So here’s how I understand it:
lemmy.world, lemmy.fmhy.ml, beehaw, (instances) etc. are all basically different servers. But they essentially all have access to the same communities, aka the equivalent of a subreddit, even though some communities are are hosted on lemmy vs beehaw, etc.?
If my understanding is correct, then, for the layman, each different instance can be seen as a site to view any of the communities, so we can register with one instance, and browse everything they all have to offer. Is that about right? Sorry, I know a guide has been posted, but I’m trying to reduce the functionality to fit into my feeble mind.
Short answer: yes, you got it.
Long answer: yes, but you’ll see it’s not like magic. Some instances will federate with others, some will straightup block others, some will simply not federate, etc… but those are very extreme cases with very particular reasons.
Well partially correct, they are different servers and yes you can use any instance to view other communities but lemmy.ml/c/bob123 and lemmy.fmhy.ml/c/bob123 aren’t the same community despite having the same name. Both would be accessible via either instance e.g on fmhy you could access lemmy.ml/c/bob123 from lemmy.fmhy.ml/c/[email protected] and on lemmy.ml you could access lemmy.fmhy.ml/c/bob123 from lemmy.ml/c/[email protected]/
Like right now you’re asking asklemmy from fmhy using the url https://lemmy.fmhy.ml/c/[email protected] but if i went and made a community called asklemmy on fmhy it wouldn’t be the same community as the one on lemmy.ml
Hmm perhaps my explanation is too confusing 😅
When I visit the same community from different instances, I don’t see all the posts listed. Is the instance just slow to update? For example:
Home instance - https://lemmy.fmhy.ml/c/freemediaheckyeah/data_type/Post/sort/New/page/1
https://lemmy.world/c/[email protected]/data_type/Post/sort/New/page/1
https://reddthat.com/c/[email protected]/data_type/Post/sort/New/page/1
https://lemmy.ml/c/[email protected]/data_type/Post/sort/New/page/1
The other instances haven’t updated yet to show the latest posts.
Would there ever be a way to synchronize content between communities on different servers? What I see as the problem here is that there may be, let’s say, several Zelda communities on different servers, all with different content, so it would become difficult to follow all. Or is there any mechanism in place to prevent communities from being replicated?
Not that im aware of but what I have noticed is that you can cross-post across instances. Although most people just look for the most active community for the particular topic and follow it
Yeah, I guess eventually things will get consolidated into single communities or you may have a few rival communities similar in size but hopefully fragmentation shouldn’t be too much of an issue. Should be fun though.
Yep hopefully there isn’t too much fragmentation.
