Quick post to answer some basic usage questions that can throw off new users.
Where should I register?
The age old question of fediverse. The answer is pick an instance that is not right-wing and you should be fine.
https://join-lemmy.org/instances makes this very easy. Once you find an instance, just go to its /signup endpoint. For the instance you’re reading right now, it would be: https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/signup. Another great option is to use the lemmyverse which provides a lot more info about potential instances and communities, including a trust score.
Do I need to create a profile for each instance?
No! Each instance can access each other instance, unless it’s been defederated because its admins are toxic (this is why I told you not to join right-wing instances earlier).
I joined an instance, but the community I am interested in is in a different instance
No problem. Simply add the instance domain at the end of the url endpoint.
For example, say you’re in lemmy.ml and you realized that stable_diffusion is in lemmy.dbzer0.com. To access it, simply add @lemmy.dbzer0.com at the end of the url after the community name. So:
https://lemmy.ml/c/stable_diffusion@lemmy.dbzer0.com
Or to put it differently, you can access any community, in any instance by adding /c/ (The requivalet of reddit /r/) and then community_name@instance.domain
If this doesn’t work, then it’s likely this instance is not yet federated with yours. To solve this, you need to search for it. See the next section.
But how do I even find the community I want to if it exists in any of hundreds of instances?
One option is to use the lemmyverse, as it’s very user friendly, if you specify which instance if your home, it will automatically convert all links to your own instance.
Alternatively use the use the built-in search.
Note that if you search for an community in an lemmy instance your own instance doesn’t yet know about, it won’t find it. You need to give it more precice instructions to find it, which require the whole “address”. To follow our example above, you would put !stable_diffusion@lemmy.dbzer0.com in your search field.
When searching for a community in a new instance, it might take a few minutes to take effect. The first search will not return anything, but if you search again after a couple of minutes, it should appear.
How do I find my community from reddit?
https://sub.rehab/ allows you to search for any subreddit and see if its official community exists in the threadiverse. You can then search for it specifically to subscribe. If you’ve already registered an account somewhere, make sure you visit the settings in sub.rehab and set your home instance there, so that all links go through it.
Community? Instance?
An instance is a lemmy server hosted by someone. it has its own set of users and communities. lemmy.dbzer0.com is an instance. You can access (almost) every instance from any other instance.
a community is like a subreddit in reddit, or a channel in discord. It’s a topic in inside an instance. stable_diffusion is a community inside the instance lemmy.dbzer0.com.
In more plain terms, consider a lemmy instance like a street, and a community like a number on that street. When you write !stable_diffusion@lemmy.dbzer0.com you are giving the exact address and number to search for.
I keep seeing the same posts
In you’re in a smaller instance and you’ve subscribed to communities in other places, you might have set up your default visibility to not show them.
Switch your view to Subscribed/Hot to get a similar view like the reddit frontpage.
Switch to All/Hot to get a similar view to reddit /r/all
You can store this setting permanently as default in your user settings
Tips and PSA
- Protip: Use instance or relative links
- Upload images on your text posts
- Use Firefox’ bookmark keywords to navigate quickly to a community
- Protip: Use the instance switcher script
Also see
I wish I read this before I made 8 accounts lmao
I made a userscript (Lemmy post) which rewrites all links everywhere (not only on Lemmy) to always point to your home instance. It helps a lot with subscribing to communities and in general makes browsing the web and finding Lemmy links nicer.
Full extension when? :)
Also, this userscript also works on Firefox on Android with the Tampermonkey extension, which wouldn’t be possible with a regular extension since those have to be separately approved.
I’m not sure why? This is already fully featured.
Well I have to run greasemonkey now :D
Actually I just noticed the script can’t work in greasemonkey anyway, it only works in tampermonkey and violentmonkey.
violentmonkey is better
I’m confused about the exclamation point. Can you explain what that does? Thanks.
It’s just a formatting thing, like the @ in an email address. It makes it easier to tell apart users @kholdstayr@lemmy.dbzer0.com vs. communities !div0@lemmy.dbzer0.com.
Hey everyone & Thanks for the instance db0!
This whole fediverse thing is bizarre to me, and learning how to navigate it and understanding what the hell is going on is weird. Ive signed up like 4 different instances without realising they interconnect and now i feel like i gotta choose one.
I mean, you registered already. The only thing to choose is which one to use as your main “portal” to the fediverse.
Could you help me figure what I’m doing wrong when it comes to adding the anarchy chess instance? I have and have been trying the exclamation point thing, but it doesn’t seem to want add on Jerboa. Is it not federated or am I just not doing it right?
For now there’s a bug in the app that doesn’t let you subscribe to communities that haven’t been federated. Until they fix it you have to go to the website if nobody here searched for it from the site yet.
I searched for !anarchychess@sopuli.xyz now though so you should be able to subscribe through the app.
let me know other questions that might be useful
Trying to understand how to add a new community in jerboa. I search for something but cannot find the community. Also once inside a community how do you searxh within it like say I’m in a community that’s about food how would I searxh within it for steak?
For now the app only searches communities that have already been federated. Until someone fixes that you need to use the website to find new communities and search through posts.
