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/[email protected]
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 migrating here from lemmy.world. Is there any way to import the communities I followed there? Or do I have to search and follow them manually?
Unfortunately not. Hopefully in the future we can get at least an export/import mechanism, if not a direct account migration tool
An export/import mechanism would be neat. I guess I’ll follow one by one when I’m bored.
Thanks!
You can follow this issue for the same feature request.
In the same issue, there’s a reference to a potential workaround. I haven’t tried it, but from skimming the post, it seems to require less effort while not being fully automatic.
So I’m using the progressive web app for Lemmy , which does not have a URL bar. How am I supposed to subscribe to a community if it’s not showing up in search? It is way too much work to find and subscribe to communities
I think you have to manually trigger the server to conduct a search if no one on this instance has ever interacted with the community.
Example:
Then you have to wait a few minutes and see if it shows up in search, if not, try again.
I have several accounts for all the different lemmy sites, i dont know if that was a good idea, and im probably gonna use this as my main.
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).
me who has created 4 different accounts in different instances…
Well shit now what do I do with this?
Nothing, just keep using the domain you prefer
Many many thanks for this. Got up and running in no time. Loving the communities and the lack of toxicity in the posts and comments. What a breath of fresh air!
Just needs traction and more users. Doing my bit posting and getting involved in the discussions. Really scratches that Reddit itch without the dirty feeling that I am supporting some wanker CEO.
Hello again,
So I am trying to subscribe to the Lakers community:
But for whatever reason it’s not letting me or coming up in search. Anybody know what’s going on?
Edit: after posting the link here, I was able to sign up. Weird. Still won’t bring up the instance from search however.
Edit again:
Can’t seem to get this one to with either. Strange. Not sure why. Tried wefwef, jerboa, and connect
Thank god for your comment lol I was having the same issue but could get there from the [email protected] link 🫠
It seems like you’re the first one here to search and subscribe to it. When I searched for it, it came up immediately. At this point, it could be a caching issue, but it’s hard to say when I’m not seeing the same issue.
Looking forward to the next season!
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 @[email protected] vs. communities [email protected].
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.
let me know other questions that might be useful
Can I check if I want to use the same image repeatedly for each post I need to re-upload it each time to get a unique url? as using the same one seems to make the post invisible within the same community?
I think you need to re-upload each time. But why would you want to reuse the same image each time?
ahh thanks, I was just trying to get a little image to appear against each of the posts in the community instead of them just showing the default icon.
Having the same image each time is boring! If you want to have an image each time, set up a standard prompt, then use Lucid Creations to generate a new image each time!
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.
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 [email protected] now though so you should be able to subscribe through the app.
When I’m browsing “All” I’ll get half way down the page and it’ll start federating/updating from another instance. Is there a way to set this to only happen on refresh? It a bit of a pain when your feed is regularly quickly expanding from the top. It makes scrolling a pita.
Disable internet once the page is loaded. 😎
Is there a possibility to hide this post?
I’ve seen, read and (hopefully 😅) understood it, I would just like to see content straight away instead of this post all the time.
If not, would this be a server or a client feature? So I could perhaps add it to their issue tracker, if it doesn’t exist yet.
unfortunately you can’t hide posts yet, but there’s a feature request for it yes
