When a lemmy instance federates, does it connect to one big lemmy network, or can there be multiple disconnected, yet locally federated instances? What I’d like to know is, can I simply join any Lemmy server and choose “All” to view everything Lemmy has to offer, or is there still hidden content?
I understand that some servers are unfederated. I guess I’m curious about the reach of the “All” mode.
The way I think it works is that your local instance hosts its own communities, and then it will reach out to other instances to grab content from every external community that at least one local user has subscribed to. “All” mode is limited to that set of content.
So I think the only way to see the entire set of all content on lemmy would be to meticulously subscribe to every single community on every single instance.
And someone can correct me if I’m wrong, but I think you can still subscribe to subs on defederated instances, it’s just the interactions that don’t get passed back and forth.
Interesting. Is there a way to see which servers mine is currently federated with?
Ah, I found the link at the bottom of the main page. I had no idea there were so many instances!
Yes, there can be two or more networks that just about completely defederate each other. However, you can host a Lemmy instance and federate with whomever you see fit unless they block you.
