Don't be a dick. If you want to be negative that's fine, but be prepared with a litany of sources.

Don't do shit like "lemmy etiquette". Just follow human etiquette and be a pleasant human and everything will be fine.

Also stop worrying so much about "doing anything bad". Sometimes you fuck up, sometimes you upset people, it's no big deal. You're good.

Hello, and welcone to Lemmy. Glad you made it, here's my overall advice:

• No need to get hung up over a few early downvotes on your comment that might cause its score to go negative for a bit. People can be strongly opinionated here. Not everyone agrees with me on this, but I do appreciate people willing to post honestly held unpopular opinions and play a reasonable devil's advocate in threads. (This is different than just being a contrarian.)
• For your own and everyone's benefit, try to engage in thoughtful, well reasoned and good faith discussion with empathy for others where it's due. If you feel like a chain of replies is going nowhere good, there's no shame in walking away from it.
• Report and block the jerks, trolls and spammers you might encounter like on any forum-like site. Don't let them spoil your experience when most people here are respectful.

Enjoy your time here!as

If you follow these, you'll be fine:

Don't hate on minorities
Don't post AI content outside of communities made for it
Don't insert yourself into communities where you don't belong, eg:

• Don't comment "As a man, ..." in WomensStuff
• Don't debate the validity of trans folks on Blahaj
• Don't criticize China in any way on lemmy.ml

DO NOT post anything negative about Linux (unless you're comparing it to BSD, of course)

Sometimes it's a bit harder not to offend than on reddit, because posts may hit your front page from an instance that was created as a safe space for a group you're not part of, and they may react harshly to you budding in.

As others have said, lemmy.zip might be a better instance for you than .ml.
In general, I'd say people are nicer here, more arguments in good faith, which I like.
Politics range from socialism to anarchism. Any thread on any topic is a good place to discuss Linux. No one cares about how many upvotes people have. You may need to actively explore communities and join them if you want. It's a bit like free software, if you think something is lacking, participate with more content and build up the community. Free software is great, what's your favorite distro?

Less bots.

You use Arch, btw.

Do NOT mention Nicole.

Wait, shi-

Sometimes I'll call you a dumbass, but if I do, you were probably being a dumbass.

Each instance has its own vibe. You joined .ml, just a fair warning that a few instances and a chunk of Lemmy users have defederated/blocked it, so you may miss out on some content. Otherwise, pretty chill for the most part.

If you use any Microsoft product, keep that to yourself...

Please do not drag the same tired jokes over from reddit (e.g. broken arms). Stick around long enough to learn Lemmy's tired jokes.

It’s smaller, but more personable. It’s full of neurodivergent, queer, and tech oriented people. It has its own inside jokes—you will want to read up on beans.

Overall, I have enjoyed the experience. Sometimes, I have been surprised when people can’t detect obvious jokes or sarcasm, but then I remember how many people here are neurodivergent and try to reply with something kind and straightforward so we’re on the same page.

People tend to be very leftist compared to the rest of the internet, so it’s good to remember that the opinions here are not always representative of the world at large.

A huge chunk of Lemmy is German, and that part of the community remains a total mystery to me because I don’t speak German. They seem cool from afar.

Which communities you are able to see depends pretty heavily on which instance is your home base—I’m with DB0, and we federate with pretty much everyone who isn’t doing something detestably illegal, but LemmyWorld is much more exclusive with who they federate with, so their users don’t see the same instances that I do. Pick a home instance that fits you best because it will matter a lot as you find communities.

You will see interactions between communists and anarchists. Try to remember that you don’t have to comment on everything you might disagree with.

Welcome to the Fediverse—we’re happy to have you.