I think of this like game servers.

The site you're using is your platform (kbin=pc, mastodon=xbox, lemmy=ps). After that, the instances are what servers you connect to (lemmy.ca=psNA, whatever on mastodon=xboxSEA, kbin.social=pcEU. Then, federation is bringing it all together with crossplay.

Made a bit of sense to me, so hopefully this helps!

Kbin and Lemmy are basically web applications. They both use the same protocol to communicate (ActivityPub), which is also used by Mastodon (more of a Twitter alternative). kbin.social or lemmy.world are instances, basically specific servers that you can register to, like you'd register with an email provider. They're running their respective kbin or Lemmy applications that you use to view and interact with the content on their servers, as well as the other ActivityPub servers, as they're federated to communicate with each other. There's plenty of other instances / servers, you can even set up your own ones if you want to. Each one can have their own set of rules too but overall it usually does not matter too much where you go to for your account. However, some instances like beehaw, which is a Lemmy based instance, is heavily defederated & moderated. Sort of a safe space if you will. Communities on Lemmy, or Magazines on kbin, are basically subreddits. Kbin's microblogs are basically Mastodon threads / toots. The main / all page contains pretty much threads from all federated instances on kbin or Lemmy.

Think of kbin and Lemmy like gmail and yahoo mail. Two different softwares that do largely the same thing and are capable of talking to each other.

It's like a multiverse, or imagine skin cells and how stuff can be transmitted between them, but ultimately part of one greater thing. It's kind of the shit imo. Whatever it is lol

I think of kbin as a web interface that combines Lemmy and Mastodon.

kbin Magazines = Lemmy communities

kbin Threads = individual posts in Lemmy communities

Kbin Microblogs = Mastodon toots

@SoupOfTheDay Kbin and Lemmy are two different softwares that talk to one another using a protocol called activitypub. This is similar to email if I use gmail and you use outlook we can still send one another email even though we are using software operated by different email providers. The same thing Applies to Kbin and Lemmy different software with very similar use cases that communicates with one another. Please mention me in this thread if you have any more questions for me.

Also, I see threads that are originating on kbin.social referring to lemmy and lemmings as if we are in lemmy.

Kbin is not lemmy, but it's very similar and almost fully compatible.

lemmy.world users can post to sh.itjust.works and vice verse, that's probably what you're seeing.

The front page is /all by default. You can change this in setting. You're probably seeing something in /all from another instance. You can also turn off federation in the sidebar if you're interesting in ONLY seeing kbin stuff until you turn it off.

kbin and lemmy are different softwares, but they are both used for link aggregation and the 2 softwares use a common protocol, so they can talk to each other. So there are kbin servers and lemmy servers, and they are all interconnected.

So now we can take this post as an example:

You are a user on kbin.social

You posted this question on /m/nostupidquestions@lemmy.world - this means the community you posted on is actually hosted on lemmy.world

lemmy.world then tells other instances that its federated with that someone just made a post on /c/nostupidquestions on its instance. what kbin calls magazines are called communities on lemmy, hence the /c/ instead of the /m/.

kbin.social and all the other instances will then also show this post, even though it originally was created on a different instance

Afaik Lemmy is a protocol used by a bunch of servers; lemmy.world, shitjustworks, lemmy.ml, etc. They're all (well, mostly) connected to each other, and each hosts various communities that any member can access. You can access it all through kbin, though kbin is different from lemmy. For example, this community is on lemmy.world, and you posted it here from kbin. I saw it and responded from kbin.

"All" gives you all the content your home server has access to.

I hope that's helpful. I'm still learning myself.