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Disappointed ex-Reddit user after the APIcalypse - starter pack (lemmy.world)

submitted 1 year ago by Sati1984@lemmy.world to c/fediverse@lemmy.world

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I used to browse Reddit 90+% of the time from my phone through the RiF app, so after June 30th, here is what I did and what I recommend as a starter pack for others in the same situation:

Create account on lemmy.world, so the browser part is covered
Search for the information on which app provides the closest to the RiF (Apollo, etc.) experience
Instal Liftoff and be happy - it is just like RiF :-) (for Apollo and others, it could be different - find your own favorite!)
Dial back dramatically on using Reddit at all. I only load 4 subs in my phone's browser, because I did not find the Lemmy / Fediverse alternatives yet
Constantly look for the communities to replace the subreddits you are still visiting
OPTIONAL - once or twice a week, look at /r/pics and /r/videos and laugh at the creativity of the still ongoing protest :-)

So that is where I am right now, posting this via the web browser on the lemmy.world site, by pressing "create a post". Seems easy enough for now, but I find it a bit confusing that other people can post from Mastodon and other Lemmy instances... Do they see the same communities I do? Do I see all Lemmy communities if I use lemmy.world....? So many questions, but it's exciting to explore this brand new structure.

Even after reading the Fediverse and ActivityPub articles on Wikipedia my head is spinning, and I don't really understand how everything fits / works together, but here I am! An ex(-ish) Redditor after the APIcalypse, looking for cool new communities, and excited about the future that the Fediverse can bring!

(I'm willing to learn! Someone please link me a FAQ where I can find the answers to my questions :-) )

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[-] InisSieferI@kbin.social 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

What’s an instance?

A website hosted by some kind individual or group created to host data and interface with one of the specific fediverse applications (Lemmy, Kbin, Mastadon, Pixelfed, etc).

What’s a community?

This is a Lemmy-specific term. They are topic-specific boards hosted on instances, similar to subreddits on Reddit. The Kbin term for this same idea is magazines.
Example: For Lemmy, they are represented as "!community", such as !pics. On Kbin, they are "@magazine", such as @pics.

What are federations?

I haven't really heard the word used this way, I've heard it more as an adjective or verb. This may take more than one line to explain because I literally had to see it to believe it.
To have one instance federated with another is to have them communicating with each other, so that users, posts, communities, etc on one instance can be read by uses on another instance. It's how I can read all these Lemmy posts on Kbin and comment under them, because these Lemmy instances are federated with the Kbin.social instance I'm currently on.

What's mastadon?

A federated version of Twitter.

Whats Kbin?

A federated web application that combines the link-aggregation of Reddit with the individual micro blogging threads of Twitter.

What's Activity Pub?

It's the current protocol to enable federation of all these sites we've been talking about. Federation is possible because all these sites are speaking the same language, and this is that language.
In addition to Lemmy, Kbin, Mastadon that use Activity Pub, we also have Pixelfed, Micro.blog, Nextcloud, PeerTube, and more I'm sure.

If you have any other questions, just ask!