Lemmies? Lemmings?

    • All good, same boat but from what I can tell it’s just a different approach to how most people have grown accustomed to the web.

      You can technically follow communities and users from Lemmy on Mastodon, though the two platforms have different UIs. I was recommended to register for two different instances as they let you interact with each one to the fullest/intended way. However you can still communicate between the two which is the fediverses’ biggest strength imo.

      E.g. I found this comment via lemmy. I copied the link and pasted it into my mastodon search bar. Once found, I can comment it through my Mastodon instance. The difference is that I cannot do unique lemmy interactions such as make lemmy-posts or downvote because those aren’t shared functions on ActivityHub between Lemmy and Mastodon.

      So, in terms of interaction, use a lemmy instance (though try to register for a less populated one that fits you’re identity to distribute the traffic/server load). Registering may take a bit since it’s run by actual people.

      In terms of communication, you can use either instance. The key is using links and the search bar. I cannot overstate how powerful the search function is in the fediverse, if you have the right link, you can find any post in the fediverse.

    • Do you mean at the technical level or UI level?

      At the UI level, just have a look at https://kbin.social and you’ll see a lot of very familiar posts. Also their posts show up here, just like any normal post.

      Mastodon is a bit trickier. If you put hashtags in your post text, I think it shows up like a “toot” for users following it? Sorry, not a Mastodon user, don’t really know how it works.

      At a technical level, Lemmy is built on the ActivityPub protocol. It’s how Lemmy servers talk to eachother, it’s how Mastodon servers talk to eachother, and it’s how a hell of a lot more services talk. Best analogy I’ve heard is ActivityPub is like the email protocol for social media platforms.