I want to see a list for each popular server (e.g. the top 10 lemmy instances) and I want to see - for each instance - with whom they federate. How can I do this? Any sure-fire way to know if a instance like HexBear.net is being federated with lemmy.world? How do you know?
Go to the bottom of any page and there by the link to the modlog is a link “Instances”. That’s a long list of all instances that server is federated or defederated with. (It’s actually kind of disturbing how many federated instances there are that don’t seem to be active - possibly just slurping data? But that’s a different story).
Anyway, scroll down and make sure the whole page loaded, then search for the name of the one you’re looking for in your browser, and see if it’s on the federated or defederated list (Linked Instances vs. Blocked Instances).
Many of the inactive instances are probably from people who tried self hosting and then gave up. Just my theory.
I’m sure. I don’t know what the software does if an instance is active for a few days, then goes offline and doesn’t come back. It stays on the federation list, i presume? Probably a fair amount are also personal instances with 2-3 accounts.
I’m pretty sure it sticks around forever, I clicked on a few without “software” or “verison” filled in at random and most 404’d or 503’d.
While this answers the question about federation, you probably need to know that communities from other insurance will only start showing in /all once the first local user subscribes there.
