Signing up
Pick an interface. Do you prefer to browse Reddit with:
- apollo: try https://wefwef.app
- old.reddit.com: try https://lemmy.world
- reddit.com: try https://kbin.social
Flip a coin, pick an instance. Are you:
- indecisive: use https://lemmy.world
- decisive: see https://github.com/maltfield/awesome-lemmy-instances
- using https://kbin.social: you already have an instance
Building momentuum
- Jumpstart your subscription list using https://redditmigration.com
- Try commenting or posting. Just try it! Many people who stopped engaging on reddit find the community more rewarding here.
- Try sticking with Lemmy / Kbin for a few days. Until your fingers learn to get their fix a new way, and you get your subscription list built up a bit.
What next?
Many people are happy at this point… but what to do if you want to help the switch to fediverse but you’re still jonesing for reddit after a few days? A few ideas….
- Its OK! Reddit simply has more volume and a bigger stack of communities as of Jun 30, 2023. Its /probably/ (?) not going to disappear overnight. Its not an either/or, you can use lemmy / kbin more and more over time.
- Start your internet browsing time on lemmy / kbin first. If you’re “still hungry”, supplement with reddit.
- Consider instituting a “read only reddit” policy: no posts, comments, or upvotes. Its MUCH easier to stop adding to Reddit than it is to quit cold turkey. If you don’t like reddit’s behavior, this is a good way to collectively switch momentum toward the fediverse without making big personal sacrifices.
OP here: IMO choosing an instance is mostly a big decision about nothing. What I mean is its an annoying barrier of a decision you gotta make to play that’s both cheap to change AND probably will have very little impact on your experience.
In two weeks you probably won’t care which instance you picked. 90% of instances are going to be relatively generic: same posts, same communities, same federation.
If for some reason you do regret your first pick in a couple weeks, you’ll know, and you probably won’t feel like its a big deal to switch. There’s no karma, and losing your account’s link to a couple weeks of post/comment history is, at least to me, a little 🤷♀️.
My advice would be: pick any semi generic instance to start (e.g. lemmy.world), and if you’re curious about more curated instances (there’s a lot less of these, most notable is beehaw.org) make an account on them a few days later just to check out the vibe.
The only wrong decision is to waffle lol.
If I want to switch to say, Beehaw, would I need a different username? Also, I just looked at the Politics community on Beehaw, and it’s different than the Politics community on LemmyWorld. Shouldn’t they be the same?
It would probably be a good idea not to keep recommending lemmy.world as the default instance at this point, given how much larger it has become compared to other instances.
Lemm.ee is a much better recommendation. The server is stable, well-run, and has a lot of room for large growth.