Welcome Reddit refugees!

We are happy to see that many of you are exploring Lemmy after Reddit announced changes to its API policy. I maintain this project alongside @dessalines.

Lemmy is similar to Reddit in many ways, but there is also a major difference: Its not only a single website, but consists of many different websites which are interconnected through federation. This is achieved with the ActivityPub protocol which is also used by Mastodon. It means that you can sign up on any Lemmy instance to interact with users and communities on other instances. The project website has a list of instances which all have their own rules and administrators. We recommend that you sign up on one of them, to avoid overt centralization on lemmy.ml.

Another difference compared to Reddit is that Lemmy is open source, and not funded by any company. For this reason it relies on volunteer work to make the project better, whether it's programming, design, documentation, translating, reporting issues or others. See the contributing guide to get started. You can also donate to support development.

We also recommend that you read the documentation. It explains how Lemmy works and how to setup your own Lemmy instance. Running an instance gives you full control over the rules and moderation, and prevents us developers from having any influence. Especially large communities that want to use Lemmy should host their own instance, because existing Lemmy instances would easily be overwhelmed by a large number of new users.

Enjoy your time here! If you have any questions, feel free to ask below or in the Matrix chat.

TacoThrash3r,

Here is my only question. I'm in browser right now, is there a pwa I can install or do I need a mobile app?

EnglishMobster,
@EnglishMobster@lemmy.ml avatar

There is mlem for IOS and Jerboa for Android.

LostRedditor,

I couldn’t find Mlem in the App Store. How can I download it?

Never mind.. I found the test flight invite in their github page

understandable,

Looking quite promising so far. I really hope this takes off.

And thanks for admitting my account!

dessalines,

No probs!

RolandTheJabberwocky,

Pleasure to be here, honestly will probably keep using this too even if they backpedal the third party apps.

BrooklynMan,
@BrooklynMan@lemmy.ml avatar

I've already started to wean myself off reddit, ad I just know they're going to go through with pricing out the 3rd-party apps. There's a lot of communities here, and people keep creating new ones. It's like how reddit was in the early days.

i like it here.

dessalines,

Glad you like it so far.

One thing that would really be helpful, is to take a lot of those existing hobby communities on reddit, that are kind of the only reason to use the site, and ask their moderators if they'd be interested in making communities here or on another instance, or running their own lemmy servers. We'd be glad to help out with either.

BrooklynMan,
@BrooklynMan@lemmy.ml avatar

if we build it, they will come

dessalines,

Glad to have you!

Even if reddit does backpedal on API access, there are so many other terrible things about it, that we should just be contributing our time elsewhere.

Kingofwhereigo,

Another Reddit refuge. Came here from the BaconReader apps subreddit. (Apparently I created this account a while ago and just forgot about it till now 🤦. Oh well better late than never)

Mordiken, (edited )

Lemmy looks great, I hope it manages to comes out on top on the upcomming battle of the reddit alternatives because due to it's decentralized nature it's pretty much impossible for lemmy to go south like reddit and digg.

thoro,

The biggest issue with this platform for me, as someone who lurks more than posts, is the smaller user base and, consequently, fewer posts and communities. Otherwise, I love the decentralization, open source nature, and general community.

This reddit issue could be what pushes this platform forward. Will be interesting to see.

Pepp3r,

I also lurk a whole lot and thats my biggest issue as well. It looks like a lot of people talk about Lemmy when the topic of migrating from reddit comes up though, im hopeful that it takes off.

EnglishMobster,
@EnglishMobster@lemmy.ml avatar

I've been on Lemmy for years now (before it could even federate!), but never really used it because there was nobody really here (and at the time there weren't any good Android apps - that's changed with Jeroba though).

The biggest competitor I've seen appears to be Tildes. I actually got an invite link to Tildes and have been trying it out.

The main difference is that Tildes is focused on high-quality discussion, trying to replicate old-school Reddit - before it went mainstream. Tildes purposely doesn't have memes or cat pictures, and comments are closer to paragraphs than anything else.

I think that's valuable... but I also know one of the big things that attracted people to Reddit were the memes. Not having memes is going to cause a lot of people to not want to stick around.

Lemmy is a lot more loose, so those people will be right at home. The main complaint I've seen from Reddit is that a lot of people are turned off when they see Lemmygrad as one of the most active instances, and they've been associating Lemmy with hardcore tankies.

Pepp3r,

Yeah I've also been on Lemmy since before federation, just haven't been active because of the lack of engagement in general. I've considered getting an invite for tildes, I will probably check it out, but most of the other alts are mostly filled with the sort of racists that reddit has been banning the last few years, so Lemmy and tildes are I think the only viable options atm.

I like Lemmy more because personally I'm a fan of shitposting and memes and Lemmy seems to support that more. I hope that the popularity of Mastadon in relation to twitter will help redditors understand what Lemmy is, and they can look past the tankie stuff. There are already instances like beehaw that arent tankie but are pretty popular. I guess I just really hope we can move on from reddit but keep the community that made reddit feel special in the early days.

EnglishMobster,

@Pepp3r @EnglishMobster It's also interesting because of how it opens things up beyond other platforms. For example - I found your post on Mastodon, and I'm replying from my Mastodon account.

The interface isn't as nice as Lemmy... but it's certainly extremely interesting that this works! (Or at least... I hope it does!)

Pepp3r,

Yo that is so cool! I didn't even know that Mastadon and Lemmy could interact like this!

EnglishMobster,

And you even showed up as a reply to my comment on Mastodon! Very neat.

I knew it was theoretically possible, but I had never tried it before. The thing is from the Mastodon end I see everything as a feed of comments, as if I followed everyone who posted to a certain community.

That probably works fine for now, but as Lemmy grows and these communities get huge I could see it completely take over my Mastodon feed.

I kind of wish it would just show the top-level posts with some way of hiding the replies by default (kind of like Twitter), but I also know that's not how Mastodon really does things. Still pretty neat!

Pepp3r,

That is so interesting. I'm not actually on Mastadon yet (still on twitter, I know...) but I can click the fediverse icon on Lemmy on your comment and see this thread on Mastadon, it takes me to sunny.garden which I assume is your mastadon instance. This is really cool lol

EnglishMobster,

Theoretically it would also work for other Fediverse stuff, like PeerTube (YouTube replacement). I wonder if once Lemmy takes off we'll see PeerTube start gaining traction next.

Pepp3r,

That would be really cool to see. I use Newpipe for youtube on my phone and subscribe to Nebula, I would love to see an alt take over the market share that youtube has a stranglehold over

nutomic,
@nutomic@lemmy.ml avatar

You should have seen this place a week ago, it was very quiet. With all the new users its its getting a lot more active.

EnglishMobster,
@EnglishMobster@lemmy.ml avatar

Haha, I was here 3 years ago, before Federation even worked. It was very slow, to say the least. ;)

It's been my first time back since 2020, and it's kind of wild to see it taking off. I'd imagine it'll only grow as the enshittification of Reddit continues.

I am very curious what's going to happen to the larger instances like lemmy.ml and Beehaw.org. Lemmy.ml was struggling to load for me a bit earlier; come July 1st when everyone gets their access cut off I'm very curious how slammed this'll be.

XLRV,
@XLRV@lemmy.ml avatar

I'm in the same situation, I've never posted or commented on Reddit, but I loved using it to find information, I searched on Reddit before any other website, there's many great niche communities that exists.

I hope that Lemmy could grow enough to become a serious alternative. I don't like what Reddit has become.

Mordiken,

IMO the one thing that should be possible to do on lemmy is for users from one server to be able to post and comment on another server within the lemmy network.

Posts and comment made by users from a different realm could be published as some variaton of "user@server", that way we could have multiple instances of "user" on the network, just on different servers.

CannotSleep420,

Everything you said is already possible. I’m commenting here from a different instance.

Mordiken,

That's great! :D

EnglishMobster,

Not only is what you say perfectly possible - you can also have people from Mastodon talk to you!

This is my Mastodon account. I've followed a couple Lemmy communities and I'm seeing their comments in my feeds, just like they were "real" Mastodon posts.

It doesn't work the other way around (so you can't follow me in Lemmy, for example), but it's pretty neat that it works as well as it does!

Mordiken,

Oh wow this is great!!

dessalines,

Reddit was once tiny too, with very little activity. Now its frustratingly the opposite.... a lot of bots, karma-farming, thinly-veiled advertising, copaganda, unpleasant and rude interactions.

I'd love to have back the feel of old-school forums, with smaller, tight-knit communities, and good content. While at the same time the fediverse gives us the opportunity to click the All / Global view, so we can see a wider universe of content.

thoro,

Oh yeah. I joined Reddit pretty early by most standards (2007/2008), and it was a much different place, especially before the big Digg migration in 2011. Not sure if I was just younger, but the default experience wasn't quite so intolerable as it is today.

I'm hoping this platform can be similar to those early days. I really like the community here. It's probably better than the early Reddit community. And the federated nature offers so many benefits compared to more traditional sites like Reddit.

There is a critical mass of users needed to drive posting and interactions for any online platform like this. It's a delicate balance. Further large growth is when you may start seeing the culture degrade, the dreaded eternal September. Maybe the federated structure will allow this platform to avoid that.

I do think this Reddit issue is definitely an opportunity to attract that critical mass of users though. I think you're on top of that.

Looking forward to seeing how it goes

BrooklynMan,
@BrooklynMan@lemmy.ml avatar

the big Digg migration in 2011

fyi, that was in fall of 2010. although, I suppose, more people continued migrating into 2011, but the mass exodus was almost immediate in 2010. I remember how reddit had trouble handling all of the new traffic, much like lemmy instances are now, lol

thoro,

Oh yeah guess so. No idea why I always think it was 2011.

BrooklynMan,
@BrooklynMan@lemmy.ml avatar

i moved over to reddit from digg in 2007 during the whole digg v4 fiasco. migrating here feels very much the same. it's new, much smaller, works a bit differently (in a good way), and is still mostly undeveloped. This platform has a ton of potential as a reddit replacement, and, if they really do go through with pricing out the 3rd party apps, you'll likely see this place explode with traffic.

thoro,

That's around the time I first went to Reddit, and I agree. I'm getting very similar feelings.

The growth of users could be what pushes me to open Lemmy more than Reddit. I'm already seeing more and more varied activity than I was seeing in previous visits.

BrooklynMan,
@BrooklynMan@lemmy.ml avatar

yeah, i saw that the Beehaw admin said that the had doubled their userbase in a day, and that their traffic had gone through the roof. Their server got the reddit hug of death for a few hours last night.

zergling_man,

Might as well shill my client, clemmy here. 🕶

XLRV,
@XLRV@lemmy.ml avatar

Idk why but I can't access your link

zergling_man,

worksforme. What's it failing on?

XLRV,
@XLRV@lemmy.ml avatar

The site is stuck loading, I'm on mobile btw

Whaines,

FYI The link to the list of instances is being flagged by both my browser and my ISP as unsafe.

Haunting_Tale_5150,

Hello! I just joined after hearing about the whole api thing. I heard it's possible to connect Lemmy with Mastodon. Is that true? Pretty cool if it is. Either way I am interested to see how this goes.

dessalines,

@Haunting_Tale_5150 @nutomic This is a reply from my masto account.

reliving,

@dessalines @Haunting_Tale_5150 @nutomic That's so cool!

MathAndBall,

Liking Lemmy so far. Looks and feels really similar to Reddit but also unique in its own way.

macsiwase,

Happy to be here!

dessalines,

Glad to have you!

CrabAndBroom,

Hello! Also a reddit refugee here. I was thinking of making the switch before all this since reddit needs an increasing array of tweaks & add-ons just to be usable (RES, old reddit redirect, custom ublock filters etc.) so this seemed like a good time to start migrating.

dessalines,

One of the benefits of both the back end and front end(s) of lemmy being open source, is that we can build in these wanted features directly, rather than relying on hacks that sit on top of the site.

dessalines,

Question for everyone, where is lemmy getting linked from? (besides me in that apollo thread yesterday)

CrabAndBroom,

I saw it in the PrivacyGuides subreddit, they're trying out an instance here too from the sounds of it.

sexy_peach,

yeah they're at !privacyguides. Already on their own server (lemmy.one) :)

gnoop,

There were some people in the Apollo discussion mentioning it. It's also in a stickied thread on various alternatives in /r/RedditAlternatives. That's where I found Lemmy and started browsing before joining up.

JuxtaposedJaguar,

I saw an AskReddit thread about Reddit alternatives and someone mentioned Lemmy. No link, but I found it through DDG.

banu,

Twitter, same as an alternative for reddit. Keep up the good work! 🫶

XLRV,
@XLRV@lemmy.ml avatar

I found Lemmy in many comments about Reddit alternatives, Lemmy seems nice, I hope it will grow :)

bahcodad,

I saw it mentioned on r/BoostForReddit in a thread about the api hike

AnotherOverHeaven,

Another boost user, welcome to Lemmy! The app is a lot like boost too imo, just without all the features currently.

I would wonder if the boost developer could get into contact with the app developer..

dessalines,

Welcome!

I also created jerboa, and based the UI mainly off of boost, because it is ( I should say was) my favorite reddit app. Boost was closed source tho, whereas jerboa is open. But I'd love to have them or anyone contribute if they can.

Imaginecat22,

I found it in the big AskReddit thread. Someone made a list of alternatives and this was at the top. It also seemed like the one least likely to have the problems reddit has (and had).

dessalines,

Ahh I see, here's that thread.

brokn,

The API mess was just the recent kick in the pants I needed to jump over when I learned about the r/piracy back up

Oka,

I have a pretty good feeling that lemmy.ml is going to be the next reddit.com. Sure, there's different instances of the federation, but this one seems more developed than most of the others.

you can mention or message anyone on any website using their address.

So someone on a Mastadon community of servers could ping me in their server/website and I'd get a notification?

And can posts on one Lemmy server also show up in another Lemmy server? Like could a post be made here, braodcast into the lemmy-verse, and appear on another Lemmy website?

dessalines,

Correct, they just have to @ you.

GuyDudeman,
@GuyDudeman@lemmy.ml avatar

Yeah, it looks like it. I saw a message yesterday from someone posting a toot on Mastodon that showed up here, and I replied and they confirmed they got it. So I think they're all connected somehow.

reliving,

Yup, posting this from Mastodon. I love this integration. Curious to see what's possible with this.

GuyDudeman,
@GuyDudeman@lemmy.ml avatar

So are you able to read the Lemmy posts and comment threads using a mastodon app? Or through a mastodon implementation?

reliving,

I'm using the official Mastodon app. Browsing Lemmy communities is a bit awkward this way since they're essentially just another account retooting every user's comments and replies in threads. But I can search for individual comments through permalinks. Your response also triggered a regular notification in Mastodon.

GuyDudeman,
@GuyDudeman@lemmy.ml avatar

That's interesting. I'll have to login to one of my mastodon accounts and follow some lemmy instances I guess, to see what you're talking about?

harpuajim,

Thanks for having me. Even before this API bullshit I was thinking about getting off reddit for something else. Looking forward to spending some time here!

dessalines,

Glad to have you!

NeonBlue,

Someone point me to the nsfw instance that allows porn. I just don't see lemmy being a viable alternative to reddit at this point.

the_protagonist,

Is there any?

NeonBlue,

don't think there is

GuyDudeman,
@GuyDudeman@lemmy.ml avatar

Good. We don't need it.

bilb,
@bilb@lemmy.ml avatar

I do think it would be interesting to try to run a general-purpose instance that operates with the same global rules (more or less) as Reddit. The reason I can't imagine doing it myself is that admin duties on such an instance is rather daunting.

zekiz,

I think thats against the rules for some reason. Probably because they don't want to moderate all that

dessalines,

Yep, we don't have time to moderate that. This is a mostly dev-run instance, which means time spent moderating, is time not spent coding.

monkeydog453,

This is the first thing I tried to find, tbh. I agree it won't be a viable alt without.

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