Instructions for running your own lemmy instance.

For the moment, lemmy.ml is using an explicit allowlist for instances we federate with. If you currently run an instance, and would like to be added to join.lemmy.ml:

  • Let us know either on !lemmy_instances, or commenting here.
  • We’ll add you to our allowlist.
  • Add this block to your server’s lemmy.hjson config (for open federation):
federation: {
  enabled: true
  tls_enabled: true
  # allowed_instances: lemmy.ml,other_instance.tld,... uncomment this to use an allowlist
}
  • Type !announcements@lemmy.ml into your server’s search box, and subscribe to it to connect the two instances.
  • @abbenm@lemmy.ml
    1•3 years ago

    Awesome!

    Regardless of whether it’s wanted or not, I bet this will be regarded as the flagship instance, and choices made for who gets on the allow list will serve to set a precedent that others may follow in how they decide to federate.

    I’ve always said I thought the Nutomic did a great job setting the tone for what was and wasn’t expected/allowed here, and I think it carries on the very excellent standard set by other activitypub projects like Mastodon and Funkwhale in terms of not being open to toxicity. I think the allow list can help with that as well in terms of setting a standard.

    • dandelion
      1•3 years ago

      Maybe good to post in /c/lemmy ? Are you using dynamic IP or does the site go off-line sometimes ?

      • @Jojonintendo@lemmy.ml
        2•3 years ago

        The IP is dynamic and updated with nsupdate, via my OpenWrt router. But for now it’s mostly under heavy testing from my side (I want many services to be running on this Rock64), so it’s mostly offline for now.

    • DessalinesOPM
      1•2 years ago

      It’ll get added automatically the next time we deploy joinlemmy, which should be soon.

  • @sgornick@lemmy.ml
    1•2 years ago

    Maybe I’m missing a basic concept on Federation. I was assuming that the federation feature would allow a user on another instance (e.g., on Baraza.africa) to post on Lemmy.ml.

    Here are two posts that Baraza.Africa shows as being posted to c/bitcoin: https://baraza.africa/c/bitcoin@lemmy.ml

    However, on !bitcoin@lemmy.ml, those posts do not show. https://lemmy.ml/c/bitcoin/data_type/Post/sort/New/page/1

    Is that correct, expected behavior?

  • Bilb!
    0•3 years ago

    Does it make sense to use a single-user instance like I do with pleroma? Probably not at this stage since it would require manual whitelisting, right?

    • DessalinesOPM
      0•3 years ago

      You could I guess, but it’d be a bit weird since lemmy is built around communities.

      • Bilb!
        1•3 years ago

        In a hypothetical future world where there are many vibrant lemmy communities, a person with their own instance could participate in each without their identity being tied to an instance owned by someone else. You could also host a com related to a project you maintain that would be open to lemmy users form other instances, etc.

        There is also the problem of having your federation choices made for you. If you use a federation instance with good moderation policies, they also likely do not federate with instances that do not. That’s perfectly understandable and I support any instance owner doing that, but I would prefer to make those choices myself.

        At this point it might be premature, but maybe this is a use case you want someone kicking the tires on.

  • Ravn
    0•3 years ago

    Great work getting to this point!

    Two questions:

    1. How do I find federated content? I browse all but see only local posts.
    2. Can I browse remote communities somehow?
    • DessalinesOPM
      1•3 years ago
      1. You can’t see the remote communities unless you go to that site and browse their community list. But after anyone on your instance has subscribed to it (you do that by typing in !community_name@instance.tld into your server’s search box, and subscribing), then those posts will show up in All.

      We decided to make Local the default tho, because once this grows, there will likely be lots of spam in All just like mastodon. And of course you can set your default view to Subscribed, Local, or All in your user settings.

      1. Change your user settings to view All by default, or just click All on the front page to see federated posts.
      • @RandomSovietKid@lemmygrad.ml
        1•3 years ago

        Are there any plans to make it possible to browse a remote instance’s community list without going to their site? That would make finding and subscribing to remote communities much more convenient IMO.

    • RamEnglish
      2•10 months ago

      It looks like you already have federation enabled, but if you’re having troubles you’re probably best off going to [the support community for assistance at !lemmy_support@lemmy.ml

        • @phoenix591@lemmy.phoenix591.comEnglish
          2•10 months ago

          they moved away from the allowlist and now only block some. federation with my own instance just worked after I got updated to 0.18.1 and adjusted my nginx config

            • @phoenix591@lemmy.phoenix591.comEnglish
              1•10 months ago

              part of it was http signature expiration, showed up as

              WARN Error encountered while processing the incoming HTTP request: lemmy_server::root_span_builder: Header is expired
  0: lemmy_server::root_span_builder::HTTP request
            with http.method=POST http.scheme="http" http.host=mylemmyinstance.com http.target=/inbox otel.kind="server" request_id=453c8a92-7bb5-4b7e-a4ad-212e91167d4e http.status_code=400 otel.status_code="OK"
         at src/root_span_builder.rs:16
 LemmyError { message: None, inner: Header is expired, context: "SpanTrace" }

              in the logs, and that was fixed

              the other part was some nginx config changes

              • @SynapticOddity@lemmy.mlEnglish
                1•10 months ago

                Brilliant. i think both were fixed with the ansible update. Thanks for helping out phoenix!

                Not sure if you are also knowledgeable about wefwef, I have another question: I have installed wefwef on my host. Works great! Except I can’t get watchtower to update it. I have to do a manual restart of the wefwef constrained every time. I’ve tried to increase the wait time, but no luck. Any tips?