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- beehaw is way outdated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.
Hello everyone,
This sub seems to get some traction in the last few days, which seems like a good opportunity to present Lemmy, an open-source alternative to Reddit.
What is Lemmy in one sentence?
Lemmy is an alternative to Reddit, you can visit https://phtn.app/ to have a look at the content, and install an app using https://vger.app/settings/install.
The more detailed explanation
That was the very easy version. No need to understand federation, servers, or any technical jargon.
But as we are European, the servers question should be quite familiar to us. Lemmy works like email: you use a provider to get access to the service, providers are operated by different people, but still allow everyone to use the same service. Think about email providers like mailbox.org, posteo, Soverin, Tuta mail, Infomaniak, Mailo etc.
Servers as analogy to countries
Lemmy works the same. You access the same content but via different servers. Most of the servers on Lemmy are operated by European volunteers, sometimes in a non-profit.
A list of links, with most active users first
- 🇪🇪 Estonia: https://lemm.ee/
- 🇩🇪🇦🇹🇨🇭 Germany, Austria and Switzerland: https://feddit.org/ and https://discuss.tchncs.de/
- 🇪🇺 EU-hosted: https://lemmy.zip/ (special mention to their detailed reports like this one: https://lemmy.zip/post/33065677)
- 🇫🇮 Finland: https://sopuli.xyz/
- 🇫🇷🇧🇪🇨🇭 France, Belgium, Switzerland: https://jlai.lu/
- 🇬🇧 UK: https://feddit.uk/
- 🇳🇱 Netherlands: https://feddit.nl/
- 🇮🇹 Italy: https://feddit.it/
- 🇩🇰 Denmark: https://feddit.dk/
- 🇵🇱 Poland: https://szmer.info/
- 🇸🇪 Sweden: https://feddit.nu/
- 🇵🇹 Portugal: https://lemmy.pt/
- Catalonia and Basque country: https://lemmy.cat/ and https://lemmy.eus/
- 🇧🇬 Bulgaria: https://feddit.bg/
- 🇱🇹 Lithuania: https://group.lt/
Can all servers access the same content? Yes! See for instance, the Europe community hosted on feddit.org: europe@feddit.org:
- https://feddit.org/c/europe
- https://jlai.lu/c/europe@feddit.org
- https://feddit.uk/c/europe@feddit.org
So, should you join the server of you country?
You don’t have to, as all the content is available from every server. However, there is an added value to use a server you share a language or country feed: the Local feed. This is a feed that shows you communities hosted on that server. Compare for instance
- https://feddit.org/?dataType=Post&listingType=Local&sort=NewComments
- https://feddit.uk/?dataType=Post&listingType=Local&sort=NewComments
- https://jlai.lu/?dataType=Post&listingType=Local&sort=NewComments
The Local feeds are different, and are in different languages.
What are the strengths of such system compared to a centralized site like Reddit?
- Nobody can own the entire platform. If a server admin goes power tripping, people will switch servers, move the communities elsewhere, and leave that server. Same if a mod goes power tripping. It’s billionnaire proof.
- Everyone can start their own server and join the network. Admins are people you can relate to, they are not an American CEO only aiming to extract profits from you.
- As the platform is open source, a lot of mobile apps and interfaces are being developed (more on that later).
- Lemmy is not the only technology working on that platform, other project like Mbin or Piefed work too: https://fedia.io/m/europe@feddit.org and https://piefed.social/c/europe@feddit.org
Experiences of new joiners
A few people have been trying out Lemmy after seeing it mentioned in the “Buy European” flyer that has been posted around, you can see their experience here: https://old.reddit.com/r/BuyFromEU/comments/1j0cl2u/ive_actually_moved_to_lemmy_reddit_alternative/
Frequently asked questions
Let’s end with a few frequently asked questions
I heard that Lemmy developers have extremist political views, isn’t that a risk?
As Lemmy is federated using an open protocol, there are other options to connect to the communities without using Lemmy itself.
The first one is Piefed: https://piefed.social/c/buyeuropean@feddit.uk
The other one is Mbin: https://fedia.io/m/buyeuropean@feddit.uk
However, those are stil a bit less mature than Lemmy, so for instance if you want to use mobile apps a lot, Lemmy is still a better choice.
On top of that, every Lemmy server is managed by different people. You can see regular criticism of lemmy.ml (the server managed by the Lemmy devs) on threads such as this: https://lemm.ee/post/33872586 or even dedicated communities like https://lemm.ee/c/meanwhileongrad@sh.itjust.works
That shows that even the Lemmy devs are not protected from criticism.
What if my server goes down?
This is always a risk. The usual recommendation is to go for a server that is managed by a few admins (feddit.org went the extra mile and is managed by a non profit: https://fediverse.foundation/) and have contact information and status pages in their sidebars (example for lemm.ee: https://status.lemm.ee/ and feddit.uk: https://stats.uptimerobot.com/XzEqqSB3Ay).
Most of the instances listed above have been around since July 2023 and the API fiasco. The cost to host an instance is quite low (can go as low as 0.03€ per user per month https://feddit.org/post/2600584) and admins may ask for small donations if needed.
Can I switch servers?
Lemmy has a built-in feature to export and import your subscriptions and block lists from the account settings. Switching to a new account takes a few minutes. You can keep the same username and avatar if you want people to recognize you from your previous account. As there is no karma system, you’re not losing anything.
What interfaces and applications are available?
I’ve mentioned https://phtn.app/, which is also offered directly by some servers like https://p.feddit.org/ or https://p.feddit.uk/.
For people enjoying old.reddit, there is https://old.feddit.org/ , which can be used for every instance on https://o.opnxng.com/
Alexandrite is another one: https://alexandrite.app/
For mobile apps, there is an extensive list on https://www.lemmyapps.com/, including former Reddit clients like Sync and Boost, but also new ones like Voyager, Thunder, Summit, Arctic, Jerboa all actively developed.
There isn’t enough content
That’s a classic chicken-and-egg problem. Lemmy currently has 48k monthly active users , which is quite a lot compared to centralized alternatives like Discuit (less than 220 commenters ). Of course, with such a userbase, you can only sustain so many niche topics.
A good way to discover active communities is https://lemm.ee/c/communitypromo@lemmy.ca
Quite a few people on Lemmy use both Lemmy and Reddit at the same time. Lemmy because we believe in the platform, Reddit for the specific niche content.
Several communities have the same name, it’s confusing, active communities are hard to find
Reddit has a similar issue: you have /r/games as the main gaming community, but there is also /r/Gaming, /r/videogames /r/gamers, etc.
How does someone know what the main community is, whatever the platform? Looking at the number of subscribers and active members.
There was the example of “patientgamers”: if you search for that topic in the search bar, the most active one is definitely https://lemm.ee/c/patientgamers@sh.itjust.works with 1130 users per month.
The others have barely 63 monthly active users: https://lemm.ee/c/patientgamers@lemmy.ml , or 1 : https://lemm.ee/c/patientgamers@lemmy.world
To find active communities: https://lemm.ee/c/communitypromo@lemmy.ca There are regular threads with active communities on topic such as gardening, movies, board games, anime, science, etc.
There is too much political content
You can block entire servers and specific communities in your account settings.
Instances to block to avoid political content
Communities to block
- https://lemmy.world/c/news
- https://lemmy.world/c/politics
- https://lemmy.world/c/world
- https://lemmy.ml/c/worldnews
- https://lemmy.ml/c/usa
With those blocked, you are avoiding 95% of the political content. There might be a few other communities that pop up, but blocking them is still one click away.
On top of that, some apps like Voyager allow you to block keywords directly in the client.
Feel free if you have any questions in the comment
I think lemmy.ca is missing
It was targeting European countries
Saving the post here in case the Reddit post gets removed (https://old.reddit.com/r/BuyFromEU/comments/1j0xkqa/lemmy_as_an_alternative_to_reddit_using/)
