Best instance to create your user on? - eviltoast

There’s been some downtime on Lemmy.World. I think this wont be the last time, as the amount of users coming in during the next month will be ginormous. That’s completely fine with me.

However, during that time, I couldn’t use the Fediverse because my access to the Fediverse comtes through logging in through my Lemmy.World user. (please correct me if I’m mistaken…)

So I get that Fediverse is decentralized. Anyone can create their own instances.

Which is the most reliable? Only time will tell? Or will this be made differently in the future?

    • butter@midwest.social
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      6
      ·
      1 year ago

      I’ve been liking midwest.social. It’s nice because I live in the Midwest. But also I’m being social.

    • TheSaneWriter@vlemmy.net
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      5
      ·
      1 year ago

      I can attest, the small servers also have the benefit of more direct contact with the Admins and of playing a larger role in helping to develop the community.

    • RomanRoy@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      5
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      Maybe people are concerned that smaller instances may shutdown more easily?

      Therefore, people would lose their account and be required to create another in another instance.

      lemmy.world still has open registration, but it might not last forever. I recall the admins saying that doesn’t escalate horizontally yet, so they can run it only in one machine and keep bumping its hardware, but it has hard limit on cloud platforms (if that’s the case). Besides, even if they have a home server, completely self hosted, things get more and more expensive as they improve the server.

      So, it MIGHT be a reality that at some point the bigger instances will close registration at some point, and people are running to create their accounts on these, as it will probably be “safer”.

      At some point, it might me easier/possible to make lemmy escalate horizontally, and then it becomes a non issue, but I figure larger instances would still be preferred.

      • Altair@vlemmy.net
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        5
        ·
        edit-2
        1 year ago

        These instances already have thousands of users and have been functioning just fine for years. Their admins have even been upgrading the servers specifically to accommodate for the surge of users.

        This fear, if it exists (alot of people are probably just recommending bigger ones because they’re bigger), is completely unfounded imo

        The point of decentralization, as I understand it, is to spread out and still be connected; would be a shame if we didn’t take advantage of that.

    • LemmyLeaveReddit@lemmy.worldOP
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      1 year ago

      Reading some of the comments here and also pondering the last half day - how much does it require to host an instance yourself?

      Doing that: You are almost certain not to have your user data at risk? The server would always be up.

      Could an instance not be hosted across devices? Encapsulated by a container that is synced to your other devices?

  • A_Toasty_Strudel@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    12
    ·
    1 year ago

    It seems to me that lemmy.world is shaping up to the big one. Given how quickly Lemmy is updating (it being in it’s infancy and all) means that until the sharp curve of QOL improvements tapers off, we’re going to see more downtime on servers pretty much everywhere. This is exacerbated by lemmy.world being “the big one” because the massive influx of new users from reddit is slowing things down for us a bit. I’d say if you want to be a part of what feels like the “main” instance, lemmy.world is the way to go. However, untill we see the traffic and updates slow down a bit and normalize, there going to be some unreliability. Lemmy.ml is probably the next best bet for a large and reliable instance.

    • LemmyLeaveReddit@lemmy.worldOP
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      1 year ago

      But you could join whatever server you want, and you’d have access and be able to communicate with any instance?

      So what has to remain is certainty that your user credentials won’t be stolen and that the uptime is good.

      As I wrote in another post, maybe the better alternative is to encapsulate your own instance and sync across your devices. Encapsulate it in a device agnostic container.

      Your user would be your own. It would always be up?

      Maybe this would also help alleviate the traffic, since these servers (for now without commercialization) are running off of people’s good will.

    • LemmyLeaveReddit@lemmy.worldOP
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      But you could join whatever server you want, and you’d have access and be able to communicate with any instance?

      So what has to remain is certainty that your user credentials won’t be stolen and that the uptime is good.

      As I wrote in another post, maybe the better alternative is to encapsulate your own instance and sync across your devices. Encapsulate it in a device agnostic container.

      Your user would be your own. It would always be up?

      Maybe this would also help alleviate the traffic, since these servers (for now without commercialization) are running off of people’s good will.

  • wmrch@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    8
    ·
    1 year ago

    only time will tell but there is no downside in creating accounts in 3 or 4 instances (or one for Kbin and one for Lemmy). It’s not only downtime but also defederation of instances or complete shutdowns why you should create some additional accounts.

      • PlutoniumAcid@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        And that in itself requires knowledge and experience with the fediverse, exatcly the thing that new users don’t have. It’s a catch-22! This is why people are flocking to the site that is most established.

        I am considering to host my own instance but I do not want my identity linked to that domain, so…

  • russjr08@outpost.zeuslink.net
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    4
    ·
    1 year ago

    Mine, of course!

    I am kidding (unless… 🤫), I would recommend taking a look at one of the Lemmy browsers such as this one which can show both instances and communities as well which will be good after you’ve got an account!

    I’d also agree with the recommendations from others in regards to it being perfectly fine with having multiple accounts. I know most of the mobile apps seem to have support for that as well.

  • mizu@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    4
    ·
    1 year ago

    Click here for a list of instances and their differences. Just pick whichever one you want. You might not wanna pick one that’s dedicated to one particular topic.

  • Mewtwo@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    3
    ·
    1 year ago

    Blahaj and world are the best. Don’t join ML as it’s pretty right wing and the creator is a tankie. Kbin would be next.

  • GrayBackgroundMusic@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    2
    ·
    1 year ago

    I don’t really see a difference between the servers for the most part. I picked one my work IT doesn’t block and won’t change unless the admin gets power trippy.

  • muffintoes@kbin.social
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    2
    ·
    1 year ago

    I just signed up for kbin and I’m not going to sign up for anything else and I’m okay with that. I’m having a lot of fun here as it reminds me of 00s internet.

  • InisSieferI@kbin.social
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    2
    ·
    edit-2
    1 year ago

    I’d make accounts in a couple. I made one in a big instance, one in a smaller one (so I can still federate with places like beehaw and I don’t feel like I’m contributing to the stress on lemmy.world), one in NSFW lemmy instance (since other instances tend to defederate from those), and one in kbin.social. I think I’ll make a mastadon account, too, but I haven’t yet.

    The small Lemmy instance I joined is on links.dartboard.social if you want to join that one, too. The admin said he was planning on keeping it open for a long time, for the foreseeable future. The mobile apps like Connect, Jerboa, and Liftoff make it easy to switch accounts, too.

  • rm_dash_r_star@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    2
    ·
    edit-2
    1 year ago

    Finding a good instance is the big quandary in using Lemmy and kbin.

    Of course the instance I’m using is the best.

    Anyway to vet for a good instance what I did initially was check ping times and hops. The first thing you want is an instance close to you with fast network traffic. Then I tried to get a feel for server performance just by using it. An instance that hangs a lot is going to be frustrating. Then there’s admin settings and admin quality of the instance itself. I hit gold on the fifth instance I explored.

  • rimlogger@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    2
    ·
    1 year ago

    I created accounts on both Beehaw and here because they are the most active instances with the most users and content.

    • Drewsteau@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      I can’t figure out how to access Lemmy through Mastodon, any tips? I tried following some lemmy communities through my mastodon app but they don’t seem to show up in my feed

      • SnailMagnitude@mander.xyz
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        I just search for the instance in Mastodon:

        community@instance.abc

        following:

        196@lemmy.blahaj.zone

        Makes a pretty big impact on my Mastodon feed.