Got it, makes sense. That is such an interesting world, all these people devoting so much of their time and energy to these projects that must be almost unanimously passion projects
Oh yeah that’s a damn good point. I had never heard of the fediverse until Reddit shut down third party apps, then I left that day and I like this place much better, but I still don’t understand pretty much anything about it.
Think of each instance as a service like Reddit. Each has its own users, communities, admins, etc. If you want to look at a community on another instance, you can ask your instance to start listening for new posts and whatnot, and then your instance will have a copy of that community. If you then post to that copy, your post will be sent to the original community so other people can see it.
Anyone can make their own instance and access all of the content across all of the lemmy instances. Think of it like making your own cable TV service, where you can access all of the channels available and even make your own channels to share with others. A lot of people aren’t willing or able to make their own, so people in the community make some available for others to use. But someone has to pay for all of that server space, so some instances ask for donations, and others limit how many users can use their instance.
And then you get to apps. There are several mobile apps, like Jerboa, Thunder, and others, and these are by and large passion projects. If you wanted, you could get involved and submit changes that the maintainer could accept and include in the next build of your favorite app (I’ve done that). Or if there’s a core lemmy feature you wanted, you could contribute to that project.
It’s a cool project where anyone can help out, and success or failure of the project doesn’t depend on a company finding a way to profit from it, but from people being interested in working on it.
Thanks for the breakdown, I understood the basic structure all right, although I didn’t really understand how the communities were able to see each other across instances, but thinking about it is public broadcast channels. Makes sense.
I think my brain gets it, but I have to just internalize it for a while until it makes intuitive sense to feel comfortable floating out here in the fediverse.
I appreciate the explanation, it does help me kind of pull things together from the hints I’ve been getting from context clues as I read posts and comments and updates here.
Yeah, it’s certainly a very different concept vs other social media apps.
The coolest thing, imo, is that it’s all open source software, so if you ever wanted, you could mess with it and host it yourself. The biggest benefit is that other people can review the code, so nobody is going to be able to add in malicious code like spyware, ads, trackers, etc, without someone noticing, assuming you trust the instance you’re on. Many of the apps are also open source. The downside is that since it’s a community driven project, unless you build it, you’ll just have to wait until someone picks up whatever feature you request.
One thing to be aware of is that all the data is open, including votes, so if someone can tie your Identity to your account, they’ll be able to know everything you’ve contributed and voted on. And if someone sets up an instance, they can have it never delete anything. That’s a double edged sword, so just be careful.
If you have any questions, I’m happy to try to answer them.
Yea, I think the open source thing is what hooked me. I moved over to Linux years ago, then my office programs, then most of my programs became open source, and while open source projects have their drawbacks, I’d much rather be on an open source network or use an open source program than centralized.
I’m the same way. I’ve been using Linux for ~15 years, and I generally prefer open source when deciding between options. I’ll make exceptions (e.g. I love Steam because of good Linux support), but most of my software is open (Blender, Firefox, etc).
I admit to a dual boot just so I can easily use windows for games. But for animation and literally everything outside of gaming on a computer, I use. Linux. Just makes more sense. Is blender specifically for 3D modeling or does it have animation capabilities as well? I’ve seen people make amazing things with it, but I like tinkering with 2D animation so I haven’t touched blender yet.
Got it, makes sense. That is such an interesting world, all these people devoting so much of their time and energy to these projects that must be almost unanimously passion projects
Yup, which isn’t that different from Lemmy and adjacent apps.
Oh yeah that’s a damn good point. I had never heard of the fediverse until Reddit shut down third party apps, then I left that day and I like this place much better, but I still don’t understand pretty much anything about it.
It’s both simple and complex.
Think of each instance as a service like Reddit. Each has its own users, communities, admins, etc. If you want to look at a community on another instance, you can ask your instance to start listening for new posts and whatnot, and then your instance will have a copy of that community. If you then post to that copy, your post will be sent to the original community so other people can see it.
Anyone can make their own instance and access all of the content across all of the lemmy instances. Think of it like making your own cable TV service, where you can access all of the channels available and even make your own channels to share with others. A lot of people aren’t willing or able to make their own, so people in the community make some available for others to use. But someone has to pay for all of that server space, so some instances ask for donations, and others limit how many users can use their instance.
And then you get to apps. There are several mobile apps, like Jerboa, Thunder, and others, and these are by and large passion projects. If you wanted, you could get involved and submit changes that the maintainer could accept and include in the next build of your favorite app (I’ve done that). Or if there’s a core lemmy feature you wanted, you could contribute to that project.
It’s a cool project where anyone can help out, and success or failure of the project doesn’t depend on a company finding a way to profit from it, but from people being interested in working on it.
Thanks for the breakdown, I understood the basic structure all right, although I didn’t really understand how the communities were able to see each other across instances, but thinking about it is public broadcast channels. Makes sense.
I think my brain gets it, but I have to just internalize it for a while until it makes intuitive sense to feel comfortable floating out here in the fediverse.
I appreciate the explanation, it does help me kind of pull things together from the hints I’ve been getting from context clues as I read posts and comments and updates here.
Yeah, it’s certainly a very different concept vs other social media apps.
The coolest thing, imo, is that it’s all open source software, so if you ever wanted, you could mess with it and host it yourself. The biggest benefit is that other people can review the code, so nobody is going to be able to add in malicious code like spyware, ads, trackers, etc, without someone noticing, assuming you trust the instance you’re on. Many of the apps are also open source. The downside is that since it’s a community driven project, unless you build it, you’ll just have to wait until someone picks up whatever feature you request.
One thing to be aware of is that all the data is open, including votes, so if someone can tie your Identity to your account, they’ll be able to know everything you’ve contributed and voted on. And if someone sets up an instance, they can have it never delete anything. That’s a double edged sword, so just be careful.
If you have any questions, I’m happy to try to answer them.
Yea, I think the open source thing is what hooked me. I moved over to Linux years ago, then my office programs, then most of my programs became open source, and while open source projects have their drawbacks, I’d much rather be on an open source network or use an open source program than centralized.
I’m the same way. I’ve been using Linux for ~15 years, and I generally prefer open source when deciding between options. I’ll make exceptions (e.g. I love Steam because of good Linux support), but most of my software is open (Blender, Firefox, etc).
I admit to a dual boot just so I can easily use windows for games. But for animation and literally everything outside of gaming on a computer, I use. Linux. Just makes more sense. Is blender specifically for 3D modeling or does it have animation capabilities as well? I’ve seen people make amazing things with it, but I like tinkering with 2D animation so I haven’t touched blender yet.