If I registered at lemmy.world, is it possible to still comment on a thread at say lemmy.ml? I get the expected “You are not logged in” and while subscribing is easy enough, I’m not able to comment or interact with other instances. This seems normal as users are unique per instance, I just want to make sure I’m not missing a key component of federated services. The sign in page at lemmy.ml says “You will still be able to interact with other instances” so that is confusing wording there as well.

EDIT: it works fine, you just need to be subbed to the other community before you can comment. Thanks /u/nulluser !

Edit 2: you don’t even need to be subbed, I still have lots to learn, lol thank you all for your patience

    • ArtVandelay@lemmy.worldOP
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      1 year ago

      Thanks, it seems I’ve got some research to do on how this all works, I’m saving this comment though thanks

    • Katana314@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Question. If you live on instance 1, and located a useful post on instance 2 through a social link or Google search, is there an expedient way to go to “instance1/instance2/thatpost”? So far, my process has been to search the community link, and then Ctrl+F for the post title.

    • Weerdo@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Hmm, so if I could question.

      I get the instance data sharing and the federation, but are things like logins / users a swarm / shared type of information? IE if the server I’m at home on goes down does my account go with it?

  • lixus98@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    I’m not using lemmy (the software) however because kbin is also federated I can see your post and leave a reply as well.

  • Null User Object@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Once subscribed, you can view the community from your lemmy.world instance and vote/comment on it from there. Your votes/comments are then diseminated across to other instances.

  • spicyjimmy87762@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Is lemmy.world connected to kbin? I’m trying to interact with their instances but it doesn’t seem to work. kbin.social appears to be one of the faster growing instances. It would be nice if we could interact with them.

  • PrimalAnimist@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I really think the fediverse decentralized structure is going to be the future in the long run. It’s going to have some rough stuff here and there, and I don’t fully understand how it will work (for example, let us say I joined a small lemmy server and it shuts down. Will all of those communities and posts cease to be part of the whole?)

    I’m loving it so far though.

    • Sun-Spider@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      To your question, my understanding is that all your account activity is stored on your instance as the primary source, and then copied into other instances as users there view and interact with your posts and comments. So if the instance with your account on it shuts down, all of its content that was already copied over to other servers will be preserved there, but some of the newer activity that didn’t have time to propagate yet might be lost.

      • PrimalAnimist@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Thank you, that makes sense. So another question. If my instance closes down, will I lose control over all of the copied content from my previous account since I would most likely have to make a new one on another instance?

        • Sun-Spider@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          I’m not sure what options there might exist now or in the future for gracefully migrating between instances, but in the worst case yes, if your instance unexpectedly shuts down then you won’t be able to authenticate and access that user account anymore. You do need to have some trust in the instance you join.

    • GrouchyLady@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      That’s a good question! I’m still learning about federation and trying to get my head around things too.

    • Photographer@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      it would help if there was some background identifier though so we could differentiate from the same community on two different instances without having to type @instance every time

  • ZKtheMAN@beehaw.org
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    1 year ago

    Heck, I’m not even subbed to this community, and I can still comment on your post from Beehaw.

  • cloud@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    It’s super interesting seeing how Lemmy works. Came here from kbin and prior to this post had no idea about how instances link.

  • GiantPacificOctopus@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I (Lemmy.world registered) just managed to comment on a beehaw post… I don’t know enough about how this works to help you fix it but it is possible!

    I got the “you are not logged in” error before my registration was accepted, not sure if that’s useful for you?

    • ArtVandelay@lemmy.worldOP
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      1 year ago

      Thanks, I got it figured out. It turns out the cross instance community you want to comment on, you just need to subscribe to it first.

  • effingjoe@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    It might help wrap your mind around this federation stuff by thinking about email. You don’t need to concern yourself with whether you and someone you want to send an email to are on the same email domain, say between Outlook and Gmail, you just send an email and because everyone is using the same protocol, the email can get to anyone with an email address.

    The fediverse is kinda the same way.

    • bandario@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Good analogy. I think it’s closer to USENET in nature, but there’s every chance many people are not aware of what usenet is or was.