dmv.social runs Lemmy, a forum software that allows you to access communities regardless of the server you’re on (in most cases).

While dmv.social focuses on hosting communities pertinent to DC, MD, and VA, many other Lemmy servers exist that host content that span a wide range of hobbies and interests. Your dmv.social account lets you access these communities.

The instructions below will walk you through a few ways to find and join communities.

Lemmy is still a bit rough around the edges, so this process may be a little difficult. If you need help, reach out for support via the methods in the sidebar.

Local Communities

dmv.social hosts a number of communities for various regions around the DC-MD-VA area, as well as local interests.

1. Click the Communities link
2. Click the “Local” tab
3. Browse around and click “Subscribe” for anything that interests you.

Communities Other dmv.social Users Use

Other users on dmv.social have already subscribed to some communities on other Lemmy instances. These can provide a good starting point to finding something you’re interested in.

1. Click the Communities link
2. Click the “All” tab
3. Browse around and click “Subscribe” for anything that interests you.

Please note, communities with 0 subscribers may only have a few posts or very old posts. This is expected. dmv.social only downloads posts from communities with at least 1 subscriber.

Communities similar to Subreddits

sub.rehab contains a list of communities that may have content similar to various subreddits.

1. Let’s set our home instance to dmv.social by going to the sub.rehab Settings
2. Set “Home Instance” to “Enabled”
3. Click the Instance dropdown and select custom
4. In the Custom Instance text box, type dmv.social/c/
5. Now search for communities. Make sure you only select “lemmy” and “kbin” for the service type.
6. Click any community to load it on dmv.social. If an error comes up, refresh the page since it may take a few seconds to download posts in the background.
7. Click Subscribe on the right side.

Communities on other Lemmy Servers (the easy way!)

A few Lemmy search engines exist that list communities across all Lemmy instances. Below will contain instructions to use a few services we like.

lemmyverse.net

lemmyverse.net shows a lot of communities with a basic search and count of subscribers/posts.

1. Go to lemmyverse.net communities
2. Click the “Home” icon on the top right
3. Click “Select a Home Instance” and type dmv.social
4. Search for communities using the bar on the top left.
5. Click any community to load it on dmv.social. If an error comes up, refresh the page since it may take a few seconds to download posts in the background.
6. Click Subscribe on the right side.

Communities on other Lemmy Servers (for advanced users!)

Right now the flow to find and join communities hosted elsewhere is very, very rough. Please consider using a method above. This process is for if you already know of another Lemmy instance and want to join a community hosted elsewhere.

Some popular servers include:

• lemmy.world
• beehaw.org
• lemm.ee

First, let’s walk you through finding a community:

1. Go to a Lemmy instance
2. Click on the Communities link at the top of the page
3. Click the “Local” tab
4. Search using the search box for words about the topic you’re interested in.
5. Click the community name to view it.

Now let’s walk you through joining:

1. On the sidebar of the community, look for text saying You are not logged in. However you can subscribe from another Fediverse account, for example Lemmy or Mastodon. To do this, paste the following into the search field of your instance:
2. Copy the “!community@server.org” to your clipboard
3. Come back to dmv.social, click the “Search” button at the top right.
4. Paste the “!community@server.org” into the “Search…” box
5. Click Search, wait a few seconds. If nothing comes up, click Search a few times, it may take a few moments to download content from the community.
6. Click the community’s name, you should see posts
7. Click “Subscribe”.