• LemmyLeaveReddit@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I mean, on Reddit there’s just be subreddits which would be equivalent of communities. I just don’t get what instances are for then.

      • FarLine99@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        Instances - servers with Lemmy software, controlled by instance creators. Instances can talk with each other. On lemmy.world you can see and comment on posts from sh.itjust.works f.e. Best analogy - eMail, different providers (instance holders) but you can talk with any of them :D

      • RisingSwell@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        As far as I can tell, the instances are just different run versions of lemmy by different people, that can inter-mingle (normally). I’m not particularly into decentralization and am only just here because reddit can eat a fat one, so I don’t know their arguments for it. The potential benefits I see are if one of the instance owners decides to fuck up absolutely everything for everyone, the damage can be pretty easily mitigated by defederating from that instance, basically exile. For example, on Lemmy you couldn’t really have someone like Spez ruining for everyone, because there are other large servers you could just migrate to if you happened to be on that instance, while still keeping up with nearly all of the stuff that you were keeping up with before. Main downside I see is if one instance becomes super dominant, like multiple orders of magnitude more popular than whoever is in 2nd it would just be susceptible to the old problems again.

        I’m still definitely not an expert, and some of what I wrote may be incorrect, but I think it’s all accurate.

        • LemmyLeaveReddit@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          I too am here because Reddit can eat a fat one. However I dont know who is behind this, e.g. who I am sharing my data with and how that works…

          wefwef.app makes the shift extremely easy.

          I plan on using Lemmy exclusively for a period of time. Especially when Reddit lists on the stock exchange mid 2023. I then also will delete my very old Reddit account.

          About defederation and mitigation, if one instance was fucked by the… owner (who owns an instance? is it like, someone hosts the instance on their server?) then the subs/communities would have to be rebuilt again, the posts wouldn’t migrate etc.

        • LemmyLeaveReddit@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          I read a bit about it here. It seems like a much better model than Reddit. It looks like each instance is controlled by the instance creator, who also supplies the hardware. But it is much more free and open. The only controllers I see are the ones hosting the instances, however it is easy to move from one instance to another, same for content.

          I tried to log in to behaw and others with my lemmy.world user but the login just works for a very long time and nothing happens. I dont know.

          https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fediverse

          • RisingSwell@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            I’ve read about it a few times, but I always seem to forget how to say it specifically when I need to.

            You would need to register for Beehaw, and while I’m not entirely sure what the entirety of it is, I know they review people who are trying to sign up, it isn’t just enter details, confirm email and go.

            • LemmyLeaveReddit@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              They probably have a free choice to review who can join, which blocks the federated part that allows a federated user to log in?