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

Of course, there are also the regional options

And of course, the thematic instances

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)

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?

  • maporita@unilem.org
    377·
    11 months ago

    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.

      • maporita@unilem.org
        4·
        11 months ago

        No illegal content so definitely no CP. I believe that hate speech is banned of it meets the threshold of incitement to violence.

    • loops@lemmy.mlEnglish
      81·
      11 months ago

      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.

  • Ulu-Mulu-no-die@lemm.eeEnglish
    18·
    11 months ago

    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.

    • Blaze@sopuli.xyzOP
      64·
      11 months ago

      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

      • Ulu-Mulu-no-die@lemm.eeEnglish
        12·
        11 months ago

        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 :)

      • guts@lemmy.ml
        1·
        11 months ago

        You can lurk all the federation in clients, better choose an instance of your liking and is federated.

        • Blaze@sopuli.xyzOP
          1·
          11 months ago

          That’s what I did, but some users are really afraid of having to change instances

  • frozen@lemmy.frozeninferno.xyz
    192·
    11 months ago

    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.

  • ᴇᴍᴘᴇʀᴏʀ 帝@feddit.ukEnglish
    171·
    11 months ago

    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.

  • Ada@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
    193·
    11 months ago

    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

      • stebo@lemmy.dbzer0.com
        9·
        11 months ago

        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.

  • xapr@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
    15·
    11 months ago

    My three top criteria for picking an instance were:

    1. Little to no defederation issues, in either direction.
    2. Likely to stick around for the long term.
    3. Relatively small.
  • chrisbit@leminal.spaceEnglish
    151·
    11 months ago

    I’m the admin of mine. Why? Because I enjoy doing, it’s in the spirit of decentralisation, and I didn’t want to risk being part of an instance that defederates from leftist instances like Lemmygrad or Hexbear. I only intend to proactively defederate from fascist and troll instances, and NSFW to reduce legal drama.

    • guts@lemmy.ml
      3·
      11 months ago

      And this is the big advantage of Lemmy being decentralized, people don’t need to choose an instance with your political idiology.

        • kd637_mi@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
          32·
          11 months ago

          Hell yeah, I’m concerned that if SDF decides to block instance they will include Lemmygrad and Hexbear so I might make an account on yours. I assume you’re defederated from stuff like exploding heads, rammy, and burggitt?

          Actually just checked your list, perfect blocked instances list and absolutely sick instance theme. Love it. I’m in 😎

            • kd637_mi@leminal.spaceEnglish
              21·
              11 months ago

              Alright, I’m here. Also I would recommend including a link to lemmyverse.net as well as the feddit browser in the sidebar. Feddit hasn’t shown some Lemmygrad stuff for me before.

                • kd637_mi@leminal.spaceEnglish
                  11·
                  11 months ago

                  Also I’d recommend blocking the lemmit.online instance, it’s just bot spam. I block the bot itself so it doesn’t worry me but for newer uses it can flood the all feed.

    • trimmerfrost@lemm.ee
      220·
      11 months ago

      “I don’t defederate from leftist instances, but do from rightist instances”. Okay

      • Thaolin@sh.itjust.works
        4·
        11 months ago

        It frequently does sadly. it’s run by one guy and I think it is starting to cost quite a bit to host. I’m pretty sure it’s hosted in Canada and our Internet and hosting costs here are asinine.

  • circuitfarmer@lemmy.sdf.org
    9·
    11 months ago

    I like having an instance with local communities that match some of my interests. I also tried to find one a little more niche, but not so small as to be run out of someone’s closet. And of course, always donate to your home instance. Bandwidth doesn’t grow on trees!

    On the privacy side, it was also important to me to have an instance that didn’t want my email address.

    • pomodoro_longbreak@sh.itjust.works
      6·
      11 months ago

      always donate to your home instance

      Couldn’t agree more. I treat this as a rule across the fediverse. Hell I spend more time on various fedi platforms than I do playing video games, so I may as well put my money where my mouth is

  • NightOwl@lemmy.oneEnglish
    8·
    11 months ago

    I went with lemmy.one because of privacyguides from reddit, and I liked that the move of actually being serious about the protest by making an alternative to move away from. Very few of the subreddits I subscribed to ever decided to make an instance or a fediverse community, so lemmy.one was what I defaulted to in the beginning. Since then Android has made an instance too, so that’d be my second choice. Anyways, that’s how I decided by going with what I was familiar with.

  • unix84@lemmy.sdf.org
    8·
    11 months ago

    I started with lemmy.ml because I didn’t know what other server to use.

    Then I found out that SDF, which I’ve used since 2000 or so, was hosting its own Lemmy instance. Since I’ve already been in that community for decades, I migrated my lemmy there.

    Beehaw is really nice as well, that is where my spouse, who has zero Fediverse time, joined.

    • Blaze@sopuli.xyzOP
      3·
      11 months ago

      SDF is indeed a nice community.

      The issue with Beehaw is their defederation from Lemmy.world and sh.itjust.works, which prevents accessing some communities (even though I’m not a 100% if it’s bidirectional or only one way)

  • gabe [he/him]@literature.cafe
    7·
    11 months ago

    There’s also the niche hobby based instances. Such as the TTRPG, pathfinder, startrek, etc. (There’s also mine for books & writing…)

  • deFrisselle@lemmy.sdf.org
    7·
    11 months ago

    My Mastodon account is on mastodon.sdf.org When the whole Reddit-o-pocalypse went down SDF spun up a Lemmy instance a few days later I asked to join They now have a handful of Lemmy instances regionally