Welcome! The first thing to know is that lemmy is a software used by multiple instances (servers) that may or may not talk to each other.<sup>1</sup> Each instance has its own rules and culture. (It is a good idea to create an account on 2-3 instances and see which one’s atmosphere you prefer.) Some general pointers would be:-
Votes don’t matter. Some instances don’t even have them.
Since there is no centralised control, people will be blunt. Don’t worry about it.
However, some things are forbidden in certain instances. Your instance, lemmy.world, forbids any discussion of file sharing. Lemmy.ml censors bad language. Hexbear may or may not officially have a ban on sexism / homophobia / transphobia, but the userbase makes sure that any offendors are bullied into silence.
We generally like to talk about Linux and other computer stuff, bemoan the sad state of the world, and hate on cars.
<sup>1</sup> For example, of the ‘big four’ instances, the other three federate with lemmy.ml since it is the developers’ own instance, and lemmy.world talks to sh.itjust.works, but lw and sjw don’t talk to hexbear.net (pre-emptively, as a last resort).
Right, make sure @ understands that “instances” = “websites.” The Lemmy discussion protocol is scattered across dozens of websites to avoid tyranny by any one of them, and they choose to federate with each other or not so that you’d only need an account on one to see content from the rest.
Welcome! The first thing to know is that lemmy is a software used by multiple instances (servers) that may or may not talk to each other.<sup>1</sup> Each instance has its own rules and culture. (It is a good idea to create an account on 2-3 instances and see which one’s atmosphere you prefer.) Some general pointers would be:-
<sup>1</sup> For example, of the ‘big four’ instances, the other three federate with lemmy.ml since it is the developers’ own instance, and lemmy.world talks to sh.itjust.works, but lw and sjw don’t talk to hexbear.net (pre-emptively, as a last resort).
Right, make sure @ understands that “instances” = “websites.” The Lemmy discussion protocol is scattered across dozens of websites to avoid tyranny by any one of them, and they choose to federate with each other or not so that you’d only need an account on one to see content from the rest.
OK ! That’s helpful.