Lemmy has been around longer, so it is probably more robust, but Kbin has more features, including the ability to follow individual users across the 'verse, and has support for a number of Fedi groups, including Friendica Forums and Guppe Groups, that Lemmy has no support for.
It is its own community that happens to be federated with Lemmy and Mastodon. You can toggle federation on and off, and when off, you only see kbin's material. Otherwise it functionally acts like another lemmy instance, with a different interface and features missing from base lemmy.
There is also a microblog attached to it that connects with Mastodon in the same way. Each community has its own microblog that acts as a hashtag when on Mastodon.
And Lemmy, they all talk to each other via ActivityPub. There's a number of commenters in this thread that are commenting from Mastodon and Kbin (like yourself) while I'm on Lemmy.
They are different platforms, you can access Lemmy communities from Kbin, where it looks just like a kbin magazine, or from Friendica, where it looks just like a Friendica Forum, of from Mastodon, where it looks like an annoying bot that re-posts every comment as a separate Re-toot.
There are many other Fediverse platforms but those are the ones I have the most experience with.
What's the difference between kbin and lemmy?
They're both Reddit-esque Fediverse platforms, but are developed and maintained by different people.
I thought kbin was more like Mastodon, but maybe I'm confusing it with something else.
Huh, maybe I'll look into it
Lemmy has been around longer, so it is probably more robust, but Kbin has more features, including the ability to follow individual users across the 'verse, and has support for a number of Fedi groups, including Friendica Forums and Guppe Groups, that Lemmy has no support for.
Kbin is basically lemmy plus mastodon.
It is its own community that happens to be federated with Lemmy and Mastodon. You can toggle federation on and off, and when off, you only see kbin's material. Otherwise it functionally acts like another lemmy instance, with a different interface and features missing from base lemmy.
There is also a microblog attached to it that connects with Mastodon in the same way. Each community has its own microblog that acts as a hashtag when on Mastodon.
i'm pretty sure when federation is off it also means you won't see other kbin instances, just your own
This I didn't know. So posting a comment on the microblog will make it visible to Mastodon as well?
This is where I link my own post from a few days ago - but basically to say kbin is actually a very good way to browse Mastodon "Toots", and yes you can post just as easily too.
https://kbin.social/m/fediverse/t/275724/Browsing-the-wider-fediverse-from-kbin
And Lemmy, they all talk to each other via ActivityPub. There's a number of commenters in this thread that are commenting from Mastodon and Kbin (like yourself) while I'm on Lemmy.
Lemmy isn't designed to access microblogs or follow individual users though, so you'd probably never see it from Lemmy.
They are different platforms, you can access Lemmy communities from Kbin, where it looks just like a kbin magazine, or from Friendica, where it looks just like a Friendica Forum, of from Mastodon, where it looks like an annoying bot that re-posts every comment as a separate Re-toot.
There are many other Fediverse platforms but those are the ones I have the most experience with.
Interesting. I haven't yet seen actual federation. (That I was aware of, anyway.)
How would I access something on Mastodon from Lemmy (for example)?