Phloating Man

* Find a topic that you are interested in the most using the Lemmy Community-Browser https://browse.feddit.de * It will list the most popular communities (analogous to subreddits) * There may be multiple similar communities on different instances (servers) * Research the different instances to see which one you like the most and sign up for a profile on that instance. That will be your home instance. Some things to keep in mind when researching instances. * Does it allow instant profile creation or do I have to be vetted first? * Do I have the ability to create a community or can admins only do that? * Does the instance allow downvotes? * Has the instance been defederated from other instances? * Does the instance allow NSFW content? * Does the instance have performance issues when there's an influx of users? * Does the instance host controversial communities or admins? * I wouldn't want my profile name to show myname@somehategroupinstance.com * Your profile name can also be seen as a promotion for your home instance. For example, wherever I post shows [@phloatingman@monero.town](https://monero.town/u/phloatingman). People might want to check out my home instance after hovering over my name. After you sign up for a profile on your instance of choice, you can start subscribing to communities. * In one tab, go back to the Lemmy Community-Browser https://browse.feddit.de * In another tab, go to the search section of your home instance * Copy and paste a link from the Lemmy Community-Browser into the search section of your home instance * It may take a few moments before the community will appear on your home instance. * Once it appears, you can subscribe to it. There are 3 options for reading posts. Subscribed, Local, or All. * Subscribed will show you posts from communities that you manually subscribed to. * Local will show you posts from all communities on that instance. * All will show you posts from all the instances that are federated with the instance you are on. Sometimes comments will not show on a post because they haven't been downloaded to your home instance yet. * Click the rainbow fedilink to take you to the instance that hosts the post which should have all the comments. * However, if you want to upvote or reply to that post, you will need to copy and paste the fedilink into your home instance search field.