And, if you are comfortable with sharing, what are some of the worst things that you’ve seen?

          • lemmyknow@lemmy.todayEnglish
            1·
            6 days ago

            Well, now I wonder what it is that an instance may offer over others. I just picked an instance from some resource that said to pick something popular but not too popular and had some suggestions. Wonder what I’m missing from other instances

            • Kalcifer@sh.itjust.worksOPEnglish
              2·
              6 days ago

              I wonder what it is that an instance may offer over others

              Here is a non-exhaustive list of things that I think are important when considering an instance:

              • Stability — eg uptime, how quickly outages are addressed, etc.
              • Speed and responsiveness — eg how quickly one can download resources from the instance, how quickly pages can load, etc.
              • Accessibility of the admin(s) — eg how easy is it to get in touch with the instance admin(s)? are they open to communication?
              • Cost sustainability — eg how is the instance funded? Is their model sustainable?
              • Infrastructure sustainability — eg how is the instance powered? Is it in a stable location?
              • Local Laws — ie what laws is the instance subject to?
              • ToS — ie what rules does the instance impose on its users?
              • Who is the instance federated and defederated with, and what is their criteria for federation?
              • Other smaller things like ability to upload media, number of local communities, number of users, front-end/appearance, etc.
            • ProdigalFrog@slrpnk.netEnglish
              1·
              6 days ago

              Things I personally look for in an instance:

              • An active admin that has a level head and seems like a good person (preferably multiple admins to prevent Bus factor)
              • Instance runs a fairly recent version of Lemmy. If they run a very old version, that could be a sign of problems
              • Is defederated with troll or drama filled instances
              • Having a unique theme or vibe instead of being a general server is a big plus that makes it stand out, but not strictly necessary