We're getting quite a few new users, so I thought it might be a great time to write some quick-start guide. This post will stay pinned for a week or so, afterwards it will be linked from the sidebar.

Right now you're on Lemmy, a federated platform for discussion and link aggregation.

What's the federation thing you're reading about everywhere?

That's a fancy name for a protocol that makes it possible for all Lemmy servers to interact with each other - that means you can read content from other servers here on lemmings.world.

Does that mean that I can log in to any server with my account?

Nope, your account is tied to the server you created it on. But that doesn't restrict you from commenting on posts on different servers, creating posts in communities on different servers, or subscribing to communities on different servers. In fact, that's the whole point of federated platforms!

Note that each server first needs to know that a community exists before it can fetch its posts. That happens when someone from the server subscribes to the community for the first time. If no one subscribed to a particular community, you won't see it in the "All" feed. But hey, you can always be the pioneer and be the first to subscribe.

How do I find communities?

You can always use the search at the top. You can also use the various communities for sharing communities:

• !lemmy411@lemmy.ca - general community for asking where to find a community
• !newcommunities@lemmy.world - a community where mods post about a new community they have created

And you can use https://lemmyverse.net/communities - a brilliant service which indexes all known Lemmy communities regardless of what server they're on.

Tip: Set your home instance (lemmings.world if you've registered here) on Lemmyverse.net using the home button in the top right corner - all community links will point correctly to your instance.

How do I link to other communities on Lemmy?

You may have noticed already, but the format is !community_name@lemmy_server.tld. For example !wwdits@lemmings.world. This is similar to using r/subreddit_name on Reddit. In the same way, you can mention users like this: @rikudou@lemmings.world. Note that this will also notify the user that they have been mentioned.

Some frontends don't render the user link correctly, sadly that's the case for the official one. In that case you have to use a little bit of markdown to help: [@rikudou@lemmings.world](/u/rikudou@lemmings.world) which will be rendered like this: @rikudou@lemmings.world. Note that if you only want to tag someone, just writing @username@server.tld is enough, the markdown thing is only if you want to make sure the user link is clickable for all users.

Frontends? What's that?

Aside from the official Lemmy frontend at https://lemmings.world there are also alternative frontends written by different people. All those frontends display the same data, they just have different ways to go about it. A sad fact remains that all of them look better than the official one, so I advise you to use a different frontend.

On Lemmings.world you can find these frontends:

• https://a.lemmings.world - a frontend called Alexandrite and my personal favorite
• https://p.lemmings.world - a frontend called Photon, another great and popular option
• https://old.lemmings.world - a frontend inspired by old Reddit

Mobile apps

There are many, many apps for your phone, whether you have an Android or an iPhone. There's even a separate community for them: !lemmyapps@lemmy.world. My personal favorite is Eternity (!eternityapp@lemdro.id) for Android.

NSFW

If you're here for that juicy NSFW, there are two Lemmy servers for that (lemmynsfw.com, pornlemmy.com) and pretty much all porn communities are there. Due to the federated nature, you can of course subscribe to their communities from lemmings.world. If, on the other hand, you don't want to see any NSFW, in your account settings you can check that you don't want to see any NSFW. If you see any untagged NSFW, please report it.

Bots

When you're at the settings page, you may notice two bot related settings: Bot Account and Show Bot Accounts. The first one marks your own account as a bot and the other can be used to disable seeing all bot posts and comments on Lemmy. It's completely up to you, but there are many useful ones. I run three such bots:

• @ChatGPT@lemmings.world - just mention the bot in a comment and it will reply to it.
• @autotldr@lemmings.world - automatically creates TL;DR for linked articles from supported sites
• @CommunityLinkFixer@lemmings.world - many people use URLs (like https://lemmings.world/c/wwdits) instead of the community name to link them, which doesn't work for people on different instances - if someone from a different instance clicks the link, they won't be logged in to their account and can't comment. This bot replies with the corrected link

While you can disable all bots in the settings, in my opinion it's better to block them individually - you might for example dislike ChatGPT but find automatic TL;DRs useful, so you can simply just block the ChatGPT bot.

Glossary

Defederation

You'll most likely hear this term sooner or later. It means that one instance's admin(s) decide that they don't want to see the content of another instance. The reason might be arbitrary, but on well-meaning instances (like this one) it's usually because of some serious reasons: hate speech, child sexual abuse material (CSAM), spamming other instances and so on. You can check the code of conduct this instance uses to defederate with other instances. We use Fediseer to manage our blocklist, you may view the reason for each defederation there.

If you don't see some of the instancse we've defederated from on Fediseer, that's because one of the other instances we trust has marked it as containing CSAM or loli content

Fediverse

You might hear this term around. Lemmy isn't the only platform that uses the federated protocol (called ActivityPub) for federation with others. There are for example Mastodon (similar to Twitter), Kbin (has sections similar to both Twitter and Reddit), but also Bookwyrm (Goodreads alternative) and so on. These all services are collectively called Fediverse. Some of them can interact with each other (like Lemmy and Kbin), some of them can interact only a little (like Mastodon with Lemmy, but not Lemmy with Mastodon) and some of them not at alll (like Lemmy and Bookwyrm). Over time the integration with other Fediverse services will get better and better.

You might also sometimes see the term Threadiverse for services like Kbin, Lemmy and others similar to Reddit.

That's all I can think of for now, if you have any questions, feel free to ask!

📄 Documentation, guides and FAQs:

• Official detailed documentation
• Quick start (ELI5 type) guide to Lemmy and Kbin by @unsunny@beehaw.org
• Basic information and new user guide by @ruud@lemmy.world
• Beginner guide / FAQ by @db0@lemmy.dbzer0.com
• Lemmy FAQ / guide by @sunaurus@lemm.ee
• Beginner's Guide for Redditors

📱 Mobile apps:

	Icon	App Name	Platform	OS	Stage/Download	Community Link	Code Source
		Artemis	Kbin, Lemmyˢᵒᵒⁿ	Android, IOS	Private Beta	Kbin.social	N/A
	-	Beyond	Lemmy	Android, IOS	WIP	N/A	N/A
		Bean	Lemmy	Android, IOS	Looking for testers	lemmy.world	N/A
		Boost	Lemmy	Android	WIP - Get notified	lemmy.world	N/A
		Connect	Lemmy	Android	GP	lemmy.ca	N/A
		Jerboa	Lemmy	Android	GP,F-D,Izzy,Gh	lemmy.ml	Github
		Lemming	Lemmy	Android	Gh	lemmy.world	Github
		Lemmit	Lemmy	IOS(?)	WIP	lemmy.world	N/A
		Lemmotif	Lemmy	Android, IOS	TF, AAT	lemmy.world	N/A
		Liftoff	Lemmy	Android, IOS	TF, Gh, GP	lemmy.world	Github
		Memmy	Lemmy	Android, IOS	TF	lemmy.world	Github
		Mlem	Lemmy	IOS	TF	lemmy.world	Github
	-	Morpha	Lemmy	Android, IOS	WIP	vlemmy.net	Gitlab
		Olympus	Lemmy	IOS	TF, Issue tracker	sh.itjust.works	N/A
		Slide	Lemmy	Android	Gh	feddit.uk	Github
		Summit	Lemmy	Android	GP	lemmy.world	N/A
		Sync	Lemmy	Android	WIP - Get notified	lemmy.world	N/A
		Thunder	Lemmy	Android, IOS	TF, Izzy, Gh	lemmy.world	Github
		wefwef	Lemmy	WebApp	Web	lemmy.world	Github

List updated: 2023-07-05

GP - Google Play Store
F-D - F-Droid
Izzy - IzzyOnDroid
Gh - Github
TF - TestFlight
AAT - Android App Test

🌐 Useful sites:

Instance and community explorers:

• join-lemmy.org/instances - Official instance list (by Lemmy)
• Awesome Lemmy Instances - Comparison of Lemmy instances (by @maltfield@lemmy.ml)
• browse.feddit.de - Community browser (by feddit.de)
• lemmyverse.net - Instances and community browser (by @tgxn@lemmy.tgxn.net)
• browse.toast.ooo - Community browser (by @grant@toast.ooo)
• lemmies.blue42.net - Directory of Lemmy instances and communities (by @Idrinkwatertoo@lemmy.world)
• sub.rehab - Site that trackes where Reddit communities migrated to

Stats:

• lemmy.fediverse.observer - Stats, maps, graphs for Lemmy
• the-federation.info - Stats and charts for Lemmy and individual instances
• fedidb.org - Detailed stats and info about Lemmy and instances

Search engines:

• fedi-search.com - Search the most popular instances of Kbin and Lemmy (by @TenorTheHusky@kbin.social)

• search-lemmy.com - Enhanced search engine for Lemmy (by @marsara9@lemmy.world )

Miscellaneous:

• lemmymap.feddit.de - Federation map (by feddit.de)

🎨 Custom CSS Themes / UI Tweaks for Lemmy:

Best place for finding CSS styles: userstyles.world

Some by Lemmy community:

• https://lemmy.world/post/100974
• https://sh.itjust.works/post/53395
• https://beehaw.org/post/528075
• https://sh.itjust.works/post/96376

Place to find more: !plugins@sh.itjust.works | Fetch

🌍 Useful communities:

Links should open in your local instance. If you get couldnt_find_community, click Fetch first.

About Lemmy:

• !announcements@lemmy.ml | Fetch - Lemmy announcements
• !lemmy_support@lemmy.ml | Fetch - Support / questions about Lemmy.

Promote(new) communities:

• !newcommunities@lemmy.world | Fetch - A place to post new communities all over Lemmy for discovery and promotion.
• !wowthislemmyexists@lemmy.ca | Fetch - An aid to new Community discovery. Find an interesting new Lemmy/Kbin etc. community? Post about it here for fame and fortune (fame and fortune not guaranteed)
• !communitypromo@lemmy.ca | Fetch - Promote your fav community here.
• !findacommunity@lemmy.ml | Fetch - A community to find other communities in any of the Lemmy instances.

Miscellaneous:

• !plugins@sh.itjust.works | Fetch - A general repository for user scripts and plugins used to enhance the Lemmy browsing experience.

Suggestions are welcome.

Table of contents

• What is Lemmy?
• What is an instance?
• How do I join a community from another instance?
• How can I find interesting communities?
• Why are image uploads on lemm.ee limited to 100kb?
• How can I post images hosted on external services?
• How can I ensure my community on lemm.ee gets found on other instances?
• How can I take over a community with inactive mods on lemm.ee?
• I'm still lost, how can I get assistance?

What is Lemmy?

One great way to understand Lemmy is to check out this simple infographic (author: @ulu_mulu@lemmy.world)

But if you want it in text form:

Lemmy is a link aggregator, in many ways similar to Reddit, but with one key difference - there is no one central authority controlling Lemmy. The code is open source, and more importantly, there are hundreds of Lemmy instances which are all independently run.

Even though instances are independent, they are all part of the Lemmy network, and thus, users of one instance can participate in communities of other instances.

What is an instance?

Lemmy instances are servers which run the Lemmy software. https://lemm.ee (where this post lives on) is one instance, but there are also many others.

There can be several key differences in instances:

• Some instances are small and run out of home servers, some instances are large and run on commercial hardware (lemm.ee is one of the latter)
• Each instance can define their own set of rules (lemm.ee rules are visible in the sidebar on our front page)
• Instances can decide whether downvotes are enabled for their users (lemm.ee users have the ability to downvote)
• Some instances may choose to limit community creation to admins only (lemm.ee allows all users to create communities)
• Some instances have a tight focus, others are general-purpose (lemm.ee is the latter!)

If you ever find yourself unhappy with your instance, you are always free to create an account on another one and continue using Lemmy. Unlike centralized platforms, you always have another place to go!

⚠️ Lemmy supports migrating your account from one instance to another, which makes it quite painless to move. However, your post history will remain on your old account when you create a new one on another instance.

How do I join a community from another instance?

Option 1: go to the list of communities by clicking the "Communities" link on the top navbar. Open the "All" tab and you will be able to browse and subscribe to any community from other instances that at least one lemm.ee user has previously subscribed to.

Option 2: if you know the exact name of the community you wish to join (for example, !gaming@beehaw.org), you can navigate to the search view by clicking the looking glass icon on the top navbar. Enter the exact name of the community into the search box, including the leading "!": [!gaming@beehaw.org](/c/gaming@beehaw.org). If at least one person from lemm.ee has previously subscribed to this community, then you should immediately see a link to open the community and subscribe to it.

Important caveat: if you are the first person to search for a community, then Lemmy will initially tell you that no results were found. Don't worry, if the community exists, then lemm.ee will begin syncing it and you will be able to successfully search for it again in a couple of minutes.

Important caveat 2: if you are the first lemm.ee user to subscribe to a community from another instance, then historical posts and comments will not be immediately synced. This is a limitation of the Lemmy software currently. However, if old posts start getting some new activity after you've subscribed (like a new comment or edit), then that will trigger a sync and the old posts should start showing up for you as well.

How can I find interesting communities?

You have several options!

• You can browse our list of all communities. This includes any communities from other instances which have at least one subscriber from lemm.ee.
• You can check for ads for interesting communities in !newcommunities@lemmy.world
• You can browse (or even search for keywords) at https://browse.feddit.de
• Similarly to the previous point, you can check out https://lemmyverse.net - bonus tip, if you set your home instance on this website, then all community links will lead to your home instance!

Why are image uploads on lemm.ee limited to 500kb?

One of the scaling issues so far with Lemmy is multimedia storage. Several instances report growing their storage by significant amounts daily - if lemm.ee grew at that same pace, I would start seeing increased infrastructure bills very quickly (within months, if not weeks).

To help mitigate this, users are asked to use external image hosting providers as much as possible. On lemm.ee, we currently only allow image uploads for images up to 500kb in size.

500kb was specifically chosen as it SHOULD cover most needs for any avatars, and possibly even simple banners for communities.

How can I post images hosted on external services?

For posts, just submit the image URL directly (in other words, copy the image URL into the "URL" field of the post you are creating).

Additionally, for text posts and comments, you can use the following syntax: ![alt text](image url), for example ![lemm.ee logo](https://imgur.com/earIilI.png) results in:

How can I ensure my community on lemm.ee gets found on other instances?

• First of all, you should ensure that your community looks welcoming to new users. If your sidebar has useful info and there's perhaps some activity in the community already, then new users are much more likely to subscribe
• Once you have your new community set up, your community will soon become automatically visible in our local communities list at lemm.ee, as well as the global community indexes like https://browse.feddit.de or https://lemmyverse.net
• If you want even more exposure for your community, I recommend making a post about it in !newcommunities@lemmy.world

How can I take over a community with inactive mods on lemm.ee?

1. Make a post in the community you want to take over
2. DM me (@sunaurus) 1-2 sentences about what your plans are for the community, and a link to the post you made in the community

If the community you want really has no active mods, then I will be happy to pass ownership to you!

I’m still lost, how can I get assistance?

If you feel like anything in this guide is unclear, or if you have a general question which you believe will be useful to others in the future, please just drop a comment with your question under this post and myself or other helpful members of our community can try and help you out.

If you're having any issues that you feel are not relevant as a comment here, then feel free to post a thread and tag me in our !support community.