Sorry I’m only getting back to this now, but thank you! I do understand instances and whatnot, but I guess my question boils down to this: if the whole of Lemmy somehow gets influenced by the shitty views of some or all of the devs (I’m not sure how many there are), and a fork is needed, does that bring down all of the instances and existing infrastructure of Lemmy with it? Like, the existing instances won’t be able to upgrade to the latest version, and then if they use the fork instead, will that screw with other things? I guess this is a question for a programmer, but it’s on my mind lol
Do you see u/Ofiuco@piefed.ca’s comment? Because they made quite a good argument. Software isn’t as neutral as I made it look. There are features like blocking entire instances that can benefit different instances differently and I don’t think it’s coincedence that they promise and don’t deliver on it. Also they do claim donations for software and hosting but how much they need and how much they get is anyone’s guess. This is all basically a TLDR of this comment.
Ahh I see. So while there are multiple instances of Lemmy, all of which are under the shitty devs’ thumbs at the end of the day, the mentioned Piefed and kbin are totally different things by different people with similar functionality but no bigotry? Or are they just different instances OF Lemmy like I’m posting from right now, in which case, what makes those two special?
Piefed and mbin (I think kbin is dead and mbin the successor) are on the level of lemmy in the sense that they are the software and there are different instances of them. So you don’t just join piefed but you join one instance of piefed.
From my understanding, neither is even a lemmy branch but both are their own software using the more general fediverse protocol (that also includes mastodon and others) so they are compatible, look similar but have different developers.
And protocol refers to the data exchange format in a way. Think of it as a chess computer that outputs moves in the standard notation. Two computers can play chess together no matter how differently they are built and programmed inside as long as they agree on the communication. Same here. You have posts, comments, up and downvotes, … but that’s just the protocol. The program can work very differently. It’s even possible to post from mastodon on lemmy (not the other way around tho because mastodon doesn’t allow it, not for technical reasons) that’s how different software can be and still communicate.
Yeah, I think that makes sense, thanks so much for the explanation. I should ask though, in that case, should I move myself over to one of those services? If so, which do you recommend? My account here is only new so now would be the best time for me to switch.
The whole idea is to spread to different instances. Some have a geographic focus (US, Canada, Europe, …), some a political leaning or other topics like queerness, literature, traveling, …
I recently joined anarchist.nexus but don’t really use it yet. On the join page of every instance, you see a list of I think all instances with a description so you can choose which one fits best for you:
Also, from my experience on lemmy, it doesn’t hurt to have more than one account until you decided which works best for you. It’s not that you lose any followers like on mastodon.
Sorry I’m only getting back to this now, but thank you! I do understand instances and whatnot, but I guess my question boils down to this: if the whole of Lemmy somehow gets influenced by the shitty views of some or all of the devs (I’m not sure how many there are), and a fork is needed, does that bring down all of the instances and existing infrastructure of Lemmy with it? Like, the existing instances won’t be able to upgrade to the latest version, and then if they use the fork instead, will that screw with other things? I guess this is a question for a programmer, but it’s on my mind lol
Oh, it’s been a week on my side, sorry.
Do you see u/Ofiuco@piefed.ca’s comment? Because they made quite a good argument. Software isn’t as neutral as I made it look. There are features like blocking entire instances that can benefit different instances differently and I don’t think it’s coincedence that they promise and don’t deliver on it. Also they do claim donations for software and hosting but how much they need and how much they get is anyone’s guess. This is all basically a TLDR of this comment.
Ahh I see. So while there are multiple instances of Lemmy, all of which are under the shitty devs’ thumbs at the end of the day, the mentioned Piefed and kbin are totally different things by different people with similar functionality but no bigotry? Or are they just different instances OF Lemmy like I’m posting from right now, in which case, what makes those two special?
Piefed and mbin (I think kbin is dead and mbin the successor) are on the level of lemmy in the sense that they are the software and there are different instances of them. So you don’t just join piefed but you join one instance of piefed.
From my understanding, neither is even a lemmy branch but both are their own software using the more general fediverse protocol (that also includes mastodon and others) so they are compatible, look similar but have different developers.
And protocol refers to the data exchange format in a way. Think of it as a chess computer that outputs moves in the standard notation. Two computers can play chess together no matter how differently they are built and programmed inside as long as they agree on the communication. Same here. You have posts, comments, up and downvotes, … but that’s just the protocol. The program can work very differently. It’s even possible to post from mastodon on lemmy (not the other way around tho because mastodon doesn’t allow it, not for technical reasons) that’s how different software can be and still communicate.
I hope that makes sense.
Yeah, I think that makes sense, thanks so much for the explanation. I should ask though, in that case, should I move myself over to one of those services? If so, which do you recommend? My account here is only new so now would be the best time for me to switch.
The whole idea is to spread to different instances. Some have a geographic focus (US, Canada, Europe, …), some a political leaning or other topics like queerness, literature, traveling, …
I recently joined anarchist.nexus but don’t really use it yet. On the join page of every instance, you see a list of I think all instances with a description so you can choose which one fits best for you:
https://anarchist.nexus/auth/instance_chooser
Also, from my experience on lemmy, it doesn’t hurt to have more than one account until you decided which works best for you. It’s not that you lose any followers like on mastodon.