this post was submitted on 07 Jun 2025

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We have launched a PieFed instance! (lemmy.ca)

submitted 22 hours ago* (last edited 21 hours ago) by otter@lemmy.ca to c/main@lemmy.ca

38 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Would you like some pie? Check it out here: https://piefed.ca/

What is PieFed

PieFed follows a similar format as Lemmy and Mbin. Those that are familiar with Lemmy will find it very similar, with some additional features including topic lists, optional private voting, new mod and admin tools, crosspost de-duplication, community wikis, etc. Thanks to how the fediverse works, you can use either lemmy.ca or piefed.ca to interact freely!

We will put together some guides on our non-profit's website at some point. In the meantime, we have created !newtopiefed@piefed.ca for us to learn from each other. There is also the official !piefed_help@piefed.social community which has a similar purpose.

We have done some testing and we are learning as we go, but please bear with us while this new platform gets going 🙂

Other Links & FAQ

lemmy.ca is not migrating to PieFed. We will run both instances at the same time. You can use whichever one you prefer.
Learn about the differences between PieFed & Lemmy: https://join.piefed.social/features/
A tour of the community moderation features in PieFed: https://piefed.social/post/844065
One of the first mobile apps to implement support for PieFed, with more to come: https://interstellar.jwr.one/

all 39 comments

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[–] mintiefresh@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

I'm not quite sure what this is and why I should use this over Lemmy .... but I'd like to give it a try! lol. Also very cool how the Fediverse allows for different entry points and view the same content.

Congrats on the expansion!

[–] otter@lemmy.ca 1 points 29 minutes ago

We're also learning as we go :) In addition to the features mentioned in the post, a big one for regional instances like ours might be the topic lists (once we set those up anyway)

Congrats on the expansion!

Thanks!

[–] Nerrad@lemmy.world 2 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

Does PieFed have an api yet that lets it work with Lemmy apps?

[–] otter@lemmy.ca 1 points 37 minutes ago

There is an API but it is slightly different from Lemmy, and it's very new, which is why the app list is small. Right now that includes !interstellar@kbin.earth and using the website as a PWA. As more people use it, more apps should implement support.

The PieFed dev docs say that the API is 95% similar, so hopefully it should be easy enough for app developers to implement

[–] viking@infosec.pub 6 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago) (2 children)

Is the API active? I want to use PieFed over Lemmy, but don't like to join so called "flagship instances", they always go overboard with moderation at some point.

So instead of joining piefed.social I signed up with .au, only to find out that the admin never bothered to activate the api, so can't use any apps, and posts aren't federating outwards properly.

Edit: Confirmed working, registration sent.

Edit 2: Approved within 5 min, thanks for that!

[–] otter@lemmy.ca 1 points 40 minutes ago

The API is new I believe, piefed.social enabled it recently as well

https://piefed.social/post/817564

Welcome to piefed.ca :)

[–] Shadow@lemmy.ca 4 points 2 hours ago

Yep the API is on as of earlier today. It's not listed in the docs yet, which is probably why the au instance doesn't have it on.

[–] troyunrau@lemmy.ca 3 points 3 hours ago

Excellent work folks!

The true power of federation showing itself here. In this case, it's two software packages with the same server/admin team -- which basically future proofs both.

I'd make a recommendation: have some sort of cross-pollination tool. Basically, pull the database of all subscribed communities on Lemmy.ca and have a bot subscribe to the same on PieFed, and vice versa. Probably easy to do if you have server-side access.

Furthermore, in the ideal world, "Local" from the Lemmy instance includes the piefed.ca local commuities. This might be a harder ask. The reason would be to prevent bisecting the Local feeds.

Finally, ideally there is a community migration tool, to cross between Lemmy and PieFed if a community wants to move from one side to the other. This would be a bigger project, but would future proof Fedican even further should either piece of software become badly maintained.

Well, okay, I just created a year's worth of work for a programmer. How can I help?

[–] PerogiBoi@lemmy.ca 7 points 4 hours ago

I’m just happy we have another Canadian instance

[–] Sunshine@piefed.ca 6 points 8 hours ago

Hello from the other side!

[–] cyborganism@lemmy.ca 6 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago)

Nice. Already registered.

~~Is there a recommended android app for it?~~

I just saw the FAQ section after.

[–] BedSharkPal@lemmy.ca 16 points 14 hours ago

Stuff like this really helps reinforce why the fediverse is the best platform. Portability is no joke.

[–] CoyoteFacts@piefed.ca 9 points 13 hours ago

Pie flavor. I'm stoked that Piefed has Atkinson Hyperlegible as a font choice! It's my favorite font, especially for ereaders.

[–] rumimevlevi@lemmings.world 5 points 12 hours ago (2 children)

It suck that they implements karma and collapsing downvoted comments. Two censorship methods

[–] otter@lemmy.ca 1 points 31 minutes ago (1 children)

The collapsing of downvoted comments is configurable in the user settings, so it's possible to disable it or fine tune it to the way you want it. The discussion is still valid for what the default settings should be

I'm still learning about the karma side, so I don't want to comment on that yet

[–] rumimevlevi@lemmings.world 1 points 11 minutes ago

Should be the opposite, people who want to collapse comment with lot of downvotes should activate it

[–] Jerry@feddit.online 0 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

The downvotes and karma do not stop you from saying whatever you want. It just means you have to say it somewhere else. Hence, you are not censored.

[–] rumimevlevi@lemmings.world 1 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

When a comment is collapsed , people tend to skip the comment. Hiding stuffs is censorship

[–] mp3@lemmy.ca 5 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

It's just improving the signal-to-noise ratio.

[–] jerkface@lemmy.ca 2 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago)

Yes; through censoring unpopular comments. Whether or not it's a good thing is debatable, but not so much whether it exists.

[–] rimu@piefed.social 22 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

Congratulations!

[–] mp3@lemmy.ca 7 points 13 hours ago

Thank you for your hard work :)

[–] otter@piefed.ca 46 points 22 hours ago (2 children)

Hello from PieFed

[–] Sal@mander.xyz 7 points 18 hours ago

Hello ✌️ 😄

[–] ptz@dubvee.org 12 points 21 hours ago

Hola desde el mismo lugar de siempre. (Lemmy).

[–] faxed@lemmy.ca 21 points 20 hours ago

[–] Blaze@lemmy.dbzer0.com 12 points 18 hours ago

Oh great!

[–] CreatingMachines@fedia.io 8 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

Oh, Piefed has the ability to see threading and micro-blogging posts?

[–] vaguerant@fedia.io 15 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

You might be thinking of Mbin, the other one of the "big three" (more like big one and the other two). Mbin's biggest differentiating feature is microblog support. It's hard to boil PieFed down to one main feature compared to Lemmy/Mbin, but anonymous voting and de-duplication of reposts might be the main ones. However, its focus is still on the (Lemmy-style) threaded side of the fediverse.

[–] OpenStars@piefed.social 10 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

Example showing comments across reposts in 6 different communities.

[–] PirateFrog@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 16 hours ago (3 children)

Out of curiosity, can a community opt out of its comments being bundled with others?

After seeing it in action, I think that's actually a nifty feature that most communities and the threadiverse as a whole would benefit from, but I could also potentially foresee a minority of communities not wanting to increase their comments exposure to that degree.

[–] rimu@piefed.social 2 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

Thinking a bit bigger - I'd like to see a 'private community' feature which limits the visibility of posts inside to community members only. With an optional approval process to join.

That would take care of the comment bundling issue too.

[–] PirateFrog@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago) (1 children)

I think there would still be a desire for the relative in-between setting of just opting out of the bundling. My reasoning is that a community may want to be open to be viewed and commented by anyone so that they continue to grow and have more participation, either by search or random encounter from the /all view, as that allows slow organic growth with relatively few people wanting to go in there and derail conversations.

With bundling, that community will be seen by far more non-members than ever before if a popular link is posted around to multiple communities, inviting a significant amount of outside participation, and the potential for a much increased need to keep things on topic, or to step in and moderate drama from other communities with wildly different perspectives.

Without the ability to opt out of bundling, this leaves only the two extremes of potentially unwanted isolation, or potentially unwanted increased outside participation.

The only other option would be for a community to request their admin defederate from the troublesome community, or from the outside instance entirely, which is using a mallet to solve something that could be done with scalpel.

I do think the bundling is quite nice overall, and I don't foresee a problem with it being the default, but I do strongly see the need for that middle ground option to opt-out, personally. The way Lemmy currently operates by default is effectively that middle-ground option that is missing from Piefed.

[–] rimu@piefed.social 1 points 32 minutes ago

the two extremes of potentially unwanted isolation, or potentially unwanted increased outside participation.

Yes that's a good way to put it. Thanks.

[–] Kichae@lemmy.ca 5 points 9 hours ago (2 children)

Honestly, I think it's one of the most undercutting, least thought out features in piefed, that focuses entirely on the immediaye convenience of the end user over the health of the discussion groups and servers that make up the network.

It's the eating a tub of icing for supper of social media features.

[–] otter@lemmy.ca 1 points 33 minutes ago

PieFed is developing rapidly, and these sound like reasonable concerns that the developers might address at some point :)

Looks like someone else tagged the dev already, we can also post suggestions in !piefed_meta@piefed.social

[–] MBM@lemmings.world 4 points 6 hours ago

Along those lines: it also only shows the sidebar of the first community

[–] OpenStars@piefed.social 4 points 12 hours ago

@rimu@piefed.social another interesting idea