Hello everyone,
Based on the recent instability of Lemmy.world, a lot of people have been wondering whether they should move to another instance.
I used to look at https://lemmy.fediverse.observer/list and recommend people to pick a generalist instance with as much users as possible (using the 1m column), usually
- lemm.ee
- sh.itjust.works
- sopuli.xyz
- lemmy.one
- reddthat.com
- etc.
Of course, there are also the regional options
And of course, the thematic instances
- programming.dev
- lemmy.blahaj.zone
- discuss.tchncs.de
- lemmy.dbzer0.com
- etc.
I used to recommend the most populated instances, as we know that All depends on users subscribed from the instance.
However, now with the introduction of the Lemmy Community Seeder (https://github.com/Fmstrat/lcs), which
tells your instance to pull the top communities and the communities with the top posts from your favorite instances
do you think this should still apply? I have seen promising instances (high uptime, already on 18.4 that was released today)
- discuss.online
- lemmy.ninja
- unilem.org
- etc.
Would you recommend users to join those as well, assuming that the admins use the LCS to populate the All feed? Most of us remember the Vlemmy.net disappearance, and it’s difficult to tell users to join small instances based on good faith, but at the same time, every instance needs to start somewhere, and they should be given a chance.
What do you think?
High on my list of important attributes is an instance that specifically does not defederate from others. If I see something I don’t want to see anymore I just block it myself. But I’d rather be treated like an adult capable of making my own decisions about what to see and read. If you’re also looking for this I suggest unilem.
Not even the the instances that host outright hatred or drawn CP? Having that federate in is pretty bad.
AFAIK you can’t block an instance from your account. I.e. I like to keep tabs on the invasion of Ukraine, but one of the instances I used to use for that still federates with lemmygrad, so I would get russian propaganda in my feed from time to time. I would block that user, but there would always be another one eventually. I just don’t usually use that instance much any more.
Yeah it’s a pity - I hope the core Lemmy devs can find a way to facilitate personalised instance blocking, but I have a feeling that it’s not as simple as it sounds.
with as much users as possible
Wouldn’t this lead to the same problems lemmy.world is having?
I would recommend choosing based on interests, rules that align with you, proximity to where you live, stuff like that. Population is not a problem, you can still participate everywhere because of federation.
The issues with choosing a small instance (let’s say less than 500 users) is that your All feed would be quite empty, as only communities that people on your instances subscribed to would show up, which is an issues with discoverability of new content.
As I said in the post, the LCS tool can be a mitigation against that.
Otherwise, I generally agree with you
I joined the fediverse a couple months ago, before the reddit protest started, admins of lemmy.ml were asking people to join smaller instances because they were being overloaded.
So an instance with less than 500 users was the parameter I used to choose, that instance was lemmy.world lol, look at where they are now.
I created a second account on lemm.ee only a few days ago for various reason, being populated wasn’t one of them :)
You can lurk all the federation in clients, better choose an instance of your liking and is federated.
I went with Feddit.uk as I am in the UK and it also helps give a more local spin to things because, increasingly, the English-language web seems to default to an American take on things and so going local helps counter that.
Plus uptime is good and the admin has said they will wield the defederation hammer sparingly.
If I were to move instance for some reason, my primary concern would be that they aggressively and pro-actively moderate bigotry of all sorts, rather than "both sides"ing it
Lol I love the duality of lemmy: the first top comment says “the least defederations, the better”, while the second top comment states the exact opposite.
I’m somewhere in-between. Defederation from obvious problematic instances (like lemmygrad, explodingheads etc.) is important, but there’s no need to overdo it.
So…beehaw?
TBF, I have accounts at beehaw, world, and sopuli in addition to kbin. Each one has its own feel, and sometimes I’ll pull one up just based on my mood.
I advertised my instance in a different thread. It’s been almost exclusively a single-user instance, and I use both LCS and Lemmony to federate popular content. I’ve been exceedingly happy with it and don’t plan on going anywhere, so I figured I could handle a few extra users.
So if your criteria include:
- High uptime
- Federation with popular content
- Sensible rules
… feel free to check my instance out. Do note that so far, I’ve only defederated from exploding-heads (right-wing trolls) and threads (preemptively, of course).
I’ll probably cap registrations at 100 users or so, just to make sure my systems can handle the load, then see where things stand.
