This site is currently struggling to handle the amount of new users. I have already upgraded the server, but it will go down regardless if half of Reddit tries to join.

However Lemmy is federated software, meaning you can interact seamlessly with communities on other instances like beehaw.org or lemmy.one. The documentation explains in more detail how this works. Use the instance list to find one where you can register. Then use the Community Browser to find interesting communities. Paste the community url into the search field to follow it.

You can help other Reddit refugees by inviting them to the same Lemmy instance where you joined. This way we can spread the load across many different servers. And users with similar interests will end up together on the same instances. Others on the same instance can also automatically see posts from all the communities that you follow.

Edit: If you moderate a large subreddit, do not link your users directly to lemmy.ml in your announcements. That way the server will only go down sooner.

  • Slashzero@lemmy.mlEnglish
    19·
    2 years ago

    First post for me!

    Sorry, I applied and got approved here. Still waiting to hear back from beehaw…

    I’m really digging this UI compared to Reddit, but I am 99.9% a mobile user via the native Reddit app (don’t @ me!)

    I am very tempted to setup my own instance. Wondering what resource usage looks like for an instance.

    • pefak@lemmy.mlEnglish
      4·
      2 years ago

      Yeah, I think I have two accounts (I registrated in a community and then came here and had to create another one because I couldn’t log in). It’s kind of confusing for people who are not as tech savy as myself.

      • Slashzero@lemmy.mlEnglish
        7·
        2 years ago

        Well, my understanding is your user exists on whatever instance you signed up on. You could technically create users on every single instance, but that is not necessary. You only need one user to exist somewhere, and then you can subscribe to, and post to communities on other instances.

        For example: from lemmy.ml, if you search for !gaming@beehaw.org you can then open the sidebar and subscribe to, and post to, the gaming community on beehaw.org with your lemmy.ml user.

        [email protected] is not the same community as [email protected]

        • StoicLime@lemmy.mlEnglish
          6·
          2 years ago

          An easy way to understand this is that instances are like email providers. You can sign up on Gmail, but still email someone using Outlook or something else.

  • rusty_spoon@lemmy.mlEnglish
    18·
    2 years ago

    I applied for a few other instances but this one came through first. Your downfall is being too good compared to the competition.

  • zouhair@lemmy.mlEnglish
    18·
    2 years ago

    This is one of the biggest hurdles to get into Lemmy. I consider myself quite tech savvy but I am at a stage of my life that I cannot read hundreds of page of documentation just to use a forum.

    There need to be a way to seamlessly move people from instance to another without them having to do it themselves or at the least a way way shorter documentation that goes to the point in one page.

    • Slashzero@lemmy.mlEnglish
      4·
      2 years ago

      I’ve only been here a day or so, but having to search for the community doesn’t seem that bad? It’s almost exactly like searching for a subreddit to join.

      /r/subreddit turns into !community@address, like [email protected]

      And once you are on that community you can open the sidebar and subscribe (join in Reddit terms).

  • Gecko@feddit.deEnglish
    17·
    2 years ago

    You might wanna consider temporarily closing sign-up requests on lemmy.ml similarly to how mastodon.social did it during its large influx. Making a sign-up request and just receiving an infinite loading icon is a very frustrating experience.

    Similarly, you want to make it as easy as possible to financially contribute to lemmy, even if it means using proprietary platforms like Patreon.

    Overall, the current Reddit API change is probably one of the largest opportunities for lemmy right now, so smoothing over the user experience as fast as possible in the coming days will be of atmost importance if we want lemmy to become a viable Reddit alternative…

  • radarsat1@lemmy.mlEnglish
    17·
    2 years ago

    I would be happy to use another instance but my account is on this one. Is there a way to migrate an account, or perhaps “link” accounts on multiple instances somehow?

    • TrippyTortuga@lemmy.mlEnglish
      9·
      2 years ago

      AFAICT no. There is an open issue on the Lemmy GitHub repo. In general, all ActivityPub services I’ve used have this same account stratification problem.

    • Einar@lemmy.mlEnglish
      1·
      2 years ago

      I think this is key. Have the possibility to move an account to another instance or have it spread out somehow. This would also secure the account in case an instance dies for some reason.

    • pingveno@lemmy.mlEnglish
      0·
      2 years ago

      I would appreciate this as well. Besides the flood of users issue, this server’s theme (Marxist-Leninist) doesn’t mesh with my politics. I created my account in the early days of Lemmy, so I have an extensive history that I am loath to sacrifice.

  • Ghostalmedia@beehaw.orgEnglish
    16·
    2 years ago

    IMHO, selecting an instance is definitely the biggest user experience problem Lemmy has at the moment. New users who are unfamiliar with the platform are going to pick the biggest instances, and that’s going to create performance problems.

    We’ll need to prioritize work on instance browsing. Lemmy has outgrown the experience over at join-lemmy.org. If I could wave a magic wand, instance browsing and onboarding would have a way to show instance capacity / performance, a way to categorize and filter instances, and a way to recommend instances based upon interests. That would probably help to spread people out more evenly.

      • Ghostalmedia@beehaw.orgEnglish
        13·
        2 years ago

        You probably don’t want my code if you want a stable platform. ;)

        That said, I dig what y’all are doing, and I’m veteran experience / interaction designer who’s been around the block for a few decades. So I might be able to find some time to mockup some experience concepts and or help to run user tests with audiences that your curious about.

        • usernotfound@lemmy.mlEnglish
          1·
          2 years ago

          I’m more of a backender myself, but I think some UX mockup would go a long way in getting this improved.

    • Flannel Bear@lemmy.mlEnglish
      3·
      2 years ago

      There’s a website I highly recommend called fediverse observer, it doesn’t really go based on interest, but it has some other factors it uses and I really like it.

    • vocornflakes@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      2 years ago

      I think that there should be some meaningful way to “preview” aspects of one instance that may make it more attractive than another instance to a new user. I just joined lemmy.world today simply because it seemed the most generic. Onboarding process could use some work; https://lemmy.world/post/37906 is great at explaining it but people will only really see it for the first time once they join…

      Also I have no clue if that second link works. ¯\(ツ)/¯

  • Bilb!@lemmy.mlEnglish
    14·
    2 years ago

    I’m going to set up a general purpose instance tomorrow with the intention of handling a relatively large number of users. The main problem is choosing a domain!

  • TheYang@lemmy.mlEnglish
    13·
    2 years ago

    Is scaling the server a largely financial issue, or not? @[email protected]

    could you reasonably confidently say that you could 10x the amount of users for something like 1000$/mo on liberapay?
    If so, would you mind setting a “goalpost” for the community to help lift the financial burden?

    • SturgiesYrFase@lemmy.mlEnglish
      4·
      2 years ago

      I think they said they’re at the highest tier of their provider. May need to migrate to a different provider and get a beefier setup.

        • SturgiesYrFase@lemmy.mlEnglish
          41·
          2 years ago

          They do, but I’m not sure how well, I’m not a dev, and have no programming knowledge, so looking at the documentation looks like arcane hieroglyphs.

          I’m pretty sure I read a comment about it from one of the devs, but can’t recall the fine details of the conversation.

        • TrippyTortuga@lemmy.mlEnglish
          1·
          2 years ago

          In theory, they can. But it depends on how it’s deployed.

          From my cursory look at the deployment docs, Lemmy’s default deployment option is via docker. It relies on a postgreSQL server, which may or may not scale horizontally depending on the admin’s choice of implementation. For example, a deployment on AWS using Aurora would theoretically utilize auto-scaling.

          I haven’t personally deployed an instance so, grain of salt.

          EDIT: A good discussion about DB scaling here: https://github.com/LemmyNet/lemmy/issues/3005

  • sunaurus@lemm.eeEnglish
    11·
    2 years ago

    If anybody else is lost and wants a basic general-purpose home for their account, https://lemm.ee is on good hardware and open for signups.

  • mook@lemmy.mlEnglish
    10·
    2 years ago

    I applied for behaw about 24 hours ago without response nor success logging in. Wondering if they have temporarily suspended applications?

    • Slashzero@lemmy.mlEnglish
      5·
      2 years ago

      Same here! I was starting to think my application was rejected. So I signed up here on lemmy.ml and was approved fairly quickly.

      • mook@lemmy.mlEnglish
        1·
        2 years ago

        It’s been 72 hours now since I applied to beehaw and still radio silence.

        • Slashzero@lemmy.mlEnglish
          4·
          2 years ago

          I haven’t heard anything either. They are probably slammed. 🤷🏻‍♂️

          You can still subscribe to and post to their communities from here. You don’t actually need a user on beehaw.org

          Open the hamburger menu, then click the search icon and put !gaming@beehaw.org in the search box and click search. You’ll then be able to look at that community from lemmy.ml, and in the sidebar you can subscribe. You can also up and downvote, comment, etc.

          Replace gaming with whatever community you are trying to join. Also beehaw.org is just an example. You can “join” any instance that isn’t currently blocked by lemmy.ml AFAIK.

    • local_taxi_fix@lemmy.oneEnglish
      4·
      2 years ago

      They might just have a massive backlog. They’re at the top of the “Suggested instances” section.

  • jarwinder@lemmy.mlEnglish
    10·
    2 years ago

    is it possible to move an existing profile to a new server, like on Mastodon? or I need to create a new one and “start over”?

    • Barbarian@lemmy.mlEnglish
      13·
      2 years ago

      Right now, there is no import/export. It’s a known useful feature, but the devs have no time to work on it (I’ve been following all the optimization work they’ve been doing on github, I don’t know if they sleep). You’ll have to start over atm, sorry.

  • interdimensionalmeme@lemmy.mlEnglish
    122·
    2 years ago

    lemmy.ml should be a roundrobin dns that sends you to a random instance in the pool. Or else you will re-centralize lemmy and curmble under the IT bill.

    • Neil@lemmy.mlEnglish
      4·
      2 years ago

      Except (as far as I’m aware) your account only exists on one instance. So, if I end up on beehaw.org due to the round-robin, my account on lemmy.ml will not authenticate to that instance. I would have to have a separate account per instance which is hundreds of accounts.