this post was submitted on 27 Jun 2026
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Ask Lemmy

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Shifted here from Reddit, looking for advice on how to navigate the platform

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[–] melsaskca@lemmy.ca 3 points 3 hours ago

Treat it exactly like reddit. Find something interesting and, if you want to, give your thoughts and/or opinions. Some will agree, some will disagree, yet the hate levels, while still existent, are not nearly as strong as reddit. There are a lot of fair minded folks on here.

[–] Asudox@lemmy.world 1 points 2 hours ago

Locking for rule 5.

[–] farmgineer@nord.pub 1 points 3 hours ago

I use PieFed which is similar to lemmy. Mbin is also another option. This is determined by your instance (basically your domain name) not by you. They all have various good and bad points and all talk to one another.

If you desire, you can use clients (apps/frontends) to browse. I just use my web browser, even on mobile.

I prefer to not subscribe to communities, but rather block things I will never be interested in. I then set my sort to active and see what's going on. If I find a community I have zero interest in, I block it. You may find subscribing to things that you like instead better, but I like to see what all is out there. Generally, though it depends on the instance software and client, one can block people, communities (magazines in mbin speak), whole instances, or keywords in a sort of filter.

There's more, but this may already be too much or too technical.

Basically, just comment, post, and don't be a dick and the rest will work itself out.

[–] Chaunticleer@lemmy.dbzer0.com 15 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

Lurk a bit, feel the vibes out. Things are different here. blocking works differently, so does karma (it still sorts posts but there's no profile score and it doesn't sort comments unless you specifically set it to).

Just go straight for that community search bar, switch to all, and just start typing shit in. Lots of reddit subs have equivalent communities here but they don't rise to the top because it's a small platform. Unless you curate your feed, it's just going to be trump outrage posts all day.

Drink water, and enjoy yourself. Welcome 👋

[–] StressMaxxing2026@lemmy.world 8 points 7 hours ago

Thank you 😀

[–] shittydwarf@piefed.ca 65 points 10 hours ago (7 children)

Well step one is obviously sending feet pictures to the mods, assuming you've already done that..

[–] daggermoon@piefed.world 3 points 6 hours ago

Did someone say feet?

[–] StressMaxxing2026@lemmy.world 17 points 10 hours ago

This gave me a good chuckle.

[–] Toes@ani.social 17 points 10 hours ago

🤔 That sounds like a fantastic idea.

[–] Monster96@lemmy.world 13 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

Does it matter if it's yours or not? I'm still wondering about that when I had to do this

[–] LORDSMEGMA@sh.itjust.works 16 points 10 hours ago (1 children)
[–] BlueEther@no.lastname.nz 9 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

As a instance admin, that would be excitable

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[–] sunsofold@lemmy.zip 42 points 10 hours ago (16 children)

It's somewhat similar, but there are a few differences.

One, the instance matters. You'll see users as BlahBlah@somesuch.blargh. The somesuch.blargh is the instance. An instance with .ml is often a sign of tankies. 196 has a high proportion of trans individuals. db0 leans technical. World is more conversational and broad. Lots of smaller ones around too with less defined reputations/communities. If you want to be a piece of shit, there are actually instances for that too. They just get defederated. (No one outside the instance will see it)

Two, advertisers are evil. There are no ads here. No one wants to make a community that advertisers approve of. The focus is on maintaining the community, not a business. You might see things that offend you a little. Unless it's actually hateful or illegal, grow up and deal with it. If it is hateful and illegal, report it. Mods are generally pretty good in a lot of places. Learn to use 'block user,' 'block community,' and 'block instance' to improve your feed. There's no company algorhythmically trying to force you to see things.

Three, the maturity level is higher here. Reddit is the big name so it has all the teens. Lemmy leans toward older, more technical, less popularity focused people. There's still plenty of silliness, but it's not usually the same kind seen elsewhere. It's a good thing.

Four, no karma. Your points aren't about you. They are to help sort post and comment quality individually. So, if you are getting some downvotes because you said something a group of people didn't like, ignore it. The points won't follow you to the next post or comment.

Rule 0 is still 'Don't be an asshole' though.

[–] Tja@programming.dev 1 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

Maturity level is higher here? I'm yet to see that.

[–] baggachipz@sh.itjust.works 3 points 2 hours ago

Ah shut up, poopy pants

Three, the maturity level is higher here. Reddit is the big name so it has all the teens. Lemmy leans toward older, more technical, less popularity focused people. There’s still plenty of silliness, but it’s not usually the same kind seen elsewhere. It’s a good thing.

This deserves a special highlight. The low-effort "insult-jokes" that get repeated on Reddit don't fly here. Attacking people instead of their message goes directly against some community rules (a lot have a sidebar rule of "be civil" and repeated offenses do result in bans.) If somebody leaves a nasty comment, don't engage - just click the button below their comment with three vertical dots, click "Create Report," and comment the number of the rule being broken. We're actively trying to avoid that particular aspect of Reddit toxicity here, so it's better to report and move on rather than get dragged into the mire yourself.

Since we're a smaller community, your posts and comments are more likely to get responses here. You will eventually start to recognize some names popping up over and again due to this. If you felt trepidation from seeing that you have a response on Reddit, you may find it slowly fading while being here. It's really a breath of fresh air. I used to get anxious knowing I had responses on Reddit, knowing that 9 times out of 10 (pulling numbers out of my ass here) it would be someone coming in with an insult or a "gotcha." But here, it's usually a friendly response or a polite disagreement. The mods can be quick, too - one of the few times somebody replied to something of mine with a nasty comment, I never even saw it because the mods had already blocked the user by the time I checked my messages.

Speaking of messages, it's important to note that due to the nature of the fediverse, they aren't truly "private." Not that they're being shared publicly, but rather that federation across instances means even your messages go across multiple servers, not just to your intended recipient. (I'm not an expert on this, but this is my understanding. Others might have more information on how this all works.) So it's smart to be careful what information you share, even in direct messages.

[–] hoohoohoot@fedinsfw.app 2 points 4 hours ago

Yeah

The no karma is actually good

Makes you not conform to general public as much as it makes you wanna be yourself

[–] erotador@lemmy.blahaj.zone 6 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

196 isnt a server maybe your thinking of lemmy.blahaj.zone

[–] mnemonicmonkeys@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 hours ago

It's the 196 community

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[–] snoons@piefed.ca 12 points 9 hours ago (2 children)

Welcome!

You mother is a hamster.

Have a nice day!

[–] Asafum@lemmy.world 12 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

Yeah well your father smells of elderberries!

[–] snoons@piefed.ca 6 points 8 hours ago

*farts in your general direction

[–] StressMaxxing2026@lemmy.world 7 points 9 hours ago (6 children)
[–] pmk@piefed.ca 5 points 8 hours ago (7 children)

It's a Monty Python reference, but I also don't know why. So, do you have a favourite Linux distro or are you more of a BSD person?

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[–] snoons@piefed.ca 4 points 8 hours ago (2 children)

Because your father smelt of elderberries. I also fart in your general direction. Now tell us your favourite linux distro or I shall taunt you a second tieme. >:(

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[–] garbage_world@lemmy.world 5 points 8 hours ago (6 children)

Don't be afraid to express your views

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