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| Developer(s) | LemmyNet [1] |
|---|---|
| Initial release | May 5, 2019 [2] |
| Stable release | 0.19.3 / 22 January 2024 |
| Repository | |
| Written in | Rust, TypeScript |
| Type | Social news |
| License | GNU Affero General Public License, version 3.0 |
| Website | join-lemmy |
Lemmy is a free and open-source software for running self-hosted social news aggregation and discussion forums. [3] [4] [5] These hosts, known as "instances", communicate with each other using the ActivityPub protocol.
Lemmy was created by the user Dessalines on GitHub in February 2019 [6] and licensed under the Affero General Public License.
In a 2020 post, Lemmy's co-creator Dessalines wrote about the origin of the name Lemmy. "It was nameless for a long time, but I wanted to keep with the fediverse tradition of naming projects after animals. I was playing that old-school game Lemmings, and Lemmy (from Motorhead) had passed away that week, and we held a few polls for names, and I went with that." [7]
According to the Fediverse statistics website the-federation.info , there were less than 100 instances of Lemmy prior to June 2023, increasing to 1521 instances of Lemmy with a total of 66,000 monthly active users as of 27 July 2023 [update] . [8] The most popular instances were lemmy.world and lemmy.ml, each with 27,000 and 4,000 monthly active users respectively, as of 27 July 2023 [update] . [8]
Lemmy is made up of a network of individual installations of the Lemmy software that can intercommunicate. This departs from the centralized, monolithic structure of other social media platforms. [9] It has been described as a federated alternative to Reddit. [10]
Users on individual instances submit posts with links, text, or pictures to user-created forums for discussion called "communities". [3] Discussion is in the form of threaded comments. Posts and comments can be upvoted or downvoted [9] though the ability to downvote can be disabled by the admins of each instance.
Communities are local to each instance, however users may subscribe to communities, create posts and leave comments across instances. Moderation is conducted by the administrators of each instance and moderators of specific communities. [9] [11] Community names begin with c/ in the URL (e.g lemmy.ml/c/simpleliving) [3] and are mentionable using the !community@instance format. [12]
On each instance, a front page presents the user with popular posts from several communities. [13] These posts can then be filtered according to origin: posts from the instance the user is on, or from all federated instances. It can also be made to only show posts from communities the user has subscribed to. [9]
Lemmy instances are generally supported by donations. [14]
ActivityPub is the protocol used to allow Lemmy instances to operate as a federated social network. It allows users to interact with compatible platforms such as Kbin [9] and Mastodon. [15]
In June 2023, following the announcement of Reddit API service changes intended to reduce the use of third-party Reddit clients, community members discussed relocating to Lemmy and other Reddit competitors. [16] Reddit banned a user for promoting switching to Lemmy along with the '/r/LemmyMigration' community as a whole, leading to a Streisand effect after it garnered attention on sites like Hacker News. The ban was reversed a day later. [17]
Prominent third-party Reddit clients Sync, Slide and Boost which had shut down due to changes to the pricing of Reddit's API began working on Lemmy clients, [14] [18] with them later relaunching as Sync for Lemmy, [19] Slide for Lemmy and Boost for Lemmy [14] Multiple other apps and browser clients have been developed since the increase in users after the Reddit API service changes. [20]
The landscape for instant messaging involves cross-platform instant messaging clients that can handle one or multiple protocols. Clients that use the same protocol can typically federate and talk to one another. The following table compares general and technical information for cross-platform instant messaging clients in active development, each of which have their own article that provide further information.
Invidious is a free and open-source alternative frontend to YouTube. It is available as a Docker container, or from the GitHub master branch. It is intended to be used as a lightweight and "privacy-respecting" alternative to the official YouTube website. Many privacy preserving redirecting software as well as YouTube clients use Invidious instances.
Pocket, previously known as Read It Later, is a social bookmarking service for storing, sharing and discovering web bookmarks. Released in 2007, the service was originally only for desktop and laptop computers and is now available for macOS, Windows, iOS, Android, Windows Phone, BlackBerry, Kobo eReaders, and web browsers.
Friendica is a free and open-source software distributed social network. It forms one part of the Fediverse, an interconnected and decentralized network of independently operated servers.
Distributed social network projects generally develop software, protocols, or both.
F-Droid is an open-source app store and software repository for Android, serving a similar function to the Google Play store. The main repository, hosted by the project, contains only free and open source apps. Applications can be browsed, downloaded and installed from the F-Droid website or client app without the need to register for an account. "Anti-features" such as advertising, user tracking, or dependence on non-free software are flagged in app descriptions.
Open Whisper Systems was a software development group that was founded by Moxie Marlinspike in 2013. The group picked up the open source development of TextSecure and RedPhone, and was later responsible for starting the development of the Signal Protocol and the Signal messaging app. In 2018, Signal Messenger was incorporated as an LLC by Moxie Marlinspike and Brian Acton and then rolled under the independent 501c3 non-profit Signal Technology Foundation. Today, the Signal app is developed by Signal Messenger LLC, which is funded by the Signal Technology Foundation.
pump.io is a general-purpose activity streams engine that can be used as a federated social networking protocol which "does most of what people really want from a social network". Started by Evan Prodromou, it is a follow-up to GNU social, and is designed to be more lightweight and usable for general data instead of just microblogging. The largest StatusNet instance at the time, Identi.ca, which was the largest StatusNet service and ran by Prodromou, switched to pump.io in June 2013.
Signal is an encrypted messaging service for instant messaging, voice, and video calls. The instant messaging function includes sending text, voice notes, images, videos, and other files. Communication may be one-to-one between users or may involve group messaging.
Matrix is an open standard and communication protocol for real-time communication. It aims to make real-time communication work seamlessly between different service providers, in the way that standard Simple Mail Transfer Protocol email currently does for store-and-forward email service, by allowing users with accounts at one communications service provider to communicate with users of a different service provider via online chat, voice over IP, and videotelephony. It therefore serves a similar purpose to protocols like XMPP, but is not based on any existing communication protocol.
PeerTube is a free and open-source, decentralized, ActivityPub federated video platform powered by WebTorrent, that uses peer-to-peer technology to reduce load on individual servers when viewing videos.
SwellRT was a free and open-source backend-as-a-service and API focused to ease development of apps featuring real-time collaboration. It supported the building of mobile and web apps, and aims to facilitate interoperability and federation.
Mastodon is free and open-source software for running self-hosted social networking services. It has microblogging features similar to Twitter, which are offered by a large number of independently run nodes, known as instances or servers, each with its own code of conduct, terms of service, privacy policy, privacy options, and content moderation policies.
The fediverse is a collection of social networking services that can communicate with each other using a common protocol. Users of different websites can send and receive status updates, multimedia files and other data across the network. The term "fediverse" is a portmanteau of "federation" and "universe".
ActivityPub is an open, decentralized social networking protocol based on Pump.io's ActivityPump protocol. It provides a client/server API for creating, updating, and deleting content, as well as a federated server-to-server API for delivering notifications and content.
Element is a free and open-source software instant messaging client implementing the Matrix protocol.
Pixelfed is a free and open-source image sharing social network service. The platform distinguishes itself from other image sharing services through its decentralized architecture, meaning user data is not stored on a central server. It uses the ActivityPub protocol, allowing users to interact with other social networks within the protocol, such as Mastodon, PeerTube, and Friendica. Pixelfed and other platforms utilizing this protocol are considered to be part of the Fediverse. The network is made up of several independent sites that communicate with one another, which is roughly comparable to e-mail providers. The parties involved do not all have to be registered with the same provider, but can still communicate with each other. Thus, users are able to sign up on any server and follow others on the other instances.
The following is a general comparison of OTP applications that are used to generate one-time passwords for two-factor authentication (2FA) systems using the time-based one-time password (TOTP) or the HMAC-based one-time password (HOTP) algorithms.
In April 2023, the discussion and news aggregation website Reddit announced its intentions to charge for its application programming interface (API), a feature which had been free since 2008, causing a dispute. The move forced multiple third-party applications to shut down and threatened accessibility applications and moderation tools.