Editing Lemmy

[[File:Lemmy.svg|thumb|200x200px|Logo]]
'''Lemmy''' is a self-hosted, federated, [[Free and open-source software|free and open source]] social link aggregation and discussion platform.<ref>{{Web citation|title=Lemmy - A link aggregator for the fediverse.|title-url=https://join-lemmy.org/}}</ref> It was named after the lead singer from Motörhead, the old video game Lemmings, the Koopa Troopa from the Super Mario series, and the furry rodent.

The source code for Lemmy is hosted on yerbamate.ml and GitHub. Lemmy is licensed under the Affero GNU Public License version 3.

== History ==

=== Formation ===
Lemmy was created in August 2019 by two [[Communism|communist]] developers known as [[Comrade:Dessalines|Dessalines]] and Nutomic. Their goal for Lemmy was to provide an open-source alternative to [[Reddit]] that anyone could self-host and federate with other Lemmy instances, effectively exchanging content between platforms.

=== Growth ===
[[File:Lemmy posts graph.png|thumb|The total number of daily posts on all Lemmy instances grew by almost 500% from late May 2023 to late July 2023]]
In the summer of 2023, Reddit increased its API prices, which destroyed third party apps and made many users defect to Lemmy.<ref>{{Web citation|author=@CriticalResist8|newspaper=Lemmygrad: Announcements|title=Please note Lemmygrad is a Marxist instance (principally Marxist-Leninist)!|date=2023-05-31|url=https://lemmygrad.ml/post/668436|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230608014753/https://lemmygrad.ml/post/668436|archive-date=2023-06-08|retrieved=2023-06-15}}</ref> Between June 1 and July 1, the number of active users in the past month increased from 1,334 to 50,961, an increase of more than 38 times. During the same period, the number of daily posts rose from 261,601 to 877,571.<ref>{{Web citation|newspaper=Fediverse Observer|title=Stats for Lemmy|url=https://lemmy.fediverse.observer/dailystats&days=60|retrieved=2023-07-01}}</ref>

== Federation ==
Lemmy is part of what is known as the Fediverse, a movement to make the web free, open source, and federated. Free can be understood as free in price as well as free from giant tech corporations such as [[Google Inc.|Google]], [[Meta Platforms, Inc.|Meta (Facebook)]], and [[Twitter]].

Federation allows an account made on one instance (one website using the Lemmy software) to interact in every way with another instance from their home instance.

Instances can block federation or individual instances if they do not wish to federate with them.

Since late 2021, Lemmy instances can also communicate with [[Mastodon]] (a federated micro-blogging software alternative to Twitter) and PeerTube (a federated video hosting platform, alternative to [[YouTube]]). This means that a user with a Lemmy account can subscribe to Mastodon accounts and see their content without ever leaving their home Lemmy instance.

== Instances ==
As of 19 September 2024, there are 632 total instances of Lemmy<ref name=":0">{{Web citation|newspaper=Lemmy Explorer|title=Instances|url=https://lemmyverse.net|retrieved=2024-09-19}}</ref> with 46,963 active monthly users and 1.46 million total user accounts.<ref>{{Web citation|newspaper=Fediverse Observer|title=Stats for Lemmy|url=https://lemmy.fediverse.observer/dailystats|archive-date=2024-09-19}}</ref> The openly leftist instances Hexbear and Lemmygrad are the sixth and 13th most popular in terms of monthly active users, respectively.<ref name=":0" />
{| class="wikitable"
!Instance
!Monthly active users
!Percentage of total active users
|-
|lemmy.world
|17,900
|38.1%
|-
|lemmynsfw.com
|3,400
|7.2%
|-
|lemm.ee
|3,200
|6.8%
|-
|sh.itjust.works
|2,500
|5.3%
|-
|lemmy.ml
|2,300
|4.9%
|-
|hexbear.net
|1,800
|3.8%
|-
|lemmygrad.ml
|555
|1.2%
|}

== See also ==

* [[Lemmygrad]]

== External links ==

* [https://yerbamate.ml/LemmyNet/lemmy Yerbamate source code]
* [https://github.com/LemmyNet/lemmy GitHub source code]
* [https://yerbamate.ml/LemmyNet/lemmy/src/branch/main/LICENSE Licensing]

==References==
<references />

[[Category:Alternative social media platforms]]
[[Category:Free and open-source software]]