Hello World!

The last week or so we have seen quite a big ‘boost’ in the amount of new users signing up so we thought it would be a good time to highlight some things that are of interest to new users.

CODE OF CONDUCT

Lemmy World is not a free speech instance, there are a couple of ground rules that need to be followed. If you’re new, I would advise you to read our Code of Conduct.

NEW USER QUESTIONS

If you are new to the fediverse as a whole, it might all be a bit overwhelming. What is Lemmy? What is federation? What even is an instance? For those questions I would suggest you have a look at the getting starting guide. It should cover most of your questions.

STILL HAVE QUESTIONS?

You can head over to the !support@lemmy.world community. This community should be used for questions regarding Lemmy World and is not the support community for the Lemmy software this site uses.

Our Admin @quinten recently made a post covering the most recurring questions there too. Read about that here.

ALTERNATIVE USER INTERFACES

Lemmy World hosts a few custom User Interfaces which give you a completely different experience both on the desktop as on mobile.

THIRD PARTY APPS

There are a lot of Third Party apps available for Lemmy. From Paid to Open Source, you will find something that suits you easily.

For a complete list of apps have a look at https://lemmyapps.netlify.app/ (Thanks Blaze@discuss.tchncs.de).

EDIT: Updated the apps list. Also some more interesting links in @otter@lemmy.ca’s post here: https://lemmy.world/comment/3962001

EDIT 2: Instead of https://photon.lemmy.world you can now just go to https://p.lemmy.world. You can thank @Rootiest@lemmy.world laziness for that.

  • Otter@lemmy.caEnglish
    82·
    1 year ago

    The list of apps is pretty out of date. For example, Boost already came out and !instance_assistant@lemmy.ca is a pretty popular extension. I use it a lot to make posts, and just used it to open that post on my instance.

    Also related is how to find communities

    I help with !communitypromo@lemmy.ca, and the idea is that you can subscribe to keep seeing more recommendations. We also have a guide for finding new communities here: https://lemmy.ca/post/5581032, which I’ve copied below:

    A great way to find lesser known communities is to look at the /communities page on an instance. For example: https://lemmy.ca/communities

    For a list of instances to look through:

    • pangora.social (NEW): Great way to find instances related to a particular topic. This is also great for picking an instance when first making an account/moving accounts.
    • awesome-lemmy-instances: not that organized, but it

    🔎 Search pages

    🔥 Apps and Browser Extensions

    🙌 Communities for discovering new communities:

    Here are some other communities, some of which are less active:

    Remember, you can also post questions about finding new communities right here!

    👽 Coming from Reddit?

    https://lemmyapps.netlify.app/

  • Assassin4@lemmy.world
    75·
    1 year ago

    Any particular cause for this latest boost of new users? I came here when the API ban happened and am much happier with Lemmy. So welcome to everyone!

    • willya@lemmyf.ukEnglish
      57·
      1 year ago

      The boost believe it or not came from the launch of Boost for Lemmy which was a popular Reddit client.

    • IbnLemmy@lemmy.world
      45·
      1 year ago

      Another reason could be that this week, Relay for Reddit start charging… Or should I say, Reddit started charging Relay… Anyway… First post and all that… Hi

    • Crack_@lemmy.world
      31·
      1 year ago

      I just left today because relay went into subscription mode. It’s nothing against dbrady I know he does his best (made the best app for Android afaik, and even his subscription isn’t a money grab) but fuck reddit charging people for using their social media. Don’t want snap insta tic tok Facebook twitter etc… to start charging us.

      Fuck that shit. I’m old and I remember what the internet used to be. I’m having a hard time accepting everything becoming a fucking subscription (looking at you YouTube).

      Also, I’m using boost for Lemmy and I quite like it. If anyone can suggest anything else/better to try I’d be grateful.

      Edit: this is my first comment 🥳🥳🥳

      • Veltoss@lemmy.world
        9·
        1 year ago

        Same. I didn’t care for relay compared to RiF, not my preference, but it was good enough after RiF died. But now that relay is out too? I’m not sure I can stomach using the reddit app. I’m definitely not paying for anything either. I already pay with my mental health by reading reddit comments, I’m not paying money to do it too.

      • NevermindNoMind@lemmy.world
        1·
        1 year ago

        Welcome! Former long time Relay user, but I left reddit in June. For what it’s worth, I like Thunder and Connect. They are both open source and add free (no offense to ad supported apps). Just thought you might like to know what a fellow Relay user settles on after months of trying them all out.

      • BigBase@lemmy.world
        1·
        1 year ago

        Same, relays fine but sync was my main app they ceased their reddit app in june. Just realized they had a spiritual successor for Lemmy up and running so I’m giving it a try now. All the server stuff got me feeling like a boomer but the app actually feels like I remember sync for reddit feeling so I’m hoping I can get into the swing of things without too much trouble!

    • Blaster M@lemmy.world
      4·
      1 year ago

      Relay Pro had to move to a Subscription model for 10/01, as API costs are now being enforced. Both that and the SafetyNet requirement means those of us on custom android phones can’t use any premium Reddit app, so RIP.

  • cheese_greater@lemmy.world
    61·
    1 year ago

    Honestly tho, if people aren’t being absolute dicks, its pretty frickin’ free in the speech department. I have to be conscious of it cuz I’m on several different boards with way higher standards and I don’t want to be booted from them. It never hurts to be kind and fun and even a little intense sometimes.

    Just afix your heart to the right place and everything’s gonna be just fine. Stay excellent u lemmings!

    • Queen HawlSera@lemm.eeEnglish
      23·
      1 year ago

      Like seriously, I’ve already said countless things that would give you the boot on reddit, and I’ve been allowed to just say it without even getting downvoted.

      So we’re back to the “Old Internet” rules of “Just don’t be a dick”

        • Queen HawlSera@lemm.eeEnglish
          2·
          1 year ago

          I think you’d have to be blatantly, openly, unquestionably, intentionally, and insultingly racist to get kicked off of here.

          Definitely not like Reddit where “Oh didn’t you hear Piano was made a slur yesterday, oh you didn’t? NO EXCUSES! You’re permabanned for being a Nazi!” is the law of the land.

          Edit: Why am I being downvoted

  • zeppo@lemmy.worldEnglish
    60·
    1 year ago

    I> Remember to criticise ideas, and not people.

    That’s a nice guideline. I kept trying to explain that to my recent ex… the vast difference between saying “this behavior is unproductive” vs. “you are unproductive”.

    • LiquidPhD@lemmy.worldEnglish
      19·
      1 year ago

      I think for some people, there is zero difference between the two. These kind of people are “you are what you do” kind of people. Lazy people have lazy behavior, unproductive people have productive behavior, etc.

      It could also be that they take “you are unproductive” to be a sort of shorthand for "Right now, you are being unproductive. How people perceive themselves and others in time can be strange. That can also cause problems with communication.

      Anyway, have a great week!

      • zeppo@lemmy.worldEnglish
        14·
        1 year ago

        Avoiding that is something I learned to do intentionally, I suppose. Labeling the person and not a behavior is more confrontational and psychologically suggests to people that they can’t change. It’s also a lot broader, more sweeping type of statement that suggests all of their behavior is that way.

        Thanks, I hope your week is lovely as well.

      • seaQueue@lemmy.world
        3·
        1 year ago

        I think for some people, there is zero difference between the two. These kind of people are “you are what you do” kind of people. Lazy people have lazy behavior, unproductive people have productive behavior, etc.

        Some people are intellectually lazy and just don’t care to differentiate. I try not to spend much time talking to them, they tend to be dicks.

  • LackingC10H12N2O@lemmy.world
    54·
    1 year ago

    Oh man… my first post here on Lemmy, hailing from Boost for Lemmy!

    My Boost for Reddit is still working but I got permanently banned for an absolutely ridiculous reason…

    Here’s to hoping that B4L can be everything that Reddit threw out the window, and more!

  • Pheonixdeath@lemmy.world
    52·
    1 year ago

    Thank you. Gave up Reddit when Reddit Is Fun (RIF) died. Found Lemmings. Wait a few weeks and now here I am. I have to admit the different instances and this federation thingy, a lot to learn though it feels.more background stuff that Reddit may have had but we just didnt notice. Appreciate the post and happy to be here. Cheers!

    • knotthatone@lemmy.worldEnglish
      8·
      1 year ago

      I hope there’s a “Lemmy Is Fun” app eventually, but I haven’t heard whether the original developer is interested. He’s apparently working on something with Tildes.

        • Obi@sopuli.xyz
          3·
          1 year ago

          Yeah I’ve settled in well in liftoff (also ex-RiF), I try other apps here and there but this one seems to work fine for me.

          • zecg@lemmy.world
            4·
            1 year ago

            I also like Jerboa, but Liftoff can be logged in on several instances at once, which is nice.

      • seaQueue@lemmy.world
        2·
        1 year ago

        Check out Boost, IIRC you can get it to behave mostly like RIF with some settings tweaking. I haven’t used RIF since like 2016, I found Boost around then and switched full time - Boost’s compact mode was the closest thing to old.reddit.com I could find in a 3rd party client.

  • Gemini24601@lemmy.worldEnglish
    48·
    1 year ago

    I feel right at home in the fediverse, it gives me a much more secure feeling than Reddit. Thank you devs for your hard work at creating a suitable alternative.

    • Limeey@lemmy.worldEnglish
      17·
      1 year ago

      So, on that topic of “security” - just remember that whenever you post, your post is essentially sent to every “instance” that is federated (and listening for the community you posted to). Each instance is it’s own server running it’s own version of an activitypub implementation (lemmy, mastadon, etc).

      So on lemmy.world that means your post is sent to literally thousands of servers that you cannot directly influence. If you delete a post, a request is made to those servers to also delete the post, but if that instance is modified or unavailable when the request is sent (it’ll re-try, but there’s a limit how many times), then it’s possible your post will not be deleted and you’ll never know.

      Keep in mind this also means that anyone, say a government or private company, can establish an instance, federate, and receive the posts of everyone. Their instance may be nearly completely invisible - so you won’t know they’re collecting that information.

      However, lemmy stores and sends almost no information about any user. A user profile does not contain IP address or country or anything. All of that stays in the server logs of the instance you originate from, and never enters the database. So your “true” personal information isn’t shared, but your account name, and a link to your account, and the post content (whatever text you add) is shared.

      Lastly, images tend to be shared. Lemmy uses “pict-rs” which is a FOSS image hosting server, and when an instance receives a federated post, if there is an image in the “URL” field, then it will ask pict-rs to download that image to its server for easier serving to its users.

      • Gemini24601@lemmy.worldEnglish
        7·
        1 year ago

        Great point, however, I would rather have my posts be sent to like minded peers than to some walled-garden company like Reddit. Also, what data would any supposed malicious instance get that isn’t already available to the public? As for account names, text and images from posts, etc. aren’t these the very definition of social media? What kind of social media is not sharing text or images anyway?

        • Limeey@lemmy.worldEnglish
          3·
          1 year ago

          Yep, I don’t disagree, just wanted to make it clear what is shared and what isn’t. I suppose if you don’t like people training AI on the text you write, then you may not like that they could gather it with literally no effort. Most other sites would require that they put some effort either into web scraping, using an api to request the post, or just buy the content in some text dump format.

          But ya, I mean, this is a minor difference between platforms, overall.

  • lwadmin@lemmy.worldOPM
    21·
    1 year ago

    What is your favorite Alternative UI? Are you using it full-time or still switch back to the default one? We want to know!

    • frank@sopuli.xyz
      11·
      1 year ago

      I’ve been loving Liftoff. It’s completely free and ad free, feels as good as any of the “big apps” to me

    • Stovetop@lemmy.world
      9·
      1 year ago

      Sync is my ride or die. Always has been, and I hope it always shall be.

      Warms my heart to see so many other options here, though.

    • Papanca@lemmy.worldEnglish
      7·
      1 year ago

      Usually Photon, occasionally Alexandrite or switching to the regular Lemmy interface.

    • edric@lemm.ee
      5·
      1 year ago

      For desktop, I’m now a 100% Alexandrite user. It looks great, and it actually maximizes screen real estate.

    • CriticalMiss@lemmy.world
      4·
      1 year ago

      I use Voyager. Been self-hosting it since the day the project released. On desktop I just use the default UI, fits my needs I guess.

    • nicolairathjen@lemmy.world
      3·
      1 year ago

      Avelon on iOS, mlmym on web at the moment. Still looking for a UI that let’s me show the local feed of another instance while still being signed in.

    • freamon@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      1 year ago

      I tend to use photon.lemmy.world, but it’d be really cool if I could log in to lemmy.world using tesseract. It’s a fork of Photon - so I imagine it also has feature-parity with the official UI - but it’s “designed for media-rich feeds and content”. It’s what they use at dubvee, and db0 also provides it as an alternative

      I don’t use the default one because it gets confused when lemmy decides to bring a gif in from an external site, and then convert it to a mp4 (it’s a pretty hit-and-miss affair in the Gifs Community), though I realise it’s ultimately lemmy itself that’s causing the problem.

    • Obscura@lemmy.world
      2·
      1 year ago

      I’ve been using Voyager (or wefwef as it used to be known) since day one here at Lemmy. Moved over from Reddit when the API changes were announced, and then any potential negotiations with Reddit and third party app developers broke down.

        • Obscura@lemmy.world
          1·
          1 year ago

          That’s interesting, what are the benefits of having a different app for different servers?

          • Susanna@mastodon.xyz
            2·
            1 year ago

            @Obscura From a UX point of view, it’s easier to switch between apps than to switch between accounts in a single app. Also, the different UIs give me an immediate visual cue as to which account I’m in, which keeps me from posting the wrong thing in the one with tougher moderation.

    • Sigh_Bafanada@lemmy.world
      1·
      1 year ago

      I’ve been Connect pretty much the whole time, besides briefly trying out a few others. I was a RIF user, so Connect gives me a fairly similar experience