What are your criteria for choosing an instance other than Lemmy.world?

Blaze (he/him)@sopuli.xyz to Fediverse@lemmy.ml – 118 points –

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

  • feddit.de
  • lemmy.ca
  • aussie.zone
  • feddit.nl
  • feddit.uk
  • midwest.social
  • etc.

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?

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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.

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

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.