It only really matters for the “local” feed which instance you choose. I don’t really see much point to that one honestly, except if you’re on something like startrek.website where “local” is “show me all star trek stuff”, or something similar.

And yes, it is important to spread out the user base across multiple servers and not all end up on lemmy.world.

So I’d say find some smaller instance, maybe with a community actually physically local to you, and make that your main one. Or don’t and stay on lemmy.world, I’m not your dad.

Perpetual plug to my userscript which changes all links to point to your home instance to make this even easier :)

I’d argue one of the most pressing concerns right now is the lack of migration tools

Currently you can’t just create an account on instance X and move to Y. You need to create a new account. Eventually if we get the functionality to migrate from one place to another, people will be able to spread out across the fediverse and the risk of a single big server going belly up reduced.

From a technical standpoint if one instance gets defederated from other instances, all the users on that instance are stuffed. Their content won’t appear in the wider fediverse (so less engagement)

We’re all figuring this out as we go! Since the great Reddit migration, we’ve already seen our first big drama with the Beehaw defederation. Some Beehaw users disagreed and left for other instances while users of other instances liked the move and joined Beehaw. The Lemmy fediverse is what WE make it for better or for worse.

I’m trying out using my lemmy instance as a personal blog, more or less.

I have one community with pretty locked down settings and super SFW policy. Over time I will post things that might be of interest or that I want to show off. I selectively subscribe to some other communities on larger instances to get some visibility and be part of the conversation. But really Im using lemmy to drive traffic to my custom domain and as a way to SEO.

I have another personal use account on another instance I don’t own but that I align with philosophically. That’s where I keep my main collection of communities Im interested in.

Instances can defederate. For instance, lemmy.world was defederated from beehaw because of a bot influx. So if you liked what was on beehaw you’d need another account there.

But generally you only need one account in one instance to see most everything.

When I first started looking around here, I had no particular reason to pick one instance, so I didn’t. I initially registered with three (kbin.social, lemmy.world and lemmy.one). I was sort of planning to try them out and compare them before settling on one, but I ended up just rotating through them as the mood hit me, and I still use all three. And in fact, I’m planning on adding a couple more.

The thing I like about using multiple instances is that I can change my experience quickly and easily.

Mostly I go back and forth between kbin.social and lemmy.world, and they’re notably different. In the first place, they use different software, so the interfaces are quite different. The kbin software is a bit more feature rich but also a bit harder to get around in while the lemmy software is a bit simpler in both respects. And the instances are notably different, since .world is federated with virtually everyone while kbin.social has defederated from a number of instances, and most notably all of the botfarms.

So kbin.social has less content of generally higher quality, so it feels more serious and sedate, while lemmy.world has more content but a lot of it is botspam, so it feels more hectic and noisy. And I just go to whichever one appeals to me more at the moment.

And I’m actually looking for a couple more. I’d like to find one that’s deliberately reserved and sort of scholarly - high standards and serious discussion - and one that’s overtly goofy snd lighthearted.

And I have no doubt that if they don’t exist, they will.

Image Transcription: Text and Image

[An interconnected diagram with six cloud-shaped bubbles with text and images of the reddit mascot snoo in them are shown. There are lines going between them connecting all of the bubbles to one another in the approximate shape of the fediverse pentagram logo. The top left bubble says “r/aww” and has two images of the reddit mascot. The upper middle bubble has the text “r/gaming” and “r/Music” with one image of the mascot. The top right bubble says “r/funny” with one mascot, the lower left says “r/Pics” and “r/science” with one mascot, the lower right says “r/art” and “r/ask science” with two mascots, and the bottom centre bubble has the words “r/space” and r/videos" with one reddit mascot. The Lemmy logo, a black and white cartoon mouse head, sits in the bottom left corner of the image. Below the web of connected bubbles, there are three small cartoon drawings of people standing next to each other, with the text “Lemmy devs” beside them, and a large purple speech bubble above them that reads as follows]

We donated Lemmy to the world, we can’t control what people do with it.

^I’m a human volunteer transcribing posts in a format compatible with screen readers, for blind and visually impaired users!^

The idea is you can subscribe and interact with any instances, no matter what instance you came from

Sure, most will jump the bandwagon into lemmy.world… at least for the near future. I can say that with confidence because when you search “how to join Lemmy”, most guide will point you to Lemmy.world instead of… lets say… coughLemmynsfwcough

Over time, some will eventually move to other instance (mostly just the account, because they want ‘cool username’ for themselves). Sooner or later, things will balance themselves out.

Maybe you can even start by deploying your own instance, for no other reason than claiming your own ‘cool username’.

I’m on kbin.social. When I browse the tag “All”, I can see all Lemmy communities that federate with kbin.social and all kbin magazines that federate with kbin.social (including those belonging to kbin.social). It’s very seamlessly, and at some point you don’t realise you’re commenting in a post from a different server. But you can also browse those communities and/or magazines you’re subscribed to, in a similar fashion to Reddit.

I signed up on a smaller instance and only follow a couple of communities there, so I had to go out and search for things I was interested in. I pretty much just subscribed to anything that sounded remotely interesting, figuring I could leave later.

i mostly found stuff with https://browse.feddit.de/ and https://lemmyverse.net/, as well as just going to the bigger instances and looking at the local lists for anything interesting. So I’m following communities across several of the larger severs - lemmy.world, lemmy.ml, beehaw.org, kbin.social, sh.itjust.works, lemmy.ca - and a few smaller ones that sounded interesting or relevant. Also fedidb.org is a nice tool to see info about the fediverse in general, including stats on Lemmy and Kbin servers.

What if most people end up here, does that defeat the purpose? Is this inevitable?

It is likely that most users will end up on a few big instances. That’s not inherently bad, but it can be an issue if those instances have poor moderation.

You’ll be able to see content from any instance that isn’t defederated from your instance. The main thing this means right now is that you can’t see new stuff posted to beehaw. Beehaw defederated lemmy.world and shitjustworks because of high moderation load due to open signups on those instances leading to a lot of troll users coming from them. They may refederate later when moderation tools for the platform improve or if those instances get more of a handle on the trolls, or they may not.

Since there are some big established communities on beehaw, you might benefit from having an account on an instance that is not defederated from them. Or you might not, if those specific communities don’t interest you.

You need a critical mass of users, so a quiet instance with few posts is not attractive. If I search for Xbox, there are lots of empty places or places with 3 posts. If there’s one big one (often ends up being in lemmy.world) that’s where I’m subscribing.

How are you using Lemmy, are you participating in a bunch of instances or just one?

A quiet instance is fine (great, even), as long as it’s federated with the busier instances that have the content you want to see. The best place on the fediverse is

• An instance with moderation/rules that you feel comfortable with
• Which is federated with all the instances that have communities you want to see

In terms of which communities I join, most communities aren’t that active yet, so I’m joining all the ones that look remotely interesting. If the volume gets to be too much as the userbase grows, I’ll drop the ones that aren’t as fun/interesting.

One thing to note is that when you search from within your instance, the “subscriber” account for communities on other instances doesn’t necessarily reflect the total population of subscribers, you’d need to click through to that instance to see the real number I think.

Also, since the total userbase is small relative to reddit, folks are going to be pooling more in general communities rather than specific ones. So for example, you might actually find more xbox related content in the general “gaming” community at Beehaw (20k subscribers) or the one at lemmy.ml (11k subscribers).

So theoretically you should be able to make one account and view a majority of content. This is barring of course any instances or communities defederated from your home instance.

There’s merit in making a community for your interest on your home instance even if you’re subscribed to it on a different instance, for reasons like outages and a diversity of content. Lemmy being bigger than other instances just means there’s more content available here, but if you like the layout of kbin or Mastodon or what have you better you can still see it all.

Plus, just because two instances are federated doesn’t mean the users actually see all the information exchanged. You have to actually opt into it which is cool- ie if an instances particular community is problematic you can just block it and sub to the rest.

Edit: got so wrapped up in my TED talk I forgot to mention- I’m currently trying out Lemmy, sh.itjust.works, and kbin.social until I can settle on one (hopefully kbin gets an app soon lol.)

I personally host my own instance, from which I interact with communities on many other instances.

This ensures my Lemmy account can’t just be decimated because my admin decided to stop maintaining their instance and I avoid defederation of content I’m interested in (including the infighting among larger instances.)

I’m just figuring out how to use this platform.