This site is currently struggling to handle the amount of new users. I have already upgraded the server, but it will go down regardless if half of Reddit tries to join.
However Lemmy is federated software, meaning you can interact seamlessly with communities on other instances like beehaw.org or lemmy.one. The documentation explains in more detail how this works. Use the instance list to find one where you can register. Then use the Community Browser to find interesting communities. Paste the community url into the search field to follow it.
You can help other Reddit refugees by inviting them to the same Lemmy instance where you joined. This way we can spread the load across many different servers. And users with similar interests will end up together on the same instances. Others on the same instance can also automatically see posts from all the communities that you follow.
Edit: If you moderate a large subreddit, do not link your users directly to lemmy.ml in your announcements. That way the server will only go down sooner.
The one which is most relevant to the topic. So slrpnk.net if its an environmentalist subreddit, or feddit.it if its Italian. There are also a number of small general purpose instances around. I won't link anything here or else everyone would link to the same instance and it would also go down.
But linking a specific instance is only shifting the problem away from lemmy.ml though, a large sub could still take that specific instance down.
Isn't there some sort of directory or index which we can link to? I remember seeing it somewhere but not sure if it's "official" or if it can handle Reddit's hug of death.
https://join-lemmy.org/instances