Picking an instance

After spending a few days learning about lemmy and other fediverse websites, I was curious about people's processes for picking a server that is right for them. I've seen most posts say to pick one that is not too big or small and that has similar interests as yourself. But if we are all mostly federated, doesn't it make the most sense to join the biggest or likeliest server to stay around and federated with the most other servers? Then you can just travel to the instances you share interests in. I chose this instance because you could just sign up and be in it, and that was all I needed to check things out. And although I found many communities in other instances, even if let's say all of my subscribed communities are on other instances, doesn't it make sense to just stay here so long as they are federated with sh.itjust.works? It may be too early to know for sure, but it seems like this instance is going to stick around for the foreseeable future, why risk joining the smaller instances that might not be here for long. Also, if you have subscribed communities in several instances, I assume you have to follow all the different server's rules. I'd be curious to hear other people's thoughts in regards to picking a home instance.

Edit: Are there any restrictions to interacting with communities on other instances?

Seraph089,

Because of federation, I just didn't think about it too hard. I clicked on Sh.itjust.works because the name made me giggle when I saw it, and signed up immediately because the first post I saw was the boss sharing server stats and being totally transparent about operations and intentions. At the time, it was one of the smaller instances that might not last.

Choosing "wrong" never seemed like a big deal, it's not hard to start fresh somewhere else if needed.

Faendol,

I honestly picked this one purely because it was performant on the day I switched from Reddit. Thankfully I've ended out really liking the direction it's going in too. I wouldn't be too worried about picking the right instance, just look for one you generally agree with the moderation and pick it. You can always switch to another one or have multiple accounts.

Kecessa, (edited )

If instance X is federated with Y but not Z and instance Y and Z are federated with everyone. In that example people from Z can reply to posts on X or Y but only people from Y and Z will see the comments and (that's the part I'm not clear about) people from X could still reply on Z and everyone would see their comments.

That's how I understand it anyway.

Denali,
Denali avatar

Just use kbin it's way better

IntlLawGnome,
IntlLawGnome avatar

Doesn't really solve the question of "how do I pick an instance," just substitutes one set of instances for another

Denali,
Denali avatar

Kbin is really only one instance (kbin.social - the only alternatives are alt language instances, I think?) so just use kbin social because it's 100% unfettered access then sub to what you want and block what you don't. It's just like Reddit/Twitter and it's nice not having head mods rule what you can and can't see

IntlLawGnome,
IntlLawGnome avatar

Kbin is really only one instance (kbin.social - the only alternatives are alt language instances, I think?

Nah, there are like two dozen instances that are still accepting signups, and most of them are not language-specific in any respect.

Denali,
Denali avatar

It's just whatever vanity url you want then, no? Just like an email service. They're not all that different, but no one want to be a (@)yahoo.com - same shit

namesare4squares,
namesare4squares avatar

There’s definitely other instances that are English language now, fwiw.

https://fedia.io comes to mind, at least. I’ve seen a few others floating around.

Denali,
Denali avatar

Sick, I didn't know that thanks. They all still seem to be mostly vanity urls and not moderation like beehaw though

lohrun,

My instance is one of the newer ones that are English language and is open for user sign ups. It feels weird “advertising” my own instance but I did make it to share the load with the others. Check out https://fediverse.boo as well!

I’m in the kbin social matrix chat with the main dev and some of the other instance admins. Thing’s definitely are looking more and more promising on the kbin side of things.

sj_zero,

I run my own services then just use federation to connect with many different instances. That way my instances stay up as long as I want them, and I can participate on my own terms without someone else telling me how I'm allowed to exist on the internet.

Only decentralization will prevent the platform from being broken by a few bad actors.

Morcyphr,

My process was searching for a reddit alternative, finding Lemmy (generic) and somehow getting redirected to Lemmy.one sign up. I may make an account on another instance as Lemmy.one has community creation by users disabled but community creation isn't my motivation right now.

asimplefriedegg,
@asimplefriedegg@yiffit.net avatar

It was important for me to pick an instance that allowed nsfw content fairly liberally so I could post/share art I make. I also personally like to be able to talk to the server owner and didn't see having to be given access as a downside

Guncle,

NSFW friendly content is a big factor for sure. I've seen a few complaints about hiding nsfw content not working too well, so it seems many servers are totally against it. I hope that gets straightened out soon.

mnemonicmonkeys,

Personally, I think that concern is a bit odd. I have 2 reddit accounts, one normal and one NSFW. I've already started the same on Lemmy. If someone is trying to cram both onto one feed that's kinda on them imo

mrmanager,
@mrmanager@lemmy.today avatar

I would not want to moderate porn, that's for sure.

Zaphodquixote,
@Zaphodquixote@sh.itjust.works avatar

Why are you only picking one?

Federate yo shit, homie! There's no down side to checking them out.

Guncle,

I only have one lemmy account right now, but I'm definitely open to trying out other instances, I'm just not sure what the point is as long as you're not stuck on one that has been blocked by several others. I've subscribed to many communities across several instances. It seems to me aside from making sure you don't end up on a blocked server, you just want to make sure you pick a server that is in it for the long haul. From what I can tell you're also on sh.itjust.works, but have you tried making an account on any other servers?

jerrimu,

I just picked the first one that let me in on the list. Federation is not as tight as I had imagined. I’ve been using mastodon for a few months only got here in the 12th.

freeman,

I avoided the bigger ones because they seemed to be under the heaviest load and thus most buggy/quirky.

I also wanted one to be more apolitical. So I went there first. Then that one had a multi-day outage. Then tried kbin but became flustered by its own immaturity (code wise) and struggles.

Eventually I just built my own instance.

@OP. Id pick an instance mostly open and federated with the larger communities. Even smaller instances are good here. The. Head to this page: https://lemmyverse.net/

Hit the house button and type your instance url and load up on subscriptions.

Guncle,

I hadn't considered making my own instance for private use. Not sure if that was what you meant or not. But it may be the safest way of ensuring your data doesn't get lost. My worry with small servers is that who ever is running them might lose interest and shut down permanently. But if a server is too big, there may be disagreements that lead to de-federating. Thanks for the tips.

freeman,

Yep. That’s exactly what I did. So I can control my backups etc. their Ansible docs are solid and work fine. I would imagine the docker are as well since the Ansible docs just initiate a remote docker install.

I’ve done some setup and have been chewing on opening it up come July if there’s a huge flood.

But it’s gonna be a user only instance in that case. I have no time or desire to moderate people’s nonsense in communities. Heck even the prospect of moderating reports of their nonsense in other communities isn’t really appealing.

So the concern on smaller ones petering out, may not be too far off. Mine will likely be up for at least a year. And I will let folks know before I shut it down, if it’s opened up.

can,

How did you set yours up? Did you have a server already or are you using a cloud service?

freeman,

Mines on a cloud instance. I have a lab and such. But my power is shoddy during the rainy season and as a result internet can be too. I also have asymmetrical internet so upload is constrained at times.

So mines on a VPS. Specifically a linode. I used the Ansible server in my lab to run through the Ansible setup.

Currently it’s the 2cpu/4gb of ram dedicated instance. 36/month. But ram usage is hovering around 768 MB. Cpu is averaging 8-10%. Im gonna leave it there until at least the hard app/api cut with Reddit. Still haven’t decided on whether I’m going to open it up or just keep it personal and what that commitment entails. I’ve hosted stuff before, there’s pros and cons. But I’m slammed at work and personal life. So really not wanting to take on more responsibility.

can,

Well, you've confirmed for me that this is a bit above my head without doing more research. Thank you for the information.

I just have a nice short url I'm not really using and thought maybe it'd be neat. I guess there's no rush.

freeman,

Yeah. Sorry to disappoint :(

I wouldnt be shocked if they make setting up an instance or someone ends up just being able to get a SaaS instance pre-deployed for you with just your domain name and admin stuff. Kinda like how you can rent game servers or teamspeak servers etc.

can,

No, no it's fine. It's still attainable if I really want it and I'm sure you're right. It's only going to get easier.

sneakyninjapants,

Honestly for the new user thinking to join just picking something, anything is all that matters.

Each user has very little content on here right now, so if for some reason they don't like the way things are run on the one they chose they can easily choose a different one without losing much. Profile migration (i.e. copy all your stuff to a different lemmy server) is also something coming that I'm looking forward to.

As a sh.itjust.works user you can see almost anything in this network of websites (500+ servers) except lemmygrad and beehaw. Also the server admin here is pretty cool and seems to know what he's doing, so I'm pretty smitten with my choice.

As far as the likelihood of a server going down, that's hard to say as you have no real way of knowing one will be more reliable than another at first glance. TBH I think the smaller servers in the network have the advantage here, their costs to run the server are lower since they have fewer users and less traffic. If they have the creation of new communities turned off, the space required is far less than otherwise. The main detractor with tiny servers is easily discovering whats on other servers. That's a longer explanation why that is, but it's like that and I've gone on too long already.

Guncle,

My main worry with smaller servers is that whoever is running them may lose interest and decide to shut down permanently. It does seem that the pros and cons tip in either direction as a server's population grows.

captain_aggravated,
@captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works avatar

This is one concern I have. There's a certain utility in Reddit as an archive; there's actually a lot of good reference material out there. Meanwhile the rest of the internet SEO'd itself to death so Google almost doesn't work anymore, the only worthwhile results are either Youtube videos or Reddit posts.

I don't think I see Lemmy taking on that same permanent archive factor the way Reddit (almost) did.

sneakyninjapants,

I get that worry, but I honestly can't say that I think a small server with little interest is more likely to shut down than a server with huge interest (and it's associated hosting bills). For ex. I'm panning on deploying my own lemmy instance soon, it's going to have signups turned off, but if I left them on I wouldn't really care how popular my server is. The less the better imo because it becomes cheap enough for me to forget I'm admining it until update time comes around and fewer interpersonal issues to deal with because fewer users. Maybe I'm in the minority here, but becoming a huge server with a lot of users doesn't appeal to me like at all, and having a small user base is only upsides. Once I deploy it's going to be running for a long time.

Edit: I should have asked if you meant user interest or low admin interest

Guncle,

I was referring to low admin interest. For example if you did allow a few users on your server, then you grew bored of it and shut it down, they would lose access to their accounts. But running a server just for yourself honestly sounds like the best option if you have the money for it.

sneakyninjapants,

I guess I just can't see the connection between a server being small and how that could make you more likely to lose interest in running it. Maybe there's something to be said about a large instance's duties to its users, but I don't have any reason to think an admin of a particular instance won't shut it down from over-taxing their pocket book, or just not wanting to deal with the thousands of user issues a large instance will bring over a smaller one. I'm not trying to change your mind or anything, that's just how I see it.

running a server just for yourself honestly sounds like the best option if you have the money for it

If you're technically inclined it can be super cheap. I'm paying $6 / mo for a VPS that's way more than capable of running a single user instance and I get to host a lot of other things on it as well. See here, though not all are on the VPS in question.

captain_aggravated,
@captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works avatar

What good does hosting your own instance do if it's closed to signups?

sneakyninjapants,

So I can access the fediverse with my own domain and own my user profile. Currently my profile is owned by the sh.itjust.works server; which is fine, the admin knows what he's doing, but if it were to ever go down, my user profile and ability to interact on the fediverse goes with it. I'm an avid selfhoster and enjoy having control over my own infrastructure, so hosting my own lemmy instance is right up my alley. I'm not interested in the headaches that come with hosting for anyone else though, as there are quite a few.

Wigglehard,

Basically you go with your gut feeling but as for me, i would choose an instance that wont ban your account because you accidentally offended someone and then poof you lose all your posts, this is why I recommend exploding heads, although lemmy world is pretty good too in my opinion, but i would definitely say without a doubt that you have to say the absolutely most crazy heinous things ever to be banned from Exploding heads

Guncle,

I'm not too worried about getting banned. I plan to be a rather "average" person throughout the fediverse. I was a lurker for about 10 years on reddit, but I do want to be a more active contributor here. I'm going to try to respect each server's rules as best as I can and just avoid the ones I don't agree with.

Wigglehard,

Cool

Kecessa, (edited )

Exploding heads is pretty much a recruiting ground for the alt right, just so you know.

spark947,

It seems kind of inevitable that there will be a bit of a period of instability before things settle a bit, and it that time maintaining accounts on multiple instances is inevitable. I am running into a few reasonable issues with federation in lemmy that I am sure will be ironed out eventually.

But yeah, it is kind of a bummer to set yourself up on one instance, and then watch it get defederated from a another major instance, even if it is for ultimately justified reasons.

Guncle,

Good point, I expect things to look very different a year from now. I'm honestly not sure if it will continue to grow or if its just a fad. I hope for the former.

spark947,

Mastodon still seems to be getting better and growing every day. I think there is definitely some work that is going to have to be done to set up sustainable development of Lemmy.

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