I’m still trying to get used to Lemmy; the main thing confusing me is the federated bit.

I just want to access Lemmy and its content; how do I do that? Currently I’m just going to old.lemmy.world and using that as a starting point.

Is there another instance you would recommend as the default one?

The two main reasons I ask are:

  1. I want to know if there are things I am simply missing out on and there’s a better way to browse Lemmy.

  2. I really don’t like cloudflare and have it disabled in Javascript. I don’t want to leave it enabled for lemmy.world.

  • Coelacanth@feddit.nuEnglish
    1·
    10 days ago

    I think Lemmy.zip has a policy to stay federated with as much of the Fediverse as they can, so that might be an option.

    In general I tend to recommend smaller, either interest-specifc or local, language-specific instances first, though, as using those lets you actually utilise the /Local feed the way it’s intended.

  • cRazi_man@europe.pubEnglish
    1·
    10 days ago

    Things to know about:

    • instances can defederate and block other instances. I don’t really like that decision being made for me. There was a website to help check (input an instance and it tells you which others have defederated). I forget the website now, but I used it to check around before signing up.

    • an instance can die. Lemm.ee was a pretty big instance and the maintainer didn’t have time anymore. So the plug was pulled and that’s the post and comment history gone and start a search for a new instance. So worth looking for something that doesn’t hinge on one or 2 individuals to avoid this.

    • might also be worth looking at where the server is to see what sort of privacy issues that causes.

    People would like Lemmy to be successful and think federated platforms are great, but they do come with drawbacks alongside the strengths and it’s not easy for normies to navigate.

    At the end of the day, you don’t have to overconpkicate things and you’re likely going to be fine signing up to Lemmy.world