I know a lot of you still think of the #Fediverse as just “Mastodon”.

But it’s far more than that. There’s an entire ecosystem of federated message boards that’s already proven popular: #Piefed, #NodeBB, #Lemmy, #Mbin, and #Discourse.

Even the classics like #Friendica and #Hubzilla have solid forum features baked in.

If you’re only here for the microblogging, you’re missing a key piece. Communities built around interests are something #Twitter never offered, and #Bluesky still doesn’t.

So if you’re looking to replace your #Facebook Groups, the Fediverse already has you covered.

@atomicpoet
What's a good way in to Lemmy for iOS desktop?

@atomicpoet

You're right. That sounds amazing. First I've heard of it.

Is there a list of tags somewhere we can peruse?

@atomicpoet

The forums of old (waaaaay before Reddit) had directories to guide you.

So, besides someone tooting (as you did) about specific ones, how do I find these ones, please?

Mark Harbinger Find a Lemmy or Piefed server and do the following:

1. Hit the search bar.
2. Type the topic you want—movies, photography, whatever.
3. Look for results that start with !. That’s a community. Example: !movies@lemmy.world or !movies@piefed.social.
4. Click in, hit subscribe, and you’re set.

@atomicpoet @Mark_Harbinger This didn't work for me. I tried a couple of seemingly obvious ones.

I assume someone *could* wrap this in a form that just says "Find Communities" and pre filters the results?

Mark Harbinger Find a Lemmy or Piefed server and do the following:

1. Hit the search bar.
2. Type the topic you want—movies, photography, whatever.
3. Look for results that start with !. That’s a community. Example: !movies@lemmy.world or !movies@piefed.social.
4. Click in, hit subscribe, and you’re set.

@atomicpoet @Mark_Harbinger How to find a Lemmy server?

I know a lot of you still think of the #Fediverse as just “Mastodon”.

But it’s far more than that. There’s an entire ecosystem of federated message boards that’s already proven popular: #Piefed, #NodeBB, #Lemmy, #Mbin, and #Discourse.

Even the classics like #Friendica and #Hubzilla have solid forum features baked in.

If you’re only here for the microblogging, you’re missing a key piece. Communities built around interests are something #Twitter never offered, and #Bluesky still doesn’t.

So if you’re looking to replace your #Facebook Groups, the Fediverse already has you covered.

Mark Harbinger Find a Lemmy or Piefed server and do the following:

1. Hit the search bar.
2. Type the topic you want—movies, photography, whatever.
3. Look for results that start with !. That’s a community. Example: !movies@lemmy.world or !movies@piefed.social.
4. Click in, hit subscribe, and you’re set.

I know a lot of you still think of the #Fediverse as just “Mastodon”.

But it’s far more than that. There’s an entire ecosystem of federated message boards that’s already proven popular: #Piefed, #NodeBB, #Lemmy, #Mbin, and #Discourse.

Even the classics like #Friendica and #Hubzilla have solid forum features baked in.

If you’re only here for the microblogging, you’re missing a key piece. Communities built around interests are something #Twitter never offered, and #Bluesky still doesn’t.

So if you’re looking to replace your #Facebook Groups, the Fediverse already has you covered.

@atomicpoet my one hangup with these tools are needing a unique account for each one

I wish I could have a single account and use that to interface with multiple federated tools.

I know it is a limitation of the protocol and would introduce a whole new set of issues...

@atomicpoet @Mark_Harbinger I don't get it. I'm finding a lemmy server direct from a search engine in a browser. Eventually, by selecting Lemmy Community Explorer (instead of fediverse observer (??) ), found some communities with ! but there's no subscribe. No wait. You have to open sidebar. ok. Subscribe -> put in my Mastodon instance -> The page you are looking for isn't here.

@atomicpoet Piefed?

@atomicpoet I know that it is called Pixelfeld. Just wanted you to edit your hashtag typo

@atomicpoet hmmm, I'll have to dig into that some more then.

I am coming from the mental model of things like Mastodon, Pixelfed, and Lemmy - all of those seem to require their own account. I can't take my social.lol account and just go.

Any maybe I'm not explaining it right. I am thinking more of using one account as a central identity that can interact with the different ActivityPub services natively.

I know a lot of you still think of the #Fediverse as just “Mastodon”.

But it’s far more than that. There’s an entire ecosystem of federated message boards that’s already proven popular: #Piefed, #NodeBB, #Lemmy, #Mbin, and #Discourse.

Even the classics like #Friendica and #Hubzilla have solid forum features baked in.

If you’re only here for the microblogging, you’re missing a key piece. Communities built around interests are something #Twitter never offered, and #Bluesky still doesn’t.

So if you’re looking to replace your #Facebook Groups, the Fediverse already has you covered.