• Find a topic that you are interested in the most using the Lemmy Community-Browser https://browse.feddit.de
  • It will list the most popular communities (analogous to subreddits)
  • There may be multiple similar communities on different instances (servers)
  • Research the different instances to see which one you like the most and sign up for a profile on that instance. That will be your home instance.

Some things to keep in mind when researching instances.

  • Does it allow instant profile creation or do I have to be vetted first?
  • Do I have the ability to create a community or can admins only do that?
  • Does the instance allow downvotes?
  • Has the instance been defederated from other instances?
  • Does the instance allow NSFW content?
  • Does the instance have performance issues when there’s an influx of users?
  • Does the instance host controversial communities or admins?
  • I wouldn’t want my profile name to show myname@somehategroupinstance.com
  • Your profile name can also be seen as a promotion for your home instance. For example, wherever I post shows @phloatingman@monero.town. People might want to check out my home instance after hovering over my name.

After you sign up for a profile on your instance of choice, you can start subscribing to communities.

  • In one tab, go back to the Lemmy Community-Browser https://browse.feddit.de
  • In another tab, go to the search section of your home instance
  • Copy and paste a link from the Lemmy Community-Browser into the search section of your home instance
  • It may take a few moments before the community will appear on your home instance.
  • Once it appears, you can subscribe to it.

There are 3 options for reading posts. Subscribed, Local, or All.

  • Subscribed will show you posts from communities that you manually subscribed to.
  • Local will show you posts from all communities on that instance.
  • All will show you posts from all the instances that are federated with the instance you are on.

Sometimes comments will not show on a post because they haven’t been downloaded to your home instance yet.

  • Click the rainbow fedilink to take you to the instance that hosts the post which should have all the comments.
  • However, if you want to upvote or reply to that post, you will need to copy and paste the fedilink into your home instance search field.