2nd Update: Some well-known Lemmy servers are under heavy load from the reddit exodus. New users are encouraged to sign up at one of the following general interest Lemmy instead (in no particular order):
Most Lemmy servers are federated (linked together), so you can easily subscribe and participate here regardless of which Lemmy server you call home.
Welcome!
Hey everyone from reddit, welcome to our Menopause group! It's going to be a bit of an adjustment, but we are resilient, (we are after all, menopause folk) and we will endure!
Over the coming days, as we learn this new platform, we will be updating information as much as we can. Thanks for your patience.
To answer some of the more frequently asked questions:
- Lemmy is a decentralized, reddit-like platform that is open source (free as in freedom)
- Lemmy servers, called instances, can be hosted by anyone, so no single person or entity is in control of our communities
- There are many instances to choose from; see the top of this post for the latest servers that are accepting new users
- Most Lemmy instances are linked together, sharing communities under one collective umbrella
- You can create an account at nearly any Lemmy instance, including those mentioned above, and you will be able to participate in the communities hosted by other Lemmy instances as if they were all part of one big community
- Lemmy is part of the fediverse, a collection of open and decentralized social network platforms; Mastadon, a twitter-like microblogging platform that recently made international headlines is also part of the fediverse
For mobile users:
- The official Android app for Lemmy is Jerboa (jer-BO-uh) which can be found on the Play Store or F-Droid.
- The official iOS app for Lemmy is Mlem; it is currently in beta so you'll need to install Apple's TestFlight and then open this link on your phone
As thousands, or perhaps millions of users are currently transitioning to Lemmy all at once, please be patient and remain open-minded to new experiences. Nobody could anticipate such a massive migration of users all at once, and many Lemmy instances are under heavy load at the moment. These are exciting times however, as we embrace a truly free and publicly-owned social network.
Over the next couple of days we will do our best to answer your questions and provide support here. Like Reddit, Lemmy is a collection of many communities. Feel free to stretch your legs and have a look around!
Just a note:
At a glance
the first option is invite only the second redirects to another site, so might want to update in case that redirect stops the third is barely active and has a bunch of test posts the fourth I haven't looked at yet, but it seems active. Not sure where it will lead.
I didn't realize at first I had to create an account for each of those if I want to post, didn't quite get the concept that you don't have one universal username to log into all. That's kind of annoying.
I see another person is struggling with the app, for a couple others it's not working well on the browser of their phone. Since most people use phones/tablets these days I think adoption by the general population is going to be a problem.
From posts at reddit it seems a number of people from the OG sub are upset/frustrated that the sub has closed, or they were really struggling with it going dark, because it was a vital support system for them. It seems also people feel like the whole thing has been poorly communicated to them as to what the plan was, was it temporary or permanent, and when it might return if it was temporary? I'm still not sure what's going on myself.
And the wiki and posts from the old reddit were important information people wanted to access. Fortunately my other support subs stayed open, there was some discussion among mods and community and the consensus was even if they wanted to protest, one in particular understood the nature of their support and realized going dark was a bad idea. I also noticed some subs went restricted so people could at least find old posts, because they realized that people need that place to go to or the information.
Additionally from my impression of trying to use lemmy myself, I think most people aren't technical enough so they're going to struggle with lemmy. I'm having a hard time with it myself and I'm somewhat technical, but I'm also tired and overwhelmed and burned out. This is something I could probably spare energy for if I weren't dealing with perimenopause and other life things on top of it. I also feel like if there are communities that I can use easily with considerably less friction, I would rather be there.
I think for the users who can't easily adopt lemmy (and I understand that, especially as someone overwhelmed and struggling with perimenopause/other stuff), it would be nice to at least have access to information from the wiki and old posts. Maybe reddit is wrong, but it seems like closing the sub is punishing the users rather than reddit itself. Would it be possible to at least switch the old sub to restricted?
Sorry if this is a bit rambly, I haven't had much sleep and basically I am in the midst of catching up on what is going on and trying to process it all.
Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts. I have been in discussion with other health-related mods this week and am intending to re-open the sub to restricted today. Updated info will be provided then.