When creating a new instance or picking a instance to join, what is a good strategy that the user could follow?

Geolocation? Language? Subject?

I think that instances kind of naturally grow to “group” a specific subset of communities, but I may be completely wrong.

Any thoughts on that are highly appreciated.

  • Sunflip@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    Honest question: does it really matter what instance I pick? Isn’t the point of the fediverse that you can see content from all instances?

    • TheSpookiestUser@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      Each instance is run by different administrators that broadly influence the content on their instance - if the instance you picked to join up with goes bad, it could be defederated from and, on the smaller scale, may have people judging your account for being made there.

    • FormerRedditUser@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      I guess it matters in some specific scenarios unless it is easy to migrate your profile from one instance to another.

      The scenarios I think about are:

      1. Geolocation. I guess the closer the instance is to you, the faster the content will load. So the closer the instance, the better.
      2. Geolocation “blocking”. I guess if a instance is in one country and that country’s legal system mandates the instance to be blocked, you will lose access to the “fediverse”. So, I guess, the more likely the instance is to blocked, the worse.
      3. Defederation. If for some reason your instance gets “disconnected” from the others, you lose access to the other instances’ content. So I guess “reputation” is key here.
      4. Uptime. Not all instances stay up the same, I guess…
      5. Instance backend versions. Some clients only connect to specific versions.

      But, honestly, even considering the above, I can’t comfortably “choose” a instance. That’s why I came here for help…