We are happy to see that many of you are exploring Lemmy after Reddit announced changes to its API policy. I maintain this project alongside @dessalines@lemmy.ml.

Lemmy is similar to Reddit in many ways, but there is also a major difference: Its not only a single website, but consists of many different websites which are interconnected through federation. This is achieved with the ActivityPub protocol which is also used by Mastodon. It means that you can sign up on any Lemmy instance to interact with users and communities on other instances. The project website has a list of instances which all have their own rules and administrators. We recommend that you sign up on one of them, to avoid overt centralization on lemmy.ml.

Another difference compared to Reddit is that Lemmy is open source, and not funded by any company. For this reason it relies on volunteer work to make the project better, whether it’s programming, design, documentation, translating, reporting issues or others. See the contributing guide to get started. You can also donate to support development.

We also recommend that you read the documentation. It explains how Lemmy works and how to setup your own Lemmy instance. Running an instance gives you full control over the rules and moderation, and prevents us developers from having any influence. Especially large communities that want to use Lemmy should host their own instance, because existing Lemmy instances would easily be overwhelmed by a large number of new users.

Enjoy your time here! If you have any questions, feel free to ask below or in the Matrix chat.

  • @fruechtchen@lemmy.ml
    -6•1 year ago

    people turning their back to reddit are no refugees. They are not fleeing war or violence for instance. I know that this is meant to be a metaphor, but still i kind of dislike the use here. The definition of a refugee according to the UN:

    Refugees are people who have fled war, violence, conflict or persecution and have crossed an international border to find safety in another country.

    They often have had to flee with little more than the clothes on their back, leaving behind homes, possessions, jobs and loved ones.

    • @jherazob@beehaw.org
      English
      14•1 year ago

      While you are technically correct, some of us have been on Reddit for a long, long time, my main account just celebrated it’s 17th birthday, that account is older than subreddits, and i used the site before it had accounts. Reddit was in many ways a home, i saw many people being essentially rescued from dark places just by the warmth of small communities on the site, it helped me many times too. And we’re now being effectively forced to leave by it’s government. It is NOT a completely inaccurate comparison.