They are not the same, but they can talk to each other. Both aim to create a reddit-like experience with groups, threads and votes. And both use the ActivityPub protocol, meaning that not only can different kbin (or lemmy) servers talk to each other and you can see groups, conversations etc from other servers on your own (if both servers agree to talk to each other), they can also talk to entirely different services. So you can interact with mastodon posts in kbin and kbin groups on lemmy etc.
So they both follow the same basic rules of communication, but otherwise are fairly different. Written in different programming languages (I thinm), different features implemented, different UI.
So for the most part, in terms of what conversations you want to take part in, it mostly doesn’t matter which you use. But in terms of user experience and features, there can be big differences so you can try out both and see what suits you better.
Ok I think I understand better thanks for taking the time to explain. One thing that I don’t fully understand- I have a mastodon login, a beehaw login, and a kbin login. Do I need all of these? If you want to interact with eg a kbin post as a beehaw user do you login with beehaw account on kbin or do you interact with kbin posts via the beehaw site and ui?
Each account you have is tied to your server. So you can’t log into kbin with your mastodon account and you can only use your mastodon account for mastodon app (although some apps support several services).
But you can use your mastodon account to comment on a beehaw or kbin thread. And you can use kbin to follow mastodon accounts in the typical timeline style (don’t think lemmy/beehaw can do that though)
Do you need all three? Probably not. Mastodon is really best for twitter style interactions, lemmy/beehaw for reddit style discussions. Kbin can actually do both in a reasonable manner, but is still the earliest in development, while Mastodon is the most mature with some cool extra features.
Personally, I think three accounts is probably too much in the long run (I have a Masto and a kbin account) but you can take your time and see what experience you like best.
Similar to what @fr0g said. One of the common misconceptions about the fediverse seems to be “I have a Twitter account so I should be able to log into FB, IG, YT, Reddit, etc with it.” In reality it’s kinda the opposite. You can only log into the server you signed up on, but your Twitter account can talk to and follow accounts on YT, FB, IG, Reddit, etc. That’s the magic of the Fediverse.
I ended up with maybe a dozen accounts as I explored, but more or less settled on a Calckey account (similar to Mastodon which I still have, but don’t use), a kbin account (technically still have a lemmy.ml also) and a Pixelfed account (IG).
They are not the same, but they can talk to each other. Both aim to create a reddit-like experience with groups, threads and votes. And both use the ActivityPub protocol, meaning that not only can different kbin (or lemmy) servers talk to each other and you can see groups, conversations etc from other servers on your own (if both servers agree to talk to each other), they can also talk to entirely different services. So you can interact with mastodon posts in kbin and kbin groups on lemmy etc.
So they both follow the same basic rules of communication, but otherwise are fairly different. Written in different programming languages (I thinm), different features implemented, different UI.
So for the most part, in terms of what conversations you want to take part in, it mostly doesn’t matter which you use. But in terms of user experience and features, there can be big differences so you can try out both and see what suits you better.
Ok I think I understand better thanks for taking the time to explain. One thing that I don’t fully understand- I have a mastodon login, a beehaw login, and a kbin login. Do I need all of these? If you want to interact with eg a kbin post as a beehaw user do you login with beehaw account on kbin or do you interact with kbin posts via the beehaw site and ui?
Each account you have is tied to your server. So you can’t log into kbin with your mastodon account and you can only use your mastodon account for mastodon app (although some apps support several services).
But you can use your mastodon account to comment on a beehaw or kbin thread. And you can use kbin to follow mastodon accounts in the typical timeline style (don’t think lemmy/beehaw can do that though)
Do you need all three? Probably not. Mastodon is really best for twitter style interactions, lemmy/beehaw for reddit style discussions. Kbin can actually do both in a reasonable manner, but is still the earliest in development, while Mastodon is the most mature with some cool extra features.
Personally, I think three accounts is probably too much in the long run (I have a Masto and a kbin account) but you can take your time and see what experience you like best.
Thanks for your help!
Similar to what @fr0g said. One of the common misconceptions about the fediverse seems to be “I have a Twitter account so I should be able to log into FB, IG, YT, Reddit, etc with it.” In reality it’s kinda the opposite. You can only log into the server you signed up on, but your Twitter account can talk to and follow accounts on YT, FB, IG, Reddit, etc. That’s the magic of the Fediverse.
I ended up with maybe a dozen accounts as I explored, but more or less settled on a Calckey account (similar to Mastodon which I still have, but don’t use), a kbin account (technically still have a lemmy.ml also) and a Pixelfed account (IG).
I think I’m getting it now! Thanks for your help