This site is currently struggling to handle the amount of new users. I have already upgraded the server, but it will go down regardless if half of Reddit tries to join.
However Lemmy is federated software, meaning you can interact seamlessly with communities on other instances like beehaw.org or lemmy.one. The documentation explains in more detail how this works. Use the instance list to find one where you can register. Then use the Community Browser to find interesting communities. Paste the community url into the search field to follow it.
You can help other Reddit refugees by inviting them to the same Lemmy instance where you joined. This way we can spread the load across many different servers. And users with similar interests will end up together on the same instances. Others on the same instance can also automatically see posts from all the communities that you follow.
Edit: If you moderate a large subreddit, do not link your users directly to lemmy.ml in your announcements. That way the server will only go down sooner.
It's confusing even for me. Do I get to see every post in every instance? Do I get to see all the comments? Do others get to see all of my posts irrespective of their instance? Can I see and interact with all users irrespective of their instance? Can I browse Lemmy if my instance is overloaded? If not, can I seamlessly move to a different instance?
For example, I'm @Technoguyfication, but I also have a mastodon account @Technoguyfication. I can browse Lemmy/Kbin/Mastodon/etc. from any of my accounts, but anything I post or comment will be from the account I'm using at the time.
Wait... So you can actually browse Lemmy from your Mastodon account?! So you can login?
No. You can't login, but you can see posts from Mastodon. For example, when I made my previous comment, I got a notification on Mastodon that I was mentioned in this thread by my kbin account.
This was helpful. Thank you