Reddit refugee here - stumbled across Lemmy as it was mentioned in a comment on Artifact but intrigued by this format and communities!

Looking for tips as a brand new user to get the most out of it - any advice is welcome! I’m using Mlem which seems to be working pretty well so far.

  • kimli@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    This is not complete by any means but this is what I did (recently):

    • Explore around: Currently there’s an influx of new user and communities (subreddits) being created. Total users has doubled (give it take) in 10 days. Active monthly users has increased 6x in the same 10 days
    • Try to engage: For many (most?) of us this is a brand new place. Not so long ago it felt rather quiet (I remember taking a look a few months back and thinking “It’s a cool idea but there’s not enough content”) As a forever lurker, this has been easier said than done. The vibe I get (YMMV) is from early Slashdot / Slashdot clones, only much more vibrant. I haven’t seen something similar in a really long time
    • Missing content? Either you wait (keep exploring) or become proactive. Even if you intend to hand it over down the line, create/start building any community you are missing. For those that are joining after you, it’s reassuring having a moment of “Hey, here there’s also interest in $RANDOM_THING”
    • Be aware of size: Recently I was taking about this. Some "not so large subreddits " have 10x users subscribed as users in the whole “lemmyverse”? “lemmy ecosystem”? (I’m still not sure how it’s named)
    • The system is quite new and has had a sudden explosion in popularity. Be prepared to see some rough edges here and there.

    A couple of things that might be odd to get your head around:

    • Instances: Although you can think of instances as a “whole reddit” they all work together. Both of us are on different instances and I’m commenting on your post. I’m not even sure without scrolling on which server resides the post
    • Fediverse: The collaboration is not constrained to instances alone. I was engaging (from Lemmy) with a post originating on a different platform (kbin) and checking how it looks on a third platform (Mastodon). The analogy might be bad, but think of commenting from Reddit on a post originated on digg and checking how you see/comment on it from Twitter.

    But the most important part, enjoy your time here

    • Pliny@lemmy.fmhy.mlOP
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      1 year ago

      Great advice thanks! I’m a huge lurker on Reddit just due to the gargantuan size I feel like it’s almost just shouting into the void but looking to get more involved here!

  • LlamaSutra@sh.itjust.works
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    1 year ago

    It is the users who provide value to these platforms. If you like it here, provide value and contribute! Posts, comments, create a hobby community that you want (that doesn’t exist here yet pls).

  • fox@moth.social
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    1 year ago

    If you’re on your own instance it’ll be very quiet until you start adding sub-lemmys (lemmings?)

    You need to paste the entire link into your instances search bar and subscribe from there. Otherwise you’re taken to the instance it’s hosted on and need to log in.

    @Pliny

    • Pliny@lemmy.fmhy.mlOP
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      1 year ago

      Thanks! So I signed up to an instance and I can then filter by all and the option to ‘subscribe’ to lots of other sub-lemmys is available - still not really sure how it all works but definitely getting served a lot of activity!

      • kimli@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        If you know of a community and you can’t find it in all, paste the whole URL in the search field ( https://lemmy.ml/c/linux ) and then you can subscribe.

        This indicates your instance there’s someone interested in this community and it’ll start getting future content

        Only the first user would need to do this, for those after, the community will show when searching in all

        Edit: autocorrect

  • SanguinePar@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Hiya - I’m a fellow Reddfugee and I only joined yesterday, but I’m starting to get the hang of it I think. Happy to try and help with any questions, although I can’t promise I’ll know the answers!

  • TiresomeOuting@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    How do I subscribe to a lemmy community from kbin? I’ve tried searching and waiting like on lemmy and it still doesn’t show up.

    Is there a certain format? I tried fill url, !community@instance, community@instance

    • themadcodger@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      @community@instance.tld that’s a more common way across the fediverse and also how you follow people, including those on other platforms like Mastodon and Calckey, etc.

      • TiresomeOuting@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        Thanks. Unfortunately it doesn’t seem to work for me. Maybe it’s something with the specific community I’m looking for?

        I’m trying @canada

        Edit: that is rendering strangly in my reply. The community is called canada and the instance is lemmy.ca

        • themadcodger@kbin.social
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          1 year ago

          Huh, that is strange. I wonder if that one isn’t federating for some reason. I can find @canada@lemmy.ml but @canada@lemmy.ca turns up nothing. Neither does https://lemmy.ca/c/canada 🤔

          Edit: I forgot there are issues with federation right now because of the cloudflare check. It should only be temporary. See Ernest’s post

          • TiresomeOuting@kbin.social
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            1 year ago

            Thanks, hopefully that’s it. Kbin seems nicer than lemmy but I need some of the communities from lemmy! I was wondering if lemmy.ca was defederated from here or something but good to hear that isn’t it.

            I’ll check back in a few days.