since it’s all federated it’s most likely donations and out of pocket. the real risk here is that as communities become more and more centralized, the cost to operate increases significantly (the lemmy.world guy had to upgrade servers at least twice during the boom). there’s a chance that these instances won’t stay around long term, i’m not sure how the lemmy code base deals with instances dropping off. does everyone lose access to all of those servers? since your account is associated with that instance do you not also lose your account and posts?
Sorry if I get a bit technical but I'll try to explain my understanding.
Lemmy.nz has it's own communities. When someone subscribes to a community on another instance (say, !asklemmy) , the posts and community details are copied to a local version on the server. When someone from Lemmy.nz posts to the community, it goes into our local version. The server then behind the scenes is trying to keep our version in sync with the "real" one on lemmy.ml. Lemmy.ml is sending new posts and comments to lemmy.nz, and lemmy.nz is sending posts made by lemmy.nz members back to lemmy.ml, who then send them out to other servers.
If lemmy.ml suddenly disappeared, we would continue to be able to post to the community, add comments, etc, but sending those posts to other servers wouldn't work. lemmy.ml is responsible for sending the posts to your server at lemmy.world, and so you would not see the posts made by lemmy.nz users that are no longer able to federate - however, you could still read the community as it was at the time federation stopped and with the addition of anything anyone on your own instance has added.
One exception is media. Lemmy currently does not federate media, so if someone posts a picture to a community on lemmy.ml (where the picture is uploaded to lemmy.ml), then lemmy.ml goes offline, no one will be able to see the picture (but they will still see the post).
In terms of accounts, you will lose your account. However, accounts are also federated as remote users, so when a lemmy.world user like yourself posts to lemmy.nz, your account is also copied here. Lemmy.nz users can view the account, see that you made the comment, etc. However, you cannot log in to your account and make new posts from a different server - it's a sort of ghost account.
So long story short, you lose access to your account and any images but the posts and comments are accessible from other servers so long as they were federated with your instance prior to it shutting down. If a new instance comes online, it will not be able to get posts from a community on an instance that is no longer online.
It’s non profit by default, the very thing that social media needs.
People who run Lemmy servers do it at their own cost. That’s not to say they can’t run ads or choose other ways to become profitable. The big difference between a lemmy instance and something like Reddit is that anyone can start a new instance if the current one goes to shit. If the admins do something the users REALLY don’t like, they can migrate to another instance way more easily than switching platforms.
Reddit is counting on the effort of switching platforms being too high for lemmy to gain traction. They are wrong.
The developers do it for free, which is common in the open source community. There will always be volunteers to build the software and donors to support them.
Wow. Honestly this makes me seriously contemplate my move to Lemmy. I thought lemmy.world was at least a free speech endorsing server. So now we have the two biggest Lemmy instances out there that are clearly against free speech. Lemmy.ml is moderated by pro CCP mods that remove anything anti-china, and lemmy.world can't even tolerate a sub about conspiracy theories (which we should all know have a tendency of coming true the past few years) and is therefore already starting with stifling free speech.
Yeah, go start your own instance... Not everyone wants to run their own instance just to be able to browse communities on other instances that your current instance doesn't agree with.
Yeah... This is really putting a sour taste in my mouth about Lemmy already.
With spez ascending the last few remaining levels of becoming an absolute wanker, it's about time I got more active and I have been wondering how should I be using Lemmy efficiently? Like many I migrated from Reddit and I was primarly using Apollo to browse through my subscribed subreddits....
I read that Kbin defederated with Lemmy because it couldn't initially handle the influx of new users migrating from Reddit, but that it has federated again.
So is it a Lemmy instance, like Beehaw?
I know that Kbin doesn't use communities ("/c/") but uses magazines ("/m/") so I thought it was different.
I also read that there was some new way to post to Lemmy from Mastadon, but I thought those were different, like Reddit and Twitter. But they both rely on something called "ActivityPub"?
So is Kbin similar to Lemmy (by being Reddit-like), but distinct like Mastadon (which is Twitter-like)?
I didn't have a Twitter account, but was a heavy Reddit user. I don't have a Mastadon account, but I'm liking Lemmy. However I have some FOMO about Kbin because I don't understand how it all works together.
So in just one week, we’ve grown to >7k subscribers (~5.3k on lemmy.world and ~1.2k from the next 5 largest instances), which is way more than I expected....
Just a random thought experiment. Let's say I have my account on a lemmy instance: userA@mylemmy.com. One day I decide to stop paying for the domain and move to userA@mynewlemmy.com, and someone else gains it and also starts up a lemmy instance....
The new domain owner — if they set up an ActivityPub server instance (e.g. a Lemmy) and got a list of the old user's post URLs — might be able to delete or edit the old user's posts stored on other instances. That is a vulnerability, albeit a small one.
If the old user was still listed as a moderator of communities hosted on other instances, the new domain owner might be able to take over that moderator role.
One way to fix this would be for instances to issue a public-key cryptographic identity to each user, and distribute users' public keys to other instances. Then activities purporting to be from that user would need to be signed by that user's private key.
Users' private keys would stay local to their home instance, so users don't have to do any key management themselves.
This would mean that if an instance goes away (and its key material is destroyed) then nobody can ever act as any of those users again. A new user created with the same username and domain would be a distinct user for all other instances too.
Welcome! if you're new to the fediverse, I have a quick intro stickied in this sub. The main difference is looking for communities across different instances, not just on lemmy.world.
Personally, I want nothing to do with them and I'm not willing to give them the benefit of the doubt. I moved to the Fediverse to get away from all these corpos.
One annoying thing I noticed on Lemmy is that is someone mentions a Community and links to it, that link usually just opens up the “home” instance of that community. While I actually wanted to see it on my instance so I can join it an participate. What is the proper way to do it? Or is there some browser plugin that makes...
I'm already happy with the amount of content here and actually a bit lost with all the variety of content, instances, new communities, links. No great need to look back. But if you need to find equivalent communities, lookie here: https://sub.rehab/
I find that Hot and Active give you really old stuff, at least on my instance, that's like 3-7 days old stuff. New is just new, you know new, no community-assured quality. Top is stuff I've already seen. Where do I get a better feed? Can we have like Top 7 hours? Or a mixture of "top 16 hours" and "active"?...
Honestly is not a big deal. Some specific instance might start behaving like aholes because of corporate greed or anything else.
All they can do is take their specific communities down. The affected communities can always move to other instance (that is easier than changing to a different system all together).
Changing platforms will always be harder than just switch instance because you instance changed the rules on you.
So I just ran into this problem and I was wondering if anyone knew the lemmy software well enough to answer this. I'm seeing different stats on communities depending on which instance I view it from, and I don't know what the true statistics are....
Interesting - I'm using Jerboa and it looks correct to me. Could it be an issue with viewing communities cross instance? Either way, I'm not sure why, but I just rechecked and the community name should be correct.
Hello! We've reached 15k members (afaik we're still the largest community on lemmy). It's a lot for only a couple people, though there is admin support....
I'm interested! I keep finding myself here. I am admin for a small instance (wayfarershaven.eu) and am working on building up some communities. I'm enjoying Lemmy and the fediverse and want to help build that up as much as I can.
I don't have Reddit mod experience but I do work in support and believe in FOSS. At the end of the day, we're here to share knowledge, learn from each other, and have a good time.
Today I was made aware that beehaw.org blocked my entire instance. I would be ok if I simply could not write a post/comment in beehaw, that would be reasonable....
The original /r/piracy was purposefully gimped because Reddit received DMCAs for any random thing and didn’t even bother to follow up. Since we’re in new waters, I want things to be a bit more relaxed, but there’s a limit on how relaxed we can be, without starting to get lawsuits, which I will not be able to fight off. I...
So how does lemmy make money?
I'm not seeing any ads, and these servers certainly have a cost.... So is this place entirely donation based, or what?
Server rules - am I missing something? (i.imgur.com)
I was glancing through the mod log and saw these two entries. Conspiracy theory communities were both removed for violating rule #3....
How should I be using Lemmy?
With spez ascending the last few remaining levels of becoming an absolute wanker, it's about time I got more active and I have been wondering how should I be using Lemmy efficiently? Like many I migrated from Reddit and I was primarly using Apollo to browse through my subscribed subreddits....
Is there a way to make instance-agnostic links?
Is there a way to make a link to a community of a foreign instance that opens on the instance of the user that clicks on it?...
What is Kbin?
Only heard of it recently is it another federated platform like Lemmy or pixelfed?
[META] 7k subscribers - Call for Mods
So in just one week, we’ve grown to >7k subscribers (~5.3k on lemmy.world and ~1.2k from the next 5 largest instances), which is way more than I expected....
How to make an instance-independent link to a post or comment?
There are instance-independent links to communities, for example: FindAKbin@kbin.social....
Can you steal a user's identity if you gain their old domain name?
Just a random thought experiment. Let's say I have my account on a lemmy instance: userA@mylemmy.com. One day I decide to stop paying for the domain and move to userA@mynewlemmy.com, and someone else gains it and also starts up a lemmy instance....
The Internet and Fediverse in a High Latency Future?
This presumes humanity is a space fairing or interplanetary civilization....
Christian Selig: I want to debunk Reddit's claims, and talk about their unwillingness to work with developers, moderators, and the larger community, as well as say thank you for all the support (reddit.com)
Edit: archived link, (alternative)...
18+ /r/interestingasfuck forced open, lowers its standard of what qualifies as "interesting", gets flooded with adult content [NSFW within two clicks] (www.reddit.com)
I think the title speaks for itself.
How do we feel about Meta joining the Fediverse?
Personally, I want nothing to do with them and I'm not willing to give them the benefit of the doubt. I moved to the Fediverse to get away from all these corpos.
What's the proper way to create a link to a community? Abkhazian
One annoying thing I noticed on Lemmy is that is someone mentions a Community and links to it, that link usually just opens up the “home” instance of that community. While I actually wanted to see it on my instance so I can join it an participate. What is the proper way to do it? Or is there some browser plugin that makes...
What do you think about sublemmies that add content by reposting from Reddit?
Is it a good (probably temporary) way to get content in Lemmy?
How do you get a better front page on Lemmy without so much old stuff?
I find that Hot and Active give you really old stuff, at least on my instance, that's like 3-7 days old stuff. New is just new, you know new, no community-assured quality. Top is stuff I've already seen. Where do I get a better feed? Can we have like Top 7 hours? Or a mixture of "top 16 hours" and "active"?...
How long until we have corporate instances in the Fediverse?
Not willing to give them ideas so fast....
How does subscriber count work across lemmy instances?
So I just ran into this problem and I was wondering if anyone knew the lemmy software well enough to answer this. I'm seeing different stats on communities depending on which instance I view it from, and I don't know what the true statistics are....
[META] 2.8k subscribers - welcome! Updates, Rules and Navigating the Fediverse
WELCOME!...
Do you want to moderate asklemmy?
Hello! We've reached 15k members (afaik we're still the largest community on lemmy). It's a lot for only a couple people, though there is admin support....
How does moderation work for 'false' instance communities following defederation
I hope this is a clear enough description of what I'm asking....
Is there a way to migrate your lemmy account to another instance?
Today I was made aware that beehaw.org blocked my entire instance. I would be ok if I simply could not write a post/comment in beehaw, that would be reasonable....
OK mateys, let's talk about direct links. (lemmy.dbzer0.com)
The original /r/piracy was purposefully gimped because Reddit received DMCAs for any random thing and didn’t even bother to follow up. Since we’re in new waters, I want things to be a bit more relaxed, but there’s a limit on how relaxed we can be, without starting to get lawsuits, which I will not be able to fight off. I...