I would say it’s more than just the interface that makes Lemmy similar to Reddit. To end users, they are virtually identical services in terms of functionality. Link aggregators with built-in community forums. I think it’s fair to call Lemmy a federated Reddit clone. Not to suggest Reddit invented any of the aforementioned features, just that Lemmy’s implementation of said features is in many ways identical to Reddit’s approach because it was meant to be a Reddit alternative for the fediverse.
Lemmy is similar to sites like Reddit, Lobste.rs, or Hacker News: you subscribe to forums you’re interested in, post links and discussions, then vote, and comment on them.
Link aggregators are a medium, yeah. A social medium, even. Just because the underlying tech is different/better/more interesting etc, the basic user experience (as designed) is much the same.
Federation means the fundamental infrastructure and dependencies are entirely different. Even if the interface may feel similar to you.
I would say it’s more than just the interface that makes Lemmy similar to Reddit. To end users, they are virtually identical services in terms of functionality. Link aggregators with built-in community forums. I think it’s fair to call Lemmy a federated Reddit clone. Not to suggest Reddit invented any of the aforementioned features, just that Lemmy’s implementation of said features is in many ways identical to Reddit’s approach because it was meant to be a Reddit alternative for the fediverse.
Even the official Lemmy git repository compares the project to Reddit:
Link aggregators are a medium, yeah. A social medium, even. Just because the underlying tech is different/better/more interesting etc, the basic user experience (as designed) is much the same.