Honestly, this kind of thing should be done automatically by whatever app they sign up with. It’s not something that the average person will really know how to choose.
Because it’s not only number of users, it’s also number of connections to other servers, how many federate with it. Most people don’t wanna use a social network where they have to type exactly what they want in to search it every time. Never mind the different policies about posting and de-federation that can completely change how the network works for each user.
It’s the disadvantage of decentralizion, and we’ve gotta band-aid it somehow.
Oh, yeah, it’s engaging stuffs. I’ve gone through:
- Oh, no, this instance defederates for safety but it stops working for days
- Oh, look, that instance is close to me and I can go faster
- Oh, crap, this instance doesn’t allow downvote
- Oh, shoot, this instance doesn’t work real well with this community
- Oh, look, that instance is using cloudflare
- Oh, no, this instance has trouble with this browser’s extension
The good thing about all these is, one instance going down is not a problem anymore!
It can’t truly be automatic. The other advantage of decentralization is that rules are also decentralized. Not all instances are the same in regards to what they will or will not allow to be posted locally. And they may defederate from other instances, etc. So it can’t be automatic. A directory of instances with summarized rules, or instance niches would be helpful. And just another reminder to everyone, you don’t even need to sign up with Lemmy to use Lemmy.
I’d say an instance finder feature should be created where you rank priorities and it selects a (few?) best instance(s). It could have a default setting to prefer instances with lots of connections, then locality of the server to you, then prioritize smaller servers. Something like that would be a good automatic option, because it would spread people out and optimize performance.
Yes that’s pretty much what I’ve been thinking as well, this CAN be implemented, but it needs to be implemented well and dumbed down to the maximum for an integration on join-lemmy.
There could also be more complex tools for users that have a better understanding where you can really tailor your feed with weighed inputs like how much politics do you want, remove US-centric communities, explore hobbies, etc etc. (I’m dreaming but the possibilities are wild).
That’s the cool thing about the Fediverse, over time it can develop in multiple directions at once, not just what one CEO wants to do. There’s enough internet for everyone to get what they want.
