I've been mucking about with the new claude.ai from anthropic, and thought I would ask it - here's what it said:

Y

Yes, it is possible to set up a private Lemmy instance for use within a group of friends. Here are some steps to do this:

1. Install Lemmy on a server you control. Lemmy is open source software written in Rust. You'll need a Linux server with Rust installed to run it.

2. Configure the Lemmy config file. Set the following options:

• federated_timeline_enabled - false
• registration_open - false
• external_federation_enabled - false
  This will disable public federated timelines and open registration.

1. Create user accounts manually. As an admin, you can create accounts for each of your friends on the Lemmy admin interface.

2. Consider enabling SSL. It's recommended to enable HTTPS encryption on your Lemmy instance. You can get a free SSL certificate from Let's Encrypt.

3. Share the URL only with friends. Don't publish the URL publicly, only share with your intended friend group.

4. Lock down the server access. Use firewall rules, VPN, or IP whitelisting to restrict access to the server.

5. Keep Lemmy updated. Watch for security updates and upgrade Lemmy regularly to stay safe.

6. Consider private federation. You could federate multiple private Lemmy instances to allow a broader reach while still keeping everything private.

That covers the basics! With those steps, you can have a private Lemmy server for your friend group to use.