Thread | Brutkey

@thenexusofprivacy@infosec.exchange

I feel that its worth pointing out in these conversations that nobody starts new servers anymore. Its hard (to measure kinda impossible now since fedidb removed the 'first seen' statistic, and server age does not show up in nodeinfo), but virtually no new servers have been started since 2024 that have gotten over 1k mau, I think it was like 4 total (this spring when the stat was still available)

@julian@fietkau.social @FediTips@social.growyourown.services @UlrikeHahn@fediscience.org

The Nexus of Privacy
@thenexusofprivacy@infosec.exchange

It's a great point. Fediverse Observer still h as this info and from a quick pass it seems like the only new Mastodon instances with > 1K MAU that have started in the last two years are qlub, a québécois social network, and the alt-right server noauthority.social (which isn't completely new, since it was a split from noagenda.social). There are also a handful of peertube, wordpress, nodebb, and snac (!) instances.

( https://fediverse.observer/list and sort by Active Users)

@laurenshof@indieweb.social @julian@fietkau.social @FediTips@social.growyourown.services @UlrikeHahn@fediscience.org

Ulrike Hahn
@UlrikeHahn@fediscience.org

@thenexusofprivacy@infosec.exchange @laurenshof@indieweb.social @julian@fietkau.social @FediTips@social.growyourown.services the fact that there are no new largish instances makes it seem like an opportunity to create a “starter instance” that could combine tight moderation with friendly people willing to help newcomers around…

Fedi.Tips
@FediTips@social.growyourown.services

@UlrikeHahn@fediscience.org @thenexusofprivacy@infosec.exchange @laurenshof@indieweb.social @julian@fietkau.social

The best instances for new people are smaller instances. They have admins that are easy to get hold of, friendly, and tend to be very tightly moderated because they have a much higher moderator to user ratio.

You don't need a starter instance, you just need to be sending people to well-run instances that have been operating with a good track record for years (which you can find at https://fedi.garden/servers-sorted-by-founding-year/ for example).