Ask Lemmy
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Imagine if instead of just reddit.com there was also reddit.org and reddit.co.uk and reddit.nl and reddit.social and (etc etc) all on a different server from each other and each with its own set of users and subreddits. But each user and each subreddit could be viewed and joined by any user from any server - that's Lemmy.
So you're on the
piefed.socialserver (but on the fediverse servers are called 'instances') and I'm on thelemmy.blahaj.zoneinstance but we can both see, subscribe to and post to a community (the Lemmy name for subreddits) on an instance neither of us are members of - theasklemmycommunity on thelemmy.worldinstance.Take a look at your screen (or app if you're on mobile) and you'll see 'Local', 'Subscribed' and 'All'. If you select 'Local' you will see a list of posts from Communities that are on your home instance (which is
piefed.socialin your case). If you selected 'Subscribed' you'd see posts from all the Communities you chose to join/subscribe to across all instances. If you choose 'All' you'll see posts from the entirety of Lemmy whether you subscribed to them or not. Whichever view you choose can be sorted by things like 'new', 'active', 'hot' etc.To find Communities you're interested in joining, use the Search function, type in a keyword and select 'Communities'.
This is mostly correct, but another point to consider (once OP becomes more familiar with the basics) is the concept of defederation. Basically, not all instances permit interactions with each other. Many smaller instances have defederated from lemmy.world, for example. That means that users on those instances can not directly interact with communities hosted on lemmy.world, although you could still encounter users from that instance in a post on a community in a different instance that is federated with both.
If the instance you are currently on has defederated from another one that you would like to browse, you will need to create a new user account on that instance (or one that hasn't defederated from it).
Why?
I can't speak for any specific instance, but I believe many of the smaller ones that defederated lemmy.world were concerned that a large user base with looser sign-up requirements would disrupt the community they wanted to build.
Huh. Thanks for answering. But this kind of breaks the intentions of a federated construct, doesn't it?
In the worst case, I'd just block people from that instance, but not defederate it. That way my users could still interact with their community but their users couldn't disrupt my instance.
Each instance usually (but not always) represents a cultural group so if one group considers themselves unsafe around a different cultural group defederation is a good way to protect their users. Thats not breaking the intent of federation but a usable feature of it There's nothing to stop any user who feels stymied by their home instances federation policy from either creating a second account elsewhere or moving their existing one.