Could be anything associated with the Fediverse, Lemmy, Mastodon, Pixelfed etc.
This probably won’t work for everyone, but whenever I’m learning or trying out something new and unfamiliar, I always tend to follow the philosophy of “Just jump straight into the deep end and you have no choice but to swim”.
So for those thinking of trying out Lemmy/Fediverse. I suggest trying to get your own instance running. It’ll get you more familiar with what Lemmy is and how it works (at least on a high level). Its also really rewarding when you get it all up and running, it becomes something more personal to you since you took the time and effort (instead of just clicking sign up on some instance).
But again, that just how I prefer doing things. To each their own.
Do we need like special hardware for it or can I use my PC or what do I need lol
You don’t need any special hardware. I have my instance running on 1 CPU and 2GB of RAM just fine (granted, its just me there so there isn’t really any massive load).
So yes, you can use your PC if you want. The only thing I’d say is that if you plan to have your instance federated (i.e. make posts from it, message people etc), you’d want to have it running all the time. Otherwise, if your PC is down and Lemmy isn’t running, your images and posts might not show up properly for people on other instances.
Which is why most people prefer to rent a server or VPS (virtual private server, which is usually cheaper). Since you can have the server running 24/7.
Other than that, you need a domain name. Again there are websites that can give you free domain names. But in my case I prefer to just buy a domain.
If you check out https://join-lemmy.org/, there’s “Run a Server” option which goes over the steps.
Which is why most people prefer to rent a server or VPS (virtual private server, which is usually cheaper). Since you can have the server running 24/7.
That’s probably the best solution. You can rent a base VPS pretty cheap which is perfectly adequate if you’re not looking to support a lot of users. That way you get a static IP, high speed connection, and 24/7 uptime with no fuss.
wefwef.app is a great alternative for those who are used to Apollo.
I saw someone mention Jerboa for those used to RIF, and I gotta say it is indeed pretty similar so far.
As someone who came from RIF I couldn’t stand Jerboa. It was just too unintuitive. I’m currently using Connect for Lemmy, but honestly I’m just waiting and hoping Sync for Lemmy is going to fill the void that RIF left. Sync for Reddit probably would’ve been my go to app if I hadn’t discovered RIF before.
Coming from bacon reader, I find navigating Jerboa pretty easy and intuitive for the most part. Still confused on some of the deeper things like joining communities but I think I’m doing it right. I have it set so I can see the different groups I’ve joined or I can see the “wider world” of either my instance lemme.ee (I think).
I’m trying to not be a reddit lurker and comment more since I’m not fighting 8000 comments that already contained what I wanted to say lol.
Yeah, browsing the community list is something I had to tab over to my instance’s (slrpnk.net) web interface for, but the web interface was very good for mobile as well.
I use this userscript with Tampermonkey for a layout that’s closer to old.reddit. (Script not mine.)
Don’t join the biggest instance.
Subscribe to communities and set your default to Subscribed in profile settings. Biggest help for me was lemmyverse.net The community search function on Lemmy is pretty basic. It will probably improve over time, but lemmyverse.net provides more information and tools to filter/sort.
