I‘m not sure if this is the right place to ask this, please excuse if it’s not. As many people rn, I’m new to Lemmy and that’s my first venture into the Fediverse at all. Lemmy is sometimes regarded as an alternative to Reddit (hope this phrasing doesn’t offend anyone here, you know what I mean😅), like Mastodon is to Twitter. I’ve also heard about Kbin but tbh I haven’t looked into that at all so I have no idea what it is about. Also, I read in some comments, that they’re all interconnected the same way different Lemmy instances are. So you have people reading Lemmy content on Mastodon, people reading Kbin content on Lemmy etc. That’s where my confusion comes in: What’s the difference in these types of services then? Is there a reason why I would want create an account on a mastodon instance, if I have a Lemmy account already? (Other than the „I don’t like what the instance I’m currently registered at is doing, so I’m moving somewhere else“, but that could be another Lemmy instance ofc). What is the benefit of switching between/having multiple accounts on these types of platforms? Thank you!

  • Gray@lemmy.ca
    7·
    1 year ago

    The primary reason to have an account with Lemmy, Kbin, or Mastodon as opposed to each other really just comes down to UI preference more than anything else. Which design feels the most clean to you. What special features have the devs built into the platform. That’s really it. Though it’s also worth mentioning that they’re emulating different types of social media. Lemmy and Kbin are emulating the same type - the forum style we recognize from Reddit. Mastodon is emulating the Twitter “microblog” type of social media. Frendica is emulating Facebook. PeerTube is emulating video sharing services like YouTube and so on. So reading Mastodon data in Lemmy would be like trying to read tweets as Reddit threads. It doesn’t transfer very well. As far as I’ve heard, Kbin is trying to create a better way of reading Mastodon style data within their platform. In the long term I’m willing to bet many of these platforms will implement similar cross-functionality for the different “versions” of social media.