I’ve just created an account on Lemmy.world and am able to subscribe for communities in lemmy.ml. Can I use it there? Can I use same credentials for all lemmy instances? Does it make a difference where I create one?

  • fubo@lemmy.world
    14·
    2 years ago

    Think of it like email. If you have an email account at gmail.com you can still send and receive mail from people at mit.edu or wherever.

    Here, the instance your account is on will fetch posts and comments from other instances on behalf of you and other subscribers.

    • CeruleanRuin@lemmy.one
      6·
      2 years ago

      I think that’s what the “federated” part means. Your account has “citizenship” on your instance/server, but had freedom to travel and correspond everywhere within the federation of Lemmy. Did I get that right?

    • hoxbug@lemmy.world
      4·
      2 years ago

      That’s the best explanation I have been hearing about how this all works, what happens if an instance goes down or disappears? Would all your comments and posts on another instance disappear ? Or does it sort of take a snapshot of it and becomes part of that instance you commented in ?

      • Andreas@feddit.dk
        5·
        2 years ago

        Instances take snapshots of text and comments from federated posts, but not media links and embeds so that federation won’t take up too much storage. The posts from an instance that shut down will still be there but the post becomes “archived” as any new comments or edits cannot be federated.