Lemmy.ml and lemmygrad as well as tech.de (or something similar) I might host myself sometime later. I was on mastodont a while before , went back and tired of proprietary again. This time I am thoroughly fed up and will stay.

For me defederation is good. I see the problem with filterbubbles but I'm to old for this shit. I rather be in my bubble.

I'm on sh.itjust.works. Not gonna lie, related to that name naturally.

1. Googled "Lemmy" to see what it even is
2. "wtf is an instance"
3. Checked some of the most used instances. At this point I wasn't sure if it matters much, but I just figured it's best to just pick a popular instance.
4. found lemmy.world, and the description goes "The World's Internet Frontpage - Lemmy.world is a general-purpose Lemmy instance of various topics, for the entire world to use."
5. "sounds good enough", created account

All that matters is you shouldn't recommend the already massive overloaded servers like lemmy.world when lemmy isn't even optimized for this sort of traffic on a single server yet, and those large servers are having issues because of it. The entire point of decentralization is to spread out and still be connected.

Recommend smaller general servers that have been up for years and also upgraded for the surge of users, like lemmy.one, lemm.ee, or vlemmy.net

There is several of factors you should consider:

• Does it have a healthy amount of users: between 1k-10k users are probably the sweet spot right now. You don't want too many users because it will cause performance problems. And instances with too few users has too many unknowns.

• read the rules see if you agree: servers can have wildy different rules ranging from no NSFW to no downvotes. If they don't have any rules that is a red flag too. You want an active moderation so the instance doesn't get run over by bots.

• Does it look low effort: check the banner, how the announcement formatted.

That is probably all the basics

Feddit.de because Deutschsprachig and I loved Reddit, but would love to see a successfully federated version of it.

I'm on Feddit.de because it was recommended to me by join-lemmy.org and I like to have a server that has a German speaking Focus in the local feed.

I created it myself.

Consider this a test to see if the federation works :)

I registered during very early days, so I signed up for the instance run by devs because there wasn't much choice. Today I would choose a smaller one

I chose lemm.ee because:

1. Its admin @sunaurus@lemm.ee has been working hard at improving the instance's performance and fixing issues.
2. It has been relatively smooth and performant since the infrastructure upgrade.
3. The domain name is cleverly satisfying.

I'm on lemmy.sdf.org because it's widely federated and run by a trustworthy organization.

I'm not much of a tech bro - in fact I struggle with troubleshooting basic Linux issues. That's why I mostly interact outside of my local instance.

I hardly engage with the techy discussion on SDF, but I appreciate the high quality user base.

I'm the admin :p

Lemmy.world here cause it seemed to be one of the top guns, and thought it mattered in the sense that I would see more content. But after learning about the fediverse I'll most likely host my own instance soon 🤘

I didn't know what I was doing so I chose at random.

Idk, because why not Estonia.

I'm a dirty hippy and slrpnk.net seemed like a server for other dirty hippies

Yeah it does kinda matter, which is problematic for onboarding new users. Personally:

• I read the rules/TOS.
• I checked the Instances page to make sure instances I wanted to access were linked and not blocked.
• I looked for any introduction posts to see what the backend infrastructure was like.
• I checked the username I wanted was available.

It should not be that complicated, but it also has to be unfortunately. I had to make sure all those things matched what I personally wanted. This much choice is great for heavily-invested tech nerds with free time but sucks for anyone else wanting to join in.

I like the short and aesthetic of the domain name lemm.ee

Shorter domains the better I say! (usually)

The Admin of my instance (discuss.tchncs.de) is tolerant but understands the tolerance paradox. (Defderated with exploding heads but not every left instance - doesn't fall for false balance.

Also he was fast with approving new accounts.

I googled Lemmy and signed up to the first result, not knowing what instances were back then.

I'd heard you shouldn't pick one of the largest, I explicitly didn't want a server run by Nazis, Paleolibertarians, or Marxist-Leninists, and I didn't mind the rules here.

I chose Aussie.zone cause I'm out of touch with my own country so seeing the news here is nice and cause I thought it would be easier to join a country instance.

Also optional email and I know I could make a temp email but I can't be bothered.

It doesn't but I thought it did

I joined the one hosted by my country's community. The community is really great.

Made one on lemmy.world but it's crumbling under the pressure as we speak. Tried a local one, but it has like 5 users. Don't trust it to live long enough. So started using the star trek one, because star trek. Not as if you'd need any other reason

lemm.ee because of speed and latest version of Lemmy. Less problems, good experience 🙂

Lemmy.world because lemmy.ML recommended it when I tried to sign up there. I’m considering moving to a smaller server though since this one seems to be getting overloaded.

Google search. I had no clue about multiple instances. Search lemmy on Google and first link was for lemmy.ml domain so that's how I am here.

I chose Lemmy.world, because it was the one I was hearing the most about. It's a bit slow at the moment, but that's not surprising, given the amount of new users. So far it's been fun. I really hope more and more people show up!

Because of nationality

I picked sh.itjust.works because it's Canadian and the domain name is nerdy enough. It seems to be a decent instance, although I'll move if I stop liking it.

Does it matter? With all of the defederation drama, I think it does. If your instance is quick to drop others, it seems like you'll lose content.

AFAIU we're still federated with some of the douchier instances and I appreciate seeing their memes and posts. Not because they're entertaining, but because it's easier to understand the asshats. When they creep into racism/phobias/hate I'll be fine seeing them go.

The list of blocked instances made me switch from feddit.de to the current instance I'm using.

Tried lemmy.world as a reddit refugee but with the performance issues they're experiencing, quickly went looking for another instance with better performance and a decent amount of extra content. Lemmy.ml is blocked at work (.ml TLD is freenom so prone to abuse) and registration is closed anyway, so decided on lemm.ee.

Far better speed, a good amount of content locally, and few/no errors at the moment.

The one I use doesn't block other instances, although I probably will block the same instances and people that big instances already block, I want to be the one to make that choice and shape the content I see.

Because I'm a furry. obligatory OwO

Feddit.uk - I figure regionality has benefit in keeping loads more spread, plus it hosts some good communities and a cute name.

I'm in Canada, so I'm using and supporting Lemmy.ca

One of the points of using a distributed system is to not centralize the userbase.

I also have a account on lemmynsfw but that's just for research purposes.

It has the word world in the name, sounds bigger.

Went Lemmy.world because I had no idea how any of this worked.

Gonna stick with it for now, because there isn’t really a reason to switch. In the future I might switch or host my own.