We'll be fiiiiine 🥲 starts hyperventilating
This seems like as good a thread as any to make my first post in as a Lemmy user. I've been on Reddit since '09, and was on slashdot back in the 90's. I really am hoping that these new, federated services take off. Onboarding still seems like the biggest hurdle.
After onboarding the interface is kind of rough to figure out. Mostly because the mobile web version isn't that great, and jerboa also isn't that great, and they're different enough that switching back and forth gets you confused. With reddit's problems, I imagine we'll see some more client apps and ui improvements show up in the next couple months with the added attention, and that'll be the end of that. Honestly, I thought it'd be rougher. I do wish I got more replies to my comments though, so i'm trying to make a point to post a bit more than I ordinarily would.
I don't have much to say, but here's a reply anyway! Hope it seems a little less quiet in here.
Absolutely agree. I first tried Lemmy on my phone and found it really difficult to like. As soon as I logged on from my iPad it all “just worked”. Hopefully some of the apps under development will solve that problem.
I am with you, part of the Reddit exodus after about a decade. First post too, and I hope this place turns out to be my next all in one stop for interesting stuff. Since its up to us, users, to make it happen I'm going to be optimistic.
Its an issue, but Its at least barebones and information dense. Feels like going back 20 years on internet design, with some new things. Its old school and a bit of whiplash even for me. Some younger users are going to have a task getting around at first.
Not that I would say change it, just an observation and barrier to entry.
Bare bones and information dense are things I like about it, honestly; crammed with popups about cookies and privacy policies and newsletters and adverts is the nominal experience.
I'm not a tech savvy person and I had no problem to adapt to this platform. It's very similar to Reddit and after 15 minutes playing around I also understood how everything works out. Even the federation concept is pretty easy.
Similar story, but I still poke at /. - it's still going! The most refreshing thing about using Lemmy to me is not having ads everywhere, I used a pihole and other browser extensions but you still have to deal with the inline ads mimicking user posts on reddit.
Yeah, the front page was a little intimidating and it took a little time for my to get the account confirmation email. But otherwise, this space feels and acts very similar to old.reddit and some customization (like night mode) ... which is a good thing!
Just jumped over from Reddit and if I hadn’t read the comment about sh.itjust.works I probably would have no idea how to get started with Lemmy. Hopefully with more publicity there will be a more streamlined signup process a la new mobile apps or certain servers trending when you search for it.
Didn’t see some of my old communities from Reddit on here yet but I guess it’s time to make them!
Also - does anyone have any good alternatives to Youtube on the Fediverse? Is Odysee popular?
does anyone have any good alternatives to Youtube on the Fediverse?
Peertube would be the most popular. It works the same that there isn't one server/instance that hosts all the videos. A popular one is tilvids.com but there are others
Woo hoo, me too. Was there for the rise and fall of each (and Digg). Also - I think its up to us to go back and encourage users from all our niche communities to come on board to these other places. I know a lot of them won't at least not right away. But we can encourage it.
Ooh, I forgot all about slashdot!
honestly, its best if you continue forgetting about it.
I was also on slashdot back in the 90s. Still am too.
Someone just reminded me of Slashdot yesterday and my account is still active, and the posts are still pretty good. Why did I ever leave?
Same here, this feels a bit more like the newsgroup days, except less porn spam.
I agree.
I love the idea of a decentralized network like this, but I can't help but feel like it lacks some level of transparency to how it works?
After being around here for a bit I get the idea of federation and all that, but its incredibly overwhelming when trying to create an account (Hell I still don't know if I created my Mastodon or Lemmy accounts in the right place)
I can’t help but feel like it lacks some level of transparency to how it works?
I agree, which is actually kinda funny since it's open source. The documentation helps some, but it's a LOT of reading to do, and it still leaves a new user like me with questions- and I'm a software developer, with more technical knowledge than most. I have a feeling that someone without that technical background would find this VERY confusing to understand at a fundamental level.
The big question that I still have, that should be readily apparent but isn't: if I subscribe to a community that's hosted on another instance, can I still post/like/comment there? I just tested it- you can. I notice now that the guide says:
Lemmy will then fetch the community from its original instance, and allow you to interact with it.
I think they could make it a lot clearer for a casual user if they reworded the "following communities" section to name it something like "joining communities," and re-worded the first paragraph to something like this:
After logging in to your new account, its time to follow communities that you are interested in. For this you can click on the communities link at the top of the page (on mobile, you need to click the menu icon on the top right first). You will see a list of communities which can be filtered by subscribed, local or all. Local communities are those which are hosted on the same site where you are signed in, while all also contains federated communities from other instances. You can also find more communities by going to the Lemmy Community Browser. You can join communities from any instance, regardless of which instance you created your account in, and once you've joined you can like, comment, and post in those communities.
What did you find complicated about the onboarding?
Having to write a cover letter explaining why I'm a good fit for the instance.
It's not a difficult ask, but it's going to turn a vast majority of potential users away from the service.
I understand the need for it, but a typical user is going to be confused by:
- Having to "sell" yourselves to some unknown individual, or group of individuals
- Choosing an "instance", when most users have never heard of such a thing, and don't understand how a federated system operates
- For the above: Understanding different instances and which one allows cross-instance posting
- Simplicity. None of this is "simple" in terms of making a new account for a social media platform. This is unlike any mainstream platform out there.
Again, I understand the need for all this. But your average user, which Lemmy desperately needs more of if it wants to become the safe haven for Reddit refugees, is going to be incredibly frustrated and dissuaded by the whole process.
I'm looking forward to lemmy becoming my primary time waster 😁
Given there is no algorithmic recipe to hook you, I'd wager Lemmy is far better for everyone's mental well-being. You'll ultimately squander less of your time mindlessly scrolling.
That's why I'm here 😁
I can’t wait for Lemmy to be my time waster and news grab all in one ❤️
Hell yeah, just got here and am ready boost some engagement! I already like it here, I forgot that being able to see the amount of down votes used to be a thing
*Looks like I'm the 69th comment here, what a start!
Oooh lawdy there are servers! My time wasting will scale exponentially now 😅
Yep… Bought Sync and Apollo long ago. Moved to Lemmy today. Slowly moving all of my main socials to decentralized/federated platforms because the greedy corpos breaking their own shit.
I would kill for a Sync for Lemmy
Just came to Lemmy with the wave from sync :p
Surprised at how similar Jerboa looked when I first opened it, but yeah~ going to try and join some communities and hopefully jump ship from reddit completely^^
Imagine a Sync for lemmy.
Would love this!
Same. But I wish it was more straightforward. I’m not convinced the average/occasional user will transition to decentralized platforms if it’s a pain to do so.
sign up on my instance was very easy! https://sh.itjust.works
Lemmy is easier to get set up for us folks who aren’t as technical as we used to be. The biggest hurdle for me is for social networks like Twitter or IG where I know people irl who won’t be moving to mastodon probably ever. On Reddit I never made a single friend during the almost 15 years I had an active account.
Always harder to take a privacy forward approach but the more people adopt it, hopefully all the more who see and also come over.
Beehaw was super easy. It was literally just your typical sign up process for any website. For me the biggest hurdle initially was just understanding how all of this works, and how they all fit together.
I apologize in advance as I'm one of the many reddit refugees seeking alternatives. I can't believe how fast reddit is unraveling and you'd think with u/spez's recent AMA he would try to placate the community instead of inciting the situation even further. Anyway, Lemmy's pretty cool so far.
Don't apologize. All refugees are welcome here. Although... there is one small thing you could do to help. Maybe make an account on a less crowded instance? Too many people see "dev-run" and think "main instance". We do need to spread out a bit to make this sustainable.
It’s open source I think its gonna get a lot more development just from Redditors
They have people astroturfing hard right now arguing that reddit is not wrong for anything they are doing
Longtime Apollo user, just moved to Lemmy. Hoping the blackout brings many more with me, and hoping Lemmy can handle the surge
Glad to have you! Tell the apollo dev we'd be happy to have them make an app for Lemmy!
I created our android app, jerboa, and there's also an open source one in development for iOS called mlem
Another round of thanks for your work on jerboa!
I see your commit history goes back to Jan 2022, if you had to rewrite what would you want to do differently?
(I don't have any specific plans here, but I'm completely new to this space and interested in anything you've learned the hard way.)
e: hold on you're the og lemmy dev, you ain't got time for this. I thought it was just the app, whoops, ignore me pls
Awesome, I'm dropping that google play store link nonstop over the last day or so. Good luck to you in the coming days!
Your app is going to explode!
Thanks for Jerboa! It's way faster than https://lemmy.ml for me
check out my sidebar over on [email protected] . I have other helpful links that aren't ps5 related to help you find communities, navigate instances, and otherwise have a good time over here!
Funny how even the small wave is enough to take down the city 🤣. I hope Lemmy can grow to be my primary time waster. There'll be downtime and hiccups, but I'm a patient man.
This has the same feeling as digg v4 apocalypse that originally brought me to Reddit many moons ago. Now, here we are again... the lemmyverse. I hope this can grow to be a true evolutionary replacement for Reddit.
Absolutely, this definitely feels similar to the Digg exodus. I had created a Reddit account a few months before the Digg incident and it feels like history is about to repeat itself. Reddit did NOT learn from the mistakes of Digg, instead they seem to see it as a playbook they're dying to replicate. Good riddance then.
We still need a good mobile app for Lemmy. I tried using the Jebora one, and its scrolling speed is abysmal.
Silver lining, I am looking forward to all the new things getting developed for lemmy and the like when they can't make things for Reddit anymore. Their loss is our gain.
Praying that Infinity for Reddit moved to Lemmy 🙏
Interesting. I'm using Jerboa right now and while I have a few complaints, scrolling speed isn't one of them. I wonder if it's a phone specific issue.
Same here, scrolling is fine for me (Pixel 6 Pro in case it matters).
It's more about how there doesn't seem to be any scrolling inertia like I'm use to with other apps. When I scroll real fast, it should continue scrolling for a few seconds instead of immediately stopping.
The dev from RedReader wants to integrate support for Lemmy.
RedReader is a fantastic app. I hope the dev works it out.
I'm using jerboa right now, agreeded. It's not the worst experience but there's definitely improvements to be made.
There's a real opportunity in transitioning existing reddit clients to access Lemmy instead. Keep the user base, change the platform.
Mlem for iOS is a beta still in early development but it’s buttery smooth on my phone. If the dev sees this, I appreciate your work a lot!
Seconding Mlem! I’m still getting used to how this app works, but I like it so far!
Tbh I prefer just good old firefox browser over jerboa. The site is optimized pretty well for mobile
I've had little to complain about with using the Firefox android app to browse Lemmy instances.
I would like to start using Jerboa, I haven't noticed any performance issues but I find I like the browser UI a bit better.
I know Jerboa is in heavy development right now. My god do I feel bad for the dev, Dessalines, with the huge influx of users. But I'm sure I'll switch to using the app more as the updates role out.
I use the website for mobile, and it works really well
The problem is that even though you and me are ok with not having an app, most people need an app 🤷
Also potential loss of old reddit
Forget waves then. Reddit gonna slip into the sea like Atlantis
Reddit gonna be Digged
That would be the point of no return for me. Never in a million years will I use the new design. Already deleted all of my content.
I'm part of the problem. How's it going guys?
Well kbin.social and beehaw.org have both gotten the hug of death over the last 25 minutes so that's fun haha. Might have to hop over to a smaller instance to spread the load out
Me too!
Once, Apollo shuts down, this site will get hit hard. I look forward to it and want to make as many posts as I can to increase the level of activity.
Many other apps also shut down on the same day. For example:
RiF: https://redd.it/144gmfq
ReddPlanet: https://redd.it/144glbz
Sync: https://redd.it/144jp3wYay for signing up before the masses.
Digg -> Reddit -> Lemmy
Funnily I remember joining both Digg and Lemmy shortly before Digg's implosion. It's really bittersweet cause there's so many smaller subreddits like r/SS13 and multitudes of show subreddits that collect fans to chat with that I wish I could take with to the fediverse reddit-likes.
*Digg and reddit
Lemmy doesn't have adult content tho
Lemmy.ml doesnt. But any instance can host it if they want to.
There is that trope about how porn tends to dictate technological advancement. Probably will have some sway in this whole debacle. That said, not being as big as reddit is kind of nice. The best online communities are always smaller.
Bandwidth is the issue, and server space. I wonder, can Lemmy servers be setup where say, someone runs an ass appreciation server. That server, when people post, sends the image to redgifs?
Then the server space issue is mute and porn, or even erotic art, etc can thrive
Most subs hosted their content to external sites anyway from what I saw due to how terrible reddit's video player was.
I think this is where tildes.net is being smart with text only, saves massive on server costs and also is safer to run for the owners with less moderation needed due to no chance of any illegal porn being uploaded
Is there porn on Lemmy? I’m not asking for scientific purposes or for a friend.
All of the main servers I've seen have a no porn rule. I suppose it's only a matter of time until someone's willing to stand up their own Lemmy porn server and take on the responsibility of moderating that.
I suggested to PornHub that they should host their own lemmy instance for porn. It's stuck in limbo though awaiting mod approval.
Edit: I'm curious, I see I've gotten two downvotes, can someone who downvoted provide a reason why? Just anti-porn sentiment? Do you not want porn on lemmy? Don't like the company PornHub? Think it's a stupid idea for some reason? I'm serious, I'd like to know why you seem to disagree with the suggestion that PornHub should host a lemmy instance explicitly to post porn on. It's entirely possible I'm missing something here.
Username faps out
Cough https://reddthat.com/c/nsfw Cough
No OC. Bummer, but I guess they're probably just covering themselves for liability
When the main servers get hit hard (such as lemmy.ml), will users and/or communities using other servers be less impacted by the wave? Or will the wave hitting the popular servers be a problem for everyone?
Will federation save us to some extent?
I think if people can get past how it’s a bit complicated they can pretty easily just pick a random smaller server to sign up to. I’ve been on Reddit recommending sh.itjust.works because it doesn’t ask for an essay or some shit, just a username and password, as god intended
Theoretically yes. I remember when mastodon.social went down and I didn't notice a thing... Well aside from the constant "guys guys guys mastodon.social is down so exciting" :)
That's why I'm here!
Just got over here trying to get away from the reddit nonsense. This definitely applies to me lol
🎵 Happy to be part of the problem 🎵
thanks for taking in a poor refuge like me
already nuked everything on my account, once 1st comes around gonna delete it
Yeah, I'm already doing Thanos snap on mine. Gonna miss reddit.
I sure hope Lemmy has good crowd control.. as a reddit refugee myself
Oh no. Our non-centralized website system will get more users. Aaah.
Fedi/Lemmy, etc....are going to see a historic deluge.
Good luck and thank you for busting balls to help put reddit out of business and into the trash heap.
Is there an API for Lemmy? Can Apollo potential move to this as a source instead?
Yes. The docs aren't what I wish they were, but it's here https://join-lemmy.org/docs/en/contributors/04-api.html, and there already are client libraries for multiple languages
Thank you!
I'm hoping there are enough active 'tent pole' type instances that can keep the interest in Lemmy going through the inevitable scaling catastrophe the blackout will bring.
Yeah I'm part of the problem too, I use a 3rd party app and I'm bailing out of reddit when it dies.
But hopefully things on this and other servers will stabilize over the next few weeks.
Things are about to get spicy
Here we go guys!
To anyone here coming from Apollo/Sync/Reddit or some other 3rd party app. I am the mod over on [email protected] . Feel free to stop by and check it out! I have other useful links in the sidebar to help anyone find other communities and generally navigate the fediverse. I've been here for just a few days, but I have learned a lot and these links might help jump start your lemmy experience!
It begins
I can't wait! Screw plebbit.
So far I'm looking forward to surfing this wave. Sad to see Reddit burn, but at least there are alternatives.
Maybe it makes sense to add a donation link in the header/footer of the site? More money for servers is always good 🤔
One of the first posts I just saw was that there is already an NSFW only instance crested. The Internet was truly made for Porn.
Loving it here so far! Day one from reddit and this was the very first post I see XD
Happy to be here
Also part of the problem, but so far the experience is being great.
Quality over quantity on most posts here on Lemmy, really liking it.
So, is this lemmy? I just signed up for kbin wasn’t sure if this is lemmy and I can use this to reach other instances. Also an Apollo refugee.
Yep, you've made it to Lemmy. The lemmy.ml server, specifically.
Kbin isnt actually lemmy as far as i know, its a different project, but they can interact with each other thanks to the protocol of ActivityPub.
Could someone explain kbin for me? Is it like a different instance the way lemmy.ml or beehaw is? Or is it a different thing altogether?
Correct, they interoperate. Though in my humble opinion kbin has a lot of features I hope Lemmy gets to soon.
Yeah, as others have mentioned, kbin ≠ Lemmy, but because of the magic of the fediverse, they talk to each other. But I like kbin better since it also interoperates with Mastodon, Calckey, etc as well. Easier than Lemmy at any rate.
Hey, I'm the [email protected] mod. Come check out the sidebar, I have links to other resources that might help you find and navigate lemmy/the fediverse
Using Mlem now and I like it a lot!
Link?
https://github.com/buresdv/Mlem
It's iOS only. If you're looking for Android, search the playstore or F-Droid for Jerboa
I'm only dropping in but this instance certainly seems to be feeling the increased traffic. What kind of resources would one need to run an instance that can handle a high load?
I would consider posting this question to the asklemmy or lemmy_support communities
😂😂😂 here for the long haul 🙌
im going back and forth between lemmy and kbin depending on whatever is not currently hugged to death
kbin really got hugged to death
May all alternatives win 🙌
Judging from my experience trying to sign up for a Lemmy instance for the past 2 days, it's going to be hard. Unless I was doing something wrong, I can see a lot of people having difficulty signing up and eventually giving up. kbin was much easier to sign up for.
Yeah, I tried Mastodon when that first became more known. Even as a pretty literate techie (I've developed programs professionally at a fortune 500), I couldn't figure it out. Went to kbin today after reading the news about apollo and it was just like signing up anywhere else.
Lemmy may currently have larger spread by word of mouth, but if anything is going to hit mainstream it will be kbin in its current state.
Yeah, I've been a software engineer for years and I too had to have a sit down to 'figure it all out' with mastodon. Though Lemmy seems far more my style, so hopefully this gets some power behind it.
I just did it. It was super easy and just took a couple of minutes for the mods to approve it.
It's also killing the reminder bit as well
im so nervous about the porn spam, you have no clue
If the fediverse is going to make the big times it's going to have e to handle porn.
I never really got any.
This, but instead of Lemmy it is Kbin. xD
Better Devs, Better Mods.
Well, I should say Better Devs who actually moderate.
What's Apollo?
The largest and most popular 3rd party reddit app
