Hi, new user coming from Reddit, as many. Trying to orient with Lemmy, I realize that I still don’t understand the idea of instances well enough. Or maybe the fediverse. So there are plenty of instances, and each is supposed to be dedicated to a topic, but this is a very fluid definition. Anyhow, how do I search for instances? I mean, if I’m in Lemmy.world, I can click “instances” and I get the list of instances that are relevant. Sure, I can use google for that, but my logic tells me that there should be a more organic way.

And this leads to another question, how can I browses communities on other instances with my already existing account? What about platforms such as mastodon where I’m supposed to be able to browse and submit and such?

And finally, is there a search per community possibility?

Sorry, I’m still confused about these.

  • PriorProject@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    You’ve gotten some good ad-hoc answers here, but here are some sticky posts that might help more:

    • On getting started in general and federation: https://lemmy.world/post/37906. This is aimed at lemmy.world users, but except for the support community link at the end, it’s mostly broadly applicable.
    • On finding communities to join: https://lemmy.blahaj.zone/post/61827, including links to the major external community browsers that are essential to finding stuff that you’re the first user on your instance to discover.
    • a new sad me@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      Thanks for the answer.

      My question, when I think about it, is actually about what’s the point of instances topic. I mean, I understand the strength of having multiple instances, and how this prevents anyone from controlling Lemmy or shutdown Lemmy (pretty much the point of the internet as a whole and not having it running on a single server, when you think about it). But… what’s the point of having an instance dedicated to, let’s say, puppies if I cannot browse for community specifically on that instance (unless I open an account there)?

      • PriorProject@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        1 year ago

        But… what’s the point of having an instance dedicated to, let’s say, puppies if I cannot browse for community specifically on that instance (unless I open an account there)?

        I don’t follow the premise of your question. You CAN browse for communities on a topic instance without an extra account there.

        I’m not quite as convinced as some that topic instances are necessary or useful in the long-term. But I don’t see them posing any unique challenges to community discovery other than the “normal” challenges the posts I originally sent cover.

        • a new sad me@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
          1·
          1 year ago

          The thing is that I have to exist my instance in order to browse these communities. On an app this is extra problematic, since once I found a community of interest, I cannot subscribe to it.

          On top of that. Not all instances allow dor anonymous browsing.

          And finally, the second link you’ve provided, does allow me to browse communities pers instance.

          /u/Falmarri opened a feature request for that in GitHub, maybe it explains what I mean better than me.

          https://github.com/LemmyNet/lemmy/issues/3105