youronlyone

Hopefully that doesn’t happen.

1. For some topics, there are already existing, very active, communities before the subreddits with the same topic migrated over. Who should merge with whom? The existing large communities with subreddit migrators? Or, the subreddit migrators merging with th existing large communities … and conforming to the rules and culture in those existing large communities?

2. As mentioned, there are different cultures and rules that develops per community. There is no such thing as one-size-fits-all.

3. Even if communities “consolidate over time”, it will still split up no matter what. That’s how it has always been sincee the beginning of online communities.

4. IF communities indeed consolidate over time, if that server/instance goes down, the entire consolidated communities will be gone overnight, and all the content they collected together. We’ve already seen this happen just this year, forget about the previous years.

In short, don’t expect it. In fact, it should be supported to ensure that:
a. we don’t return to a centralise system
b. we don’t put all our eggs in one basket
c. we build redundancy, continuation, and resiliency.

^_

Please don’t take this the wrong way, just a friendly tip:

with kbin finally with Lemmy again

If you are talking about instances, use the entire name. Try to avoid mixing your references between software and instances, otherwise it will be confusing and can cause misunderstandings. ^_

Kbin has always been “with” Lemmy.

• Kbin: https://fedia.io

• Kbin: https://readit.buzz

• Kbin: https://karab.in (oldest Kbin)

• Kbin: https://u.fail

• Kbin: https://fediverse.boo

• Kbin: https://kilioa.org (SOLO instance)

• Kbin: https://forum.fail

• Lemmy: https://sopuli.xyz

• Lemmy: https://lemmy.blahaj.zone

• Lemmy: https://lemmy.world

• Lemmy: https://lemmy.ml

• Lemmy: https://beehaw.org

The one which was being hammered by registrations and bots was/is https://kbin.social and it is just one of many.

^_

Re: fragmentation

Also, this negative “fragmentation” view is biased. Before the subreddit migration, there were already existing and well-established communities in the fediverse. Suddenly, after the subreddit migration, it’s being called “fragmentation”.

For example, topics like Star Trek and Books. There are already large communities in the Fediverse before the related subreddits migrated. Yet, you will see people calling it “fragmented”, some even have the guts to call other communities to “merge” with the migrators.

This is wrong and very rude.

Having multiple communities is good. There is no one-size-fits-all. Also, we’ve been doing that in the entire history of the human race. That said, even if everyone merged into one mega church, it will still split up like it or not.

In other words, we need to stop viewing “fragmentation” as negative. In fact, don’t use that word. Don’t even think about it. Just setup your community and build it up. Create your own culture. Your own rules. System, team, and invite people who wants to join your type of community.

Multiple communities is healthy for everyone. It is a win for everyone.

And… haven’t we learned what happens when we rely on one service? One central platform?

A lot can happen.

1. It suddenly goes offline. We’ve already experienced this in 2023. A lot of large communities disappeared for almost a week because the instance encountered issues.

2. The instance owner might no longer have the resources to continue. Not necessarily on the financial side, remember, there is the technical side which will take an owner’s time.

Sure, they can get other admins to join. But, as an instance admin, would you easily trust access? Consider also the trust your users has given you in protecting their data and privacy.

There were instances who went offline because of that, and instead of transfering management to a new team, or selling their platform to someone, they chose to shut it down permanently because they value the data and privacy of their users.

So… if that instance that happens to be hosting a one-size-fits-all community goes offline…

Well…

1. Or, it can very well be something uncontrollable. Server farm fire, raid, who knows.

But if we let people build their own communities spread across different instances, then we are building redundancy, continuation, and resiliency. If one goes down, for whatever reason, we have existing communities we can move into and continue our discussions, with minimal interference.

^_

First, welcome to the #Fediverse! I’m glad you found your way in the #ActivityPub-based “federation network”.

So, wait… what are these terminologies? And what exactly is the “Fediverse”?

Think of it like this:

• Name: Web
• Protocol: HTTP
• Browsers: Mozilla Firefox, Naver Whale

Then you have the Fediverse:

• Name: Fediverse / Fediverse Network
• Protocol: ActivityPub (extra info: Before ActivityPub it was #OStatus; before OStatus it was #OpenMicroBlogging )
• Browsers: #Hubzilla, #Friendica, #Calckey, #Rebased, #Akkoma, #Foundkey, #Meisskey, #Pixelfed, #BookWyrm, #PeerTube, #GlitchSoc #Pleroma, #Misskey, #Mastodon, #Kbin, #Lemmy, etc.

All these “fediverse browsers”, like Lemmy and Kbin, are commonly referred to as fediverse software. (extra info: Wikipedia calls Lemmy, Kbin, and similar answers-type or Threads-type software as “Link-aggregators”.)

There is no “Mastodon network”. There is no “mastoverse”. There is no “threadiverse”. There is no “Threadinet”, or whichever -verse / -network people are coming up with.

Any software that is using the ActivityPub protocol is part of the “Fediverse network”. Just like how any software that uses the HTTProtocol is part of the Web.

That clear so far?

Now, we go to your question.

Q: I moved to lemmy.world and have noticed that lemmy.ml has been popping up as another featured instance. What differs from lemmy.world vs lemmy.ml? Is .ml more active?

lemmy.world and lemmy.ml are called instances (the terminology used to refer to a fediverse server/service). These two are only two out of many fediverse instances available. In paritcular, these two instances are only two out of probably a hundred Lemmy-based instances available.

What differs between the two? As far as features and functionalities go, none. Since these two Lemmy-based instances are using the same software, they have the same set of features. The only difference would be if one instance fell behind in Lemmy version upgrades.

Since lemmy.ml is one of two flaship servers of the Lemmy software project, naturally it will get the bulk of registrations and content.

For example, before the Reddit Migration, there were already existing communities for many similar Subreddits, and many of those are in lemmy.ml and are very active. So, when Subreddits started to migrate, some chose lemmy.world and other lemmy instances. Which allowed lemmy.world to catch up with the number of users and number of active communities that lemmy.ml already have. AND, some of these are about the same topics/fandom.

So… yep, that’s the detailed explanation. ^_

I hope I wasn’t confusing.