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.

  • CoachDom@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    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.click
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      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.zone
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        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.