I wanted to get a pulse check on how new members are finding the general experience/website. Is it more confusing than Reddit or are you finding the instance system a better way of doing things as it can give you more freedom of where you choose to create an account?
I’m a new user myself but have found the experience to remind me of Reddit back in the day, lol. It’s definitely giving me old-school yet modern vibes and it’s great to see something that isn’t Reddit growing in popularity!
How federalization works can be a bit confusing. For me the biggest hurdle to get over was how the different instances - lemmy.ml and lemmy.world - are separate websites. They can connect and interact with each other because they’re federalized, but your account is only on lemmy.world.
Now for some magic!
Relative links for communities (subreddits) can work across instances:
As long as your instance knows the community exists the links should work.
Thanks for your reply. I feel like I 90% get the concept of federalisation, and it’s very interesting. Just from a purely user experience point of view (because this is what was asked), I’ve already had several times where I’ve ended up on the “wrong” instance without realising it. I guess it partly takes getting used to. My experience has been more positive than negative overall though.
Yeah I’m right there with you. I probably made about 5 accounts not understanding why I couldn’t interact whenever I clicked certain links.
So now I’m trying to help others figure it out when I see a fellow lost redditor!
Haha, same! I think it was three accounts for me until it clicked. I can’t recall exactly what I was doing wrong, but I remember it had something to do with replying to comments that was my main source of confusion; from my inbox it mattered somehow (this is the bit I can’t recall) what I clicked on to go to the originating community, only one way took me there in a way that preserved my login/subscription (man, I don’t understand yet how to talk about this system).
It’s a little jank but that’s a part of the fun. The sloppier it is the more human it feels!
On any given posts there are links that will keep you on your instance and links that will take you to original instance. A bit of a roulette figuring out which is which 🎰