Bouncing between several since lemmy.world is being hammered right now, I'm sure once the dust settles things will calm down. Right now I'm on infosec.pub because it was recommended to me as a smaller server. It really doesn't matter so long as whatever you're on communicates with everyone else.

Yeah it does kinda matter, which is problematic for onboarding new users. Personally:

• I read the rules/TOS.
• I checked the Instances page to make sure instances I wanted to access were linked and not blocked.
• I looked for any introduction posts to see what the backend infrastructure was like.
• I checked the username I wanted was available.

It should not be that complicated, but it also has to be unfortunately. I had to make sure all those things matched what I personally wanted. This much choice is great for heavily-invested tech nerds with free time but sucks for anyone else wanting to join in.

It doesn't really matter actually, but I would prefer to stay on the one with more members as it will probably last longer than other instances

Made one on lemmy.world but it's crumbling under the pressure as we speak. Tried a local one, but it has like 5 users. Don't trust it to live long enough. So started using the star trek one, because star trek. Not as if you'd need any other reason

I like the short and aesthetic of the domain name lemm.ee

Shorter domains the better I say! (usually)

It doesn't but I thought it did

I'd heard you shouldn't pick one of the largest, I explicitly didn't want a server run by Nazis, Paleolibertarians, or Marxist-Leninists, and I didn't mind the rules here.

I chose Aussie.zone cause I'm out of touch with my own country so seeing the news here is nice and cause I thought it would be easier to join a country instance.

Also optional email and I know I could make a temp email but I can't be bothered.

I joined the one hosted by my country's community. The community is really great.

I wanted a server that had fast posting and browsing

Then I learned that some of the larger servers aren't federating with each other, which made me happy I went this route

https://wirebase.org, FYI

Its status on federation with problematic instances.

When I got started on Lemmy, there were only a handful of instances and they were all general-purpose. I went and made my own so that it was exactly what I wanted.

These days, I'd probably use a list like this and choose an instance that isn't too big with a cool domain name: https://github.com/maltfield/awesome-lemmy-instances

I googled Lemmy and signed up to the first result, not knowing what instances were back then.

I chose vlemmy.net cause it seemed neutral, general, and was one of the recommended ones. So far so good.

Biggest German server and good community.

I have two. I have this one (lemmy.ml) as my broad-access instance. My other is lemmygrad, but as that is a bit more widely blocked I keep this one still. That one is used for most of my politics, and this one is my more general interest. It's kind of nice to have different communities died to different user registrations.

As to why those two in particular, I am a Marxist-Leninist so...yeah.

Surprised I'm not seeing any other self-hosters in here. Having seen the de-federation drama, it's nice to know that I can federate with anyone I want, regardless of if they are federating with eachother.

Obviously it comes with the administration side of things, but I really don't mind.

Well, I started my instance so it only makes sense that its also my home!

As for why I started an instance, I've always liked self-hosting stuff as its been one of the best ways I learn how stuff on the internet works, even more than I have learnt from doing some programming in my spare time. So it was an obvious move for me since I wanted to know more about how ActivityPub worked.

Originally I wasn't really planning on having open registration on my instance (otherwise I would've picked a better domain name, a bit late for that now) however as I saw Lemmy pick up pace, and the larger servers were starting to have issues, I figured that the best way I could give back was at least offer to share the load.

It does seem like some servers have specific niches, so if you're really interested in a specific servers niche using that instance would prevent you from having to sync those communities with your instance.

I'm new, so someone correct me if I'm wrong.

Feddit.uk - I figure regionality has benefit in keeping loads more spread, plus it hosts some good communities and a cute name.

Because I'm a furry. obligatory OwO

The list of blocked instances made me switch from feddit.de to the current instance I'm using.

Like most commenters here, because it was recommended and I'm a newbie at this.

Question though, if I create another account on say lemm.ee, is there a way for me to migrate my subscribed communities?

I picked pawb because furries know tech really well, so I can trust the server to be fairly reliable.

•Lemmy.ml - Signed up here first, was recommended to it as a general place to sign up to

•Lemmy.blahaj.zone - Egg memes, blåhaj memes, just memes

•Lemmy.world - Handy for extra world news communities

•Lemmynsfw.com - Do I need to explain. This is under a different name, but I've kinda used that name over on the other place and I'm slowly bringing my content over (plus new stuff)

I only use one and four regularly

The first I tried was Lemmy.ml. I applied and didn't hear back. So I joined Lemmy.world and registered immediately.

Tried lemmy.world as a reddit refugee but with the performance issues they're experiencing, quickly went looking for another instance with better performance and a decent amount of extra content. Lemmy.ml is blocked at work (.ml TLD is freenom so prone to abuse) and registration is closed anyway, so decided on lemm.ee.

Far better speed, a good amount of content locally, and few/no errors at the moment.

I'm with the boys on lemm.ee !

Google search. I had no clue about multiple instances. Search lemmy on Google and first link was for lemmy.ml domain so that's how I am here.

It has the word world in the name, sounds bigger.

I saw people complaining that the admins were communists and I was like dope, I love those guys.

Plus healthy number of users (maybe too many actually) and local communities

I'm the admin :p

I joined lemmy.ca because I like to keep a diet of local news and a place to avoid American influence. I like using my local feed for well the local stuff and then my subscriptions for all the niche interests that the Canadian community couldn't sustain alone.

The one I use doesn't block other instances, although I probably will block the same instances and people that big instances already block, I want to be the one to make that choice and shape the content I see.

I've got accounts on 4 different instances just to see what things are like. Sometimes I want to see all sorts of posts, sometimes I want a feed of just LGBT-positive stuff, sometimes I just want to get off, different accounts on different instances for different things :)