# Lemmy Quick Start Guide
So you want to join Lemmy and get posting. Great! Here's how to dive straight in.
## Where do I sign up?
The first thing you have to do is **choose your server**. This is an extra step compared to sites like Reddit, but isn’t as difficult as it may seem.
*Like with email, your identity is hosted by the server you sign up on. So for example, I joined lemmy.ml so to mention me you can type @retiolus@lemmy.ml in your post.*
If what you want to talk about most fits into a clear category (maybe it’s video games or art or queer life or coding or fiction, etc) then it might be worth making your first server one where that will primarily host that sort of content – it’ll be easier to make connections and find like-minded folk. Think of your server as a neighbourhood or a venue, where the general chatter can have a specific focus.
*You have the ability to view all public local posts that have been made by people on your server in the “Local” tab.*
If you aren’t here to stick mainly to one topic, you’ll likely want to pick a server that caters to general interests. Either way, there’s a helpful servers list on [join-lemmy.org](https://join-lemmy.org/instances).
**Don’t panic!** You’ll be able to chatter to people on other servers, no matter which one you choose. Remember, this is like email, and you can still email your mum on her ancient Yahoo account from your GMail, for example.
## Knowing your server
Take a moment before registering to check out the rules of your chosen server and make sure they are compatible with how you want to be posting.
Servers usually define their rules in a simple way on the sidebar on the right of the site. From top to bottom, you will usually find the list of "Trending communities" followed by "Subscribed to communities", a brief description of the server, the rules, some stats and the username of the administrators.
Admins are super friendly people who are usually running the server out of their own pocket, so it’s good to get to know them. Many accept donations to cover the running costs and if you’re able to contribute then it’s always appreciated.
## I think I found my new home!
Head to the Login page `(https://your.server/login)` of your server and choose your username and password in the sign up form. You don't need an email to register, but this is the only way to reset your password if you lose it.
Next thing to do is upload your profile picture, give the settings page `(https://your.server/settings)` a good once-over (and do come back to it when you’ve been on Lemmy a week or so just to make any tweaks that might help your experience) and get ready to introduce yourself.
*Some interesting settings worth checking are: your default feed sorting filter between subscribed, local or all and your default sorting type.*
While you can simply enjoy reading Lemmy, the real fun begins as you dive in and start participating yourself by posting, voting and commenting.
To share a post, click the “Create Post” button on the top side of the screen. You’ll be taken to a form where you can enter a URL of the link or upload your image, and input a title and body for the post. You will also need to enter the community where you’d like your post to appear. Before doing so, it’s a good idea to head to that communitie’s page and read the posting guidelines that appear on the right side of the screen. This will ensure you are abiding by the particular ethos of the community. For example, on the [`!privacy@lemmy.ml`](https://lemmy.ml/c/privacy) community, you are not allowed to promote proprietary software.
When all the fields are filled out, click “Create” and your post will go live.
By writing a new post or comment, start typing...
- `@a_user_name` to get a list of usernames.
- `!a_community` to get a list of communities.
- `:emoji` to get a list of emojis.
## A quick tour of the web interface
The standard Lemmy interface has a single feed. You can change the content of the feed by using the filters:
**Subscribed** includes the posts of people on your server and on other servers, all that matters is that it’s community you follow.
**Local** is the feed of all the posts of communities on your server. On many servers, particularly smaller ones and ones focused on a particular topic, this is where the magic happens. You can reply to people from there, and it’s a great place to meet people who share the same interests as you.
**All**, or the **federated timeline**, is a view of all the public posts your servers knows about from across the whole network (including local ones). The most common reason that something appears in the federated timeline is that someone from your server might follow a community that's on another server.
| Type | Description |
| --- | --- |
| Posts | Only displays publications |
| Comments | Displays only comments |
| \-\-\- | \-\-\- |
| Active | Trending sort based on the score, and the most recent comment time. |
| Hot | Trending sort based on the score, and the post creation time. |
| New | The newest items. |
| Most Comments | The posts with the most comments. |
| New Comments | The posts with most recent comments, IE a forum-style sort. |
| Top | The highest scoring items in the given time frame. |
For more detail, check the [Post and Comment Ranking details](https://join-lemmy.org/docs/en/about/ranking.html).
## Using Markdown
Lemmy's posts are done using Markdown, there are of course shortcuts for you to use when writing but here is a table to help you if you want to go further.
Type | Or | … to Get
--- | --- | ---
\*Italic\* | \_Italic\_ | _Italic_
\*\*Bold\*\* | \_\_Bold\_\_ | **Bold**
\# Heading 1 | Heading 1
========= | Heading 1
\## Heading 2 | Heading 2
--------- | Heading 2
\[Link\](http://a.com) | \[Link\]\[1\]
⋮
\[1\]: http://b.org | [Link](https://commonmark.org/)
!\[Image\](http://url/a.png) | !\[Image\]\[1\]
⋮
\[1\]: http://url/b.jpg | 
\> Blockquote | | Blockquote
\* List
\* List
\* List | \- List
\- List
\- List
| * List
* List
* List
1\. One
2\. Two
3\. Three | 1) One
2) Two
3) Three | 1. One
2. Two
3. Three
Horizontal Rule
\--- | Horizontal Rule
\*\*\* | Horizontal Rule
\`Inline code\` with backticks | |`Inline code` with backticks
\`\`\`
\# code block
print '3 backticks or'
print 'indent 4 spaces'
\`\`\` | ····\# code block
····print '3 backticks or'
····print 'indent 4 spaces' | \# code block
print '3 backticks or'
print 'indent 4 spaces'
::: spoiler hidden or nsfw stuff
*a bunch of spoilers here*
::: | | hidden or nsfw stuff
a bunch of spoilers here