what’s the point of having an instance dedicated to, let’s say, puppies if I cannot browse for community specifically on that instance (unless I open an account there)?

      • PriorProject@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        1 year ago

        But… what’s the point of having an instance dedicated to, let’s say, puppies if I cannot browse for community specifically on that instance (unless I open an account there)?

        I don’t follow the premise of your question. You CAN browse for communities on a topic instance without an extra account there.

        I’m not quite as convinced as some that topic instances are necessary or useful in the long-term. But I don’t see them posing any unique challenges to community discovery other than the “normal” challenges the posts I originally sent cover.