Multiple Lemmy Accounts?
Question here from a new Lemmy user-
Is there any point to creating accounts across multiple Lemmy servers? For example if I wanted to claim the same username on a small hobby Lemmy but also a large general purpose one, does it make sense for me to create multiple accounts, or is that just a waste of time/resources?
It's always a good idea to have more than one account in different servers in case one of them goes down, you get banned, etc. It's also a good idea to be in servers running different software. A software may stop being developed altogether (that's not Lemmy case, but has been known to happen) and been on servers running old software can be a security risk.
It would be great if nomadic identity were a possibility in ActivityPub, that will make things much easier, both in terms of posting and moving instances.
At one point I had three accounts but am now down to two. I had one at Kbin.social which was my primary and then I had one specifically for browsing lemmynsfw. When kbin.social started having issues I created my midwest.social account. Kbin.social died so I am now back to two. There is nothing wrong with having a few as a backup if your instance goes down or to see a slightly different feed. I think a lot of people have multiple
Feel free. Different accounts allow different feeds
Wait a minute, you have a lemmy.dbzer0.com account?
That's been my "meta" account for a while now. Really like how @db0@lemmy.dbzer0.com manages the instance, !yepowertrippinbastards@lemmy.dbzer0.com is public service for the whole platform
The chances of you wanting to migrate over the life of the service is high, but if you already know where you want to migrate and have bothered to create an account you should just do it. Like I was forced to migrate from kbin and I haven't migrated to db0 from world yet because I'm too lazy to make an account.
Ah - I get a chance to preach.
I think it makes a lot of sense, and I've been trying to convince people of that since I've been here. It costs nothing and provides benefits, and what more could anyone want?
When I first came to Lemmy, I couldn't figure out any reason to pick one specific instance, and I finally decided that the only way to know if it mattered was to create multiple accounts and compare them. So I did.
I sort of intended to eventually settle on one, but as it turned out, I never really did, and in fact have added a number of accounts since.
The first and most notable thing I discovered is that every instance is different. Unsurprisingly, specialty instances like ani.social and literature.cafe are different from the general instances, but even the general instances differ from each other just depending on which other instances they're federated with and which communities they carry.
I default to All on most instances, and All on lemm.ee, for instance, is significantly different from All on Sopuli, or from All on dbzer0, or from All on Beehaw, and so on. So I can effectively tailor my experience simply by using different accounts.
I generally have about three general accounts that I cycle between, with another few specialty ones - either specialized by topic, like ani.social, or specialized by bias, like .ml. I find that's enough so that pretty much no matter what I'm in the mood for, I have an account that fits.
Additionally, from a more simple practical perspective, instances change over time, and are sometimes shut down entirely. That's never directly affected my experience, since I always have other accounts. So for instance, when .world started to decline, I just stopped using it, and when lemmy.ninja shut down (RIP), I just spent more time on other instances. And as new instances pop up, or just come to my attention, I just make an account, then take them for a test drive and see what I think. I've discovered a number of good instances that way.
So... yeah, I think it makes a lot of sense and it's pretty much effortless and entirely free, so there's no reason not to do it.
How do you manage switching between accounts? I ideally just want one feed.
Some apps have multi–account support, I know Jerboa does
I access lemmy through Firefox, and I just have bookmarks for all of my accounts and have whichever ones I'm using the most pinned. Switching from one to another is just a matter of clicking a link.
I don't know of any way to combine everything into one feed, though I wouldn't be surprised if one or more of the apps will do it. That's exactly the opposite of what I value though - I don't want just one feed - I want whichever feed I happen to be in the mood for at the moment.
Well you might want a separate account for NSFW for example
Instances might come down, or you might be banned from lemmy.ml because you said communism is bad...
You dont even have to say that communism is bad. Saying that Stalin was kinda bad and killed millions of people gets you banned.
I have multiple accounts just for if one instance goes down. It's already helped because my primary instance, Yiffit, closed entirely. I originally joined Lemmy.World and moved to Yiffit because, at the time, World was constantly going down due to the massive influx of users clogging the works.
When I first got involved in this, I had a kbin and a lemmy account. I ended up focusing on the kbin, but it was useful to have the lemmy to see how things moderated. Kbin is dead now, but I still will occasionally use the lemmy to see how things look. I find it valuable. As an mbin person now, I think I should have some other instances in the mix as well. It's a federation, and for me, I would like things to be appropriate for all of us. It's kind of fun! Even if I am not a big user of other instances/federations?
Love your nick lol
Back in the day I had like five Reddit accounts. I still log into one of them sometimes (no it's not my main one, that one turned into obscene invitations for u/spez to bugger himself with a hot poker, I'm not exaggerating).
In case your home instance goes down
If you want to look at things from a different angle, you could also consider signing up for Mbin (fedia.io, kbin.earth) or PieFed (piefed.social, feddit.online).
I guess it might make sense for some people, not for others. It does allow you to see things from a little bit of a different angle, especially in the all feed.
the only reason would be to prevent impersonation
I don't think this is a very strong reason. Anyone can create a new lemmy server and use "your" username. But the post/comment history would be an easy proof who is the "real" user.
I have 2 accounts because I've been here long enough that when I joined servers were a bit unstable. It's up to you honestly, I'm usually a 1 account person but I've met people who have like 10 accounts
It helps to keep a backup account on another instance, in case there is an issue with your main server. You can export your settings and subscriptions from your main account and import to another Lemmy instance.
Moderating across instances hasn't worked well but will be fixed in next release.
I mean if you don't want others to get to it.
Or if say you want to participate on 2 seperate servers that don't federate eachother.
But in general a small hobby lemmy instance, can join all the communities on the large general purpose one. Hence, you are talking from a server I'm not familiar with, and we're talking in a discussion on the largest most general purpose instance.
Only reason I can think of is if you are really worried of people confusing you for say a Deranged_Kermit@lemmy.world, or something.
I think it's a waste of time. It doesn't really add anything. If you don't want to lose your subscription in the unlikely event that your server/instance goes down forever, just use the export feature to make occasional backups. You can always create a new account after something happened. No need to invest that time otherwise.
You're free to use sockpuppets though. Or if you're moderating stuff or participate in instances/communities who don't federate.
I have multiple accounts, but only really for moderation purposes. Cross-instance moderation is semi-broken, so it's easier to do it that way. Other than that, having an alt is useful in case your main instance goes down.
I wouldn't generally worry about impersonation, if someone tries it you could contact the admin of that instance and they're generally pretty responsive.
I don't really see a point from my perspective given how I can access everything short of facist communities.