this post was submitted on 15 Feb 2025
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Lemmy.ca's Main Community
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We have gotten a lot of new signups over the past few days, and we're all very excited to have you joining us! You'll find that people are more than happy to help you get started and learn how to use the site.
If you feel up for it, you can introduce yourself or ask questions below!
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You can also read:
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Welcome to Lemmy :)
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First off, this is great... thanks to everyone who's helped put all this together! It's a relief to finally have a Canadian alternative! And then can someone please explain to me (like I'm 5) what an "instance" is exactly?
If you think of the "fediverse" as being like email, an instance would be like an email provider. So you can get an email address from google, protonmail, microsoft, etc, but you can still communicate with other accounts from any of the providers via the standardized protocol. In the same way you can join any particular instance and communicate with other instances.
Perfect, I get it now, thanks!
For sure! If it helps, we put together this page on what the word means more generally (for all types of fediverse websites, and not just Lemmy). The infographic style images might be helpful
https://fedecan.ca/en/guide/get-started
For lemmy.ca specifically, you can think of the entire website as being one 'instance' of a larger network of similar websites. It is possible to shut down the 'federation' and just exist as our own isolated forum (similar to Reddit), but that defeats the purpose of running this kind of website.
This page should also help you see how it affects a Lemmy website like ours
https://fedecan.ca/en/guide/lemmy/for-users/detailed-overview
Wow, you guys have really done a terrific job on those guides!
Thanks, that helps! Sorry if this is a stupid question or not worded correctly: In this larger network, of which lemmy.ca is one "instance", are all instances Canadian?
Nope, lemmy.ca is Canadian and so is another big Lemmy instance called sh.itjust.works. There are also lots of smaller instances that are by Canadians. Since anyone can set up an instance, more technical users (with a background in that kind of thing) have set up instances for themselves or their friends / family. A university or local government could also set one up.
But the rest of the network is vast. A lot of the other Lemmy instances (ex. feddit.uk, jlai.lu) are European, aussie.zone is Australian, etc. Many of the instances are generalist instances not focusing on any location (lemmy.world, lemm.ee, etc) or topic specific (programming.dev is focussed on that).
I hope that's not too much information, I'm excited is all :)
Lol, not too much info at all... I'm excited too! I mean, this really is amazing. I'm still using Reddit right now, but weaning myself off by the day... it always takes me a bit of time to adjust to new websites. But Reddit's been a big one lately... with everything that's going on, I couldn't figure out where else we could all meet to continue organizing or even just chat... and suddenly here it is, lemmy! Anyhow, thanks for that explanation, well put and understood! Go lemmy! :)
You don't have to quit cold-turkey either. I still use reddit for a few communities that don't have traction anywhere else (niche game mods or similar). But I try to mostly create content here and not on Reddit. Things take time :)
Thanks. I'm finding the change surprisingly easy... it normally takes me much longer. I didn't start using Reddit even until a year after I first visited the site. But now, for the last couple of days, I've checked in only because of notifications I'm still getting. There's something about Lemmy I'm taking to really fast... has a more intimate feel or something... definitely much more pleasant!