No Stupid Questions

Lemmy.ml actively asked people to sign up elsewhere. They have a small server and aren't meant to be a general instance.

Lemmy.world is run by people who have one of the larger Mastodon servers, and actively advertises to be open and neutral.

I think most of it has to do with that lemmy.world has better hardware than other instances. The admin Rudd has a lot of experience running federated services as well. So it may be his first rodeo lemmy-wise but not hosting a federated service with a large user-base.

So when a lot of smaller instances started getting overwhelmed and stopping signups, lemmy.world was going strong without the performance issues that other instances might see.

That along with the fact that NSFW content is allowed makes lemmy.world a good alternative for Reddit refugees looking for something stable with a similar set of rules as well.

I myself joined lemmy.ml at first, then beehaw.org when lemmy.ml asked everyone to spread out, and finally found home on lemmy.world because I didn’t really like how downvotes are disabled on beehaw. Not to mention the defederation that beehaw has done recently. Although I can understand and appreciate why they’ve done that.

I left Beehaw because the defederated from instances where half my communities were at. Ended up on Lemmy world because they had my favorites.

I signed up on the 12th, after spending a little time comparing with the information I had. My thought process was:

• I was uncomfortable with the fact that .ml was hosted in Malaysia
• I thought a larger instance might mean it sticks around longer, but didn't really want to be on the largest (which .ml was)
• Beehaw seemed otherwise a good fit, but their policies seemed too restrictive
• .world seemed to have liberal policies, allowed NSFW, was large but not largest, and was hosted in a country that didn't worry me

Why did I create a Lemmy world account as opposed to beehaw or ml? Because it's the first one I saw. Because it doesn't matter. Because I don't know what ml stands for. Because Lenny world said "general use." Because I didn't have to fill out an application. Because I can still interact with everything else, and again, it doesn't matter.

I went for the most generic "official" sounding name.

I am new like most of us. When I signed up I had no idea what an instance was. To me the name Lemmy.world sounded like it was more general and therefore would have more content so I picked that one.

As someone signing up for lemmy.world, my reasons were:

• It sounds official or at least less obscure than ".ml" or "sh.itjust.works"
• It sounded inclusive (we're all part of the world, so to speak)
• It was in the list of default instances of Connect for Lemmy

Otherwise, I didn't give much though to which instance to pick.

The developer for RIF told me to come here. I figured that I should trust the person that created the app that I've used for hundreds of hours.

Mainly because signups were closed on Lemmy.ml and they were not on Lemmy.world.

Lemmy.ml are tankies anyway so, good

I was overwhelmed by the options of instances. Then Reddit is Fun had a pop up message suggesting to go to lemmy.world. I trusted Reddit is Fun so I followed its suggestion.

Regardless of the how, I think it's really cool that the top instance isn't run by the devs. Really shows off the power and appeal of decentralized services.

Probably because its name sounds official and it allows quick registration while others need approval (some never approves you).

Turns out it’s the right choice as the admin seems very active in updates and fixes. Lemmy.world also has a more chill homey vibes. At least that’s what I observed so far.

Lemmy.ml had sign ups closed. Behaw required a short story or something to get accepted. Lemmy.world was accepting sign-ups wasn't hosted somewhere shady and had active communities. It was a pretty easy choice. Assuming the admins have a pledge drive or something to host on AWS/GCP so we can get better burst capabilities I'd love to donate.

By keeping sign-ups open, mostly.

Lemmy.ml, to my understanding, was always meant to be a pilot instance from the devs of lemmy. Beehaw is kind of its own forum. There is also sh.itjust.works, but that has been caught up in some federation drama, and I don't think people like the name. Lemmy.world has been the right server at the right time to absorb everyone and I guess they have been able to keep up with sign-ups. Kudos to them.

When I had to choose I thought .world means, it‘s the central, most important place to be. Didn‘t know what the other abbreviations meant. Didn‘t care.

I joined world before I knew what an instance was. When the RIF app shut down, the developer recommended lemmy.world. I honestly, thought it was a single website.

Happens when you are one of the few allowing signups while others are blocking them.

For me honestly mostly the name. World. Seems like a default instance to me. What does ml even mean?

I think lemmy.world js the only one of the three that are still accepting new sign ups.

RIF specifically directed me here. I didn't join one before that because I didn't know which one was "best". I honestly don't care which one I joined, I just wanted to be on the one everyone else is on. I know this mindset somewhat defeats part is the purpose of the federated communities. I don't care about that in the slightest I just want a clone of Reddit.

Also "world" sounds more generic/standard than ml. Most people probably think it's a military website or something.

You'll probably find 90%+ of casuals are in the same boat as me.

Lemmy.ml grew too large during the early days of June. They started to recommend people to NOT sign up for lemmy.ml and find another instance. The next instance that stood out was beehaw which rejected signups if they didn't like your answer as to why you wanted to join. After that, lemmy.world stood out the most.

Rif sent me to lemmy.world to make an account. Didnt know the deal here and still kinda iffy but im getting the idea.

Idk about other people, but I don't really know how the instances work and the lemmy.world instance name seems the least abstract. Beehaw was confusing because it's not called lemmy so idk if it's a different thing or what, and idk what .ml means or stands for. Lemmy.world just looks like it's the default lemmy instance to me as a dunce who doesn't know how lemmy works.

Lemmy.ml basically shut up shop, redirecting people to other instances, because they were struggling, and the developers never really intended it to be as big as an instance as it has become.

Their registrations are still closed, so even if you wanted to join, that is not possible at the moment.

Idk about other people, but I don't really know how the instances work and the lemmy.world instance name seems the least abstract. Beehaw was confusing because it's not called lemmy so idk if it's a different thing or what, and idk what .ml means or stands for. Lemmy.world just looks like it's the default lemmy instance to me as a dunce who doesn't know how lemmy works.

.world is a catchy top-level domain

You can't create communities on Beehaw and they are abusing defederation, no wonder it's not growing. I don't know about lemmy.ml

My leading theory is that both lemmy.world and lemmy.ml were in a list of 5+ “recommended” communities, and “world” is the only recognizable word that implies all-inclusivity. And now that the world population is so high, more people will assume that is the “default/correct” community.

I joined world because I figured it was a global community, and did not want to limit myself before I even knew what I was joining into. I may end up making 2 or 3 accounts just to have access to separate, possibly defederated, communities.

When I was joining ~a month ago the situation was very different

I tried lemmy.one - had some issues joining
I saw beehaw.org - no downvotes - not my jam
I saw lemmygrad.ml - too political for my tastes
I saw sopuli.xyz - most of local posts and server maintenance posts were in language I don't speak - maybe I can find something fitting me more?
I saw lemmy.world - small but not looking like private, in Europe, so pings should be ok and description seemed fine
I also saw lemmy.ml - seemed like the main instance with the most users - having some understanding of federation from Mastodon migration I decided to spread the load...

And here we are :D

Beehaw defederates like it's going out of style, Lemmy.ml doesn't allow criticism of the CCP. Lemmy.world seems much more stable and neutral.