this post was submitted on 01 Apr 2026
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No Stupid Questions

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I'm new around here, and learning about all the different instances and the culture/history behind them has been fun but overwhelming. Is there somewhere I could go for a crash-course? (lemmy.zip)
submitted 1 day ago by speedythefirst@lemmy.zip to c/nostupidquestions@lemmy.world
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[–] Hond@piefed.social 36 points 1 day ago (6 children)

idk where to find a crashcourse but here are my opinions(!) on top of my head after nearly 3 years on different instances:

  • hexbear and lemmygrad are to be avoided by all costs. weird tankies. they are blocked by most instances either way.
  • .ml(stands for marxist leninist) is the instance of the lemmy devs(i think?) and is still populated by a lot of non-lunatics. But i blocked the whole instance either way.
  • idk what the deal is with quokk.au(?) users but i noticed over the years that they tend to post weird shit/takes.
  • kbin was a fediverse alternative to lemmy. kinda fell apart a few years backs. a few instances are still around. they are alright.
  • mbin is the successor/a fork of kbin. if you want to try a different ux to lemmy its worth a look.
  • beehaw was already a pretty tightly knit community before the reddit api debacle a few years back. they have self proclaimed higher posting standards.
  • db0 is an anarchist instance. good for piracy topics. otherwise i dont care or have an opinion on them. tend to be a bit more ai tolerant i believe.
  • lemmy.world was/is the biggest instance. they get/got a lot flack for some reasons and others. most of the drama was imho pretty overblown.
  • feddit.org is an european instance. most of its users are german.
  • piefed is yet another fediverse alternative. i like it.

otherwise there is stuff like lemdroid with a focus on android or instances with a focus on anime. but tbh just start using lemmy and make your own experiences and feel free to block all the weird shit you dont want to see.

[–] Skullgrid@lemmy.world 22 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

blahaj.zone is the home to the LGBT community and they are prolific shitposters.

[–] some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org 5 points 1 day ago

Or just stick with an instance that doesn't block others and judge for yourself. I thought Hexbears were descent people experiencing crisis as we all flooded in.

[–] village604@adultswim.fan 3 points 1 day ago

Don't forget fedinsfw.app

[–] Professorozone@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

TL;DR I don't know how any of this shit works.

So when I left Reddit I wanted a similar experience, you know just the basic part, getting news from different viewpoints, cat videos, jokes, commentary TIL, ask Reddit, everything. I looked up online alternatives to Reddit and wherever I was had Lemmy as the top one. So I went there and when I was asked, I of course had no clue how to answer, so I picked .world because why would I want LESS than the whole world. I mean I didn't see an option for .universe. Later, I was criticized for picking a shitty one by some random guy. So I went in the pullout on the side and couldn't see any way to even change it.

I almost never post because when I was on Reddit and tried to post it was almost always taken down for some reason. Once I tried to post on Lemmy. I put it in asklemmy. It was a question about Linux and I was getting some really great feedback. I was delighted and sure enough my post was deleted and I didn't even understand the reason. I think it said something about me not belonging to the instance. So I'm thinking why did it let me post in the first place and why did it let them answer and if it's technically possible to do it in the first place, why disallow it? For, I guess some broken guideline? Just let it slide or maybe move it the the right place and tell me where it went.

I'm sure some of you will criticize me for not learning how it all works but man I just want to surf around and learn and be entertained and informed. I'm not looking to figure out a whole ecosystem. Some people want to take the whole car apart and others just want to get where they're going.

[–] finalarbiter@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 20 hours ago* (last edited 20 hours ago)

The thing that made federation make sense to me was comparing it to email. Email is a shared protocol and anyone who has an email address can send one to any other email address. There are lots of providers, like Google, Yahoo, Hotmail, AOL, etc, that all offer access to an email address.

I picked .world because why would I want LESS than the whole world. I mean I didn't see an option for .universe. Later, I was criticized for picking a shitty one by some random guy.

You might make a Google account because gmail is the first email service you heard about, and realize that you disagree with the company or want different features, so you go make an email on Proton instead. From either platform, you can still receive email from Yahoo users and send it to them. However, you aren't necessarily able to just 'transfer' your email account from one provider to another.

sure enough my post was deleted and I didn't even understand the reason. I think it said something about me not belonging to the instance. So I'm thinking why did it let me post in the first place and why did it let them answer and if it's technically possible to do it in the first place, why disallow it?

Sometimes, other providers might have rules about who is and is not allowed to send email to their platform. This is usually to protect against spam.

Where those actions are automatic upon receipt with email, that isn't always the case on Lemmy. Reddit had similar rules in many communities, where people with new accounts or low karma weren't allowed to post.

Edit: fixed a typo

[–] edgemaster72@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

idk what the deal is with quokk.au(?) users but i noticed over the years that they tend to post weird shit/takes.

this is how I feel about the hilariouschaos instance

[–] finalarbiter@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 20 hours ago

Iirc, HC is pretty explicitly a troll instance

[–] AskewLord@piefed.social 16 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

No.

You just need to read the sidebars of the various instances. They will tell you what they are about. Basically there are generalist instances... and there are specialized ones that are build around a specific place, hobby, or politics.

I stick to the generalist instances because the userbase is less insane. I notice the majority of unhinged people come from the specialized instances, and blocking those instances reduces a ton of the hostile and stupid posts and comments.

If you love rage bait, circle jerking about your superiority, and being hateful and miserable that people aren't 100% like you are evil, you might love some of the specialist instances, as that seems to be the vast majority of their content.

[–] Lumidaub@feddit.org 7 points 1 day ago

There is culture/history behind instances? The only thing I can think of is, anything ending in .ml is better avoided. Or not, if you really like dictatorships. You do you.

Other than that, I barely register instances I interact with.

[–] Grail@multiverse.soulism.net 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Here's a list of anarchist instances:

lemmy.dbzer0.net (flotilla)

slrpnk.net

quokk.au (flotilla)

anarchist.nexus (flotilla)

multiverse.soulism.net

The flotilla instances are pro-AI, while SLRPNK is pro-sustainability and MULTIVERSE is pro-occultism

[–] BurgerBaron@piefed.social 4 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Pro self hosted AI or do the anarchists support corporate server farms?

[–] db0@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

We support open source/weight models running on local machine with FOSS software. We don't support corporate GenAI. E.g. see AI Horde

[–] BurgerBaron@piefed.social 1 points 10 hours ago

Okay that makes more sense thanks for the explanation. Copyright of course isn't something I defend either so that wasn't my worry just the corporate stuff.

[–] Assassassin@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Have been on db0 for a few months and loathe genAI. I still have yet to get a solid understanding of the db0 admins stances on AI. I just generally ignore it since the userbase is pretty chill.

[–] db0@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

We support open source/weight models running on local machine with FOSS software. We don't support corporate GenAI.

[–] Assassassin@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 9 hours ago

Welp, that's about as direct from the source as I could ask for. Thanks for the clarification!

[–] IcedRaktajino@startrek.website 2 points 1 day ago

I don't want to repeat what others have already said as that's all pretty accurate. As a rule of thumb, just look at the site sidebar for various instances and just avoid any that base themselves around any form of identity politics. Sadly, that's a lot of them, but life is better without those kinds of attitudes in your face all the time.