Everyone is welcome!

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

• https://discuss.online/ if you want a server located in the USA (content is still accessible from any server, the most difference latency)
• https://sopuli.xyz/ if you want a server located in the EU
• https://vger.app/settings/install if you want an app

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• beehaw is way outdated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.

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.

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

• lemm.ee, discuss.online, sopuli.xyz for general instances
• jlai.lu for french
• feddit.cl for chile
• lemmy.ca for canada
• feddit.org for german speakers
• programming.dev for a programming instance
• slrpnk.net/lemmy.dbzer0.com for leftist/anarchist instances

Piefed

• piefed.social for the flagship instance
• feddit.online for an NA instance

Mbin

• kbin.earth, fedia.io, kbin.melroy.org, thebrainbin.org, moist.catsweat.com for general instances
• rimworld.gallery for rimworld content
• cesto.garden for a leftist [italian] instance
• m.a9press.com for a korean instance

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

• Photon [PC]
• Alexandrite [PC]
• Tesseract [PC]
• Voyager [MOBILE]
• Mlem [IOS]
• Arctic [IOS]
• Raccoon [ANDROID]
• Jerboa [ANDROID]
• Connect [ANDROID, NOT FOSS]
• Thunder [MOBILE]
• Interstellar [ANDROID]

Mbin

• Interstellar [ANDROID]

Communities

Here are some good community recommendations, based on topics:

Memes

• !funny@sh.itjust.works
• !programmer_humor@programming.dev
• !onehundredninetysix@lemmy.blahaj.zone
• !historymemes@lemmy.world
• !youcantparktheremate@feddit.uk

Software

• !opensource@programming.dev
• !privacy@lemmy.dbzer0.com
• !piracy@lemmy.dbzer0.com
• !selfhosted@lemmy.world / !selfhosting@slrpnk.net

Politics

• !anarchism@lemmy.dbzer0.com / !anarchism@slrpnk.net
• !world@lemmy.world / !world@quokk.au / !globalnews@lemmy.zip

Casual

• !actual_discussion@lemmy.ca
• !asklemmy@lemmy.world
• !casualconversation@lemm.ee
• !askUSA@discuss.online
• !casualuk@feddit.uk
• !dull_mens_club@lemmy.world

Knowledge

• !dataisbeautiful@lemmy.ml
• !documentaries@lemmy.cafe
• !math@lemmy.world
• !til@lemmy.world
• !vexillology@lemmy.world
• !wikipedia@lemmy.world

History

• !ancientcoins@lemmy.world
• !ancienthistory@slrpnk.net
• !askhistorians@lemmy.world
• !historyartifacts@lemmy.world
• !historicalpropaganda@lemmy.blahaj.zone
• !history@lemmy.world
• !historyporn@lemmy.world
• !historyruins@lemmy.world
• !historyillustrations@lemmy.world

Animals

• !superbowl@lemmy.world
• !bats@lemmy.world
• !catposting@lemmy.blahaj.zone
• !cat@lemmy.world -
• !catsstandingup@lemmy.world
• !opossums@lemmy.world
• !scrungycats@lemmy.world

Art

• !artporn@lemm.ee
• !astrophotography@lemmy.world
• !desire_paths@sh.itjust.works
• !fakehistoryporn@lemmy.world
• !imaginary@reddthat.com
• !imadethis@lemm.ee
• !inhabitedbeauty@lemmy.world
• !nocontextpics@lemmy.world
• !gameart@sopuli.xyz
• !wallpapers@lemmy.ca

Postface

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

Finally... im done writing this...