Fediverse

A reminder to move to smaller instances for a better experience

A reminder that this constant advice people blindly parrot to install and flock to smaller instance has now created something like 1000 new servers in 50 days that are poorly run and already going offline as quickly as they went online.

Github Issue 2910 is the kind of PostgreSQL problems that the developers ignored for months and people still defend the developer choices to have the code doing real-time counting of every single comment and post for numbers nobody needs to needs done in real-time.

PostgreSQL is voodoo to this project, they do everything they can to avoid going to [email protected] community and asking for help, learning 101 about how to fix their SQL TRIGGER logic like Github Issue 2910 spelled out June 4.

Lemmy.one, my instance of choice, has been down since Thursday - just a reminder that smaller instance isn't always the solution. Having a few solid account choices on multiple instances is the way to go.

You can also just have multiple accounts. I have one on lemm.ee just for this reason.

Quoting myself from a previous post:

First of all, it's really fine to stay on LW for now, no need to rush anything. But if at some point you have some time for this, then read the following.

So, to pick your instance, you can have a look at https://lemmy.fediverse.observer/list, filter by "1m" to see what are the most popular ones. As you can see, with a 27433 monthly users, Lemmy.world is by far the most popular, which is why you might experience some issues from time to time.

You should have a look at the next instances on the list. Short story: lemm.ee, sh.itjust.works, lemmy.one, sopuli.xyz and reddthat.com are solid choices.

You are looking at instances with quite a lot of people (the more people help with filling your "All" feed), just not the most populous one (lemmy.world), the original one (lemmy.ml), and instances that are too specific, either due to country or specific focus.

Long story:

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To migrate your settings (including subscriptions and blocked instances), you can use that script: https://github.com/CMahaff/lasim

There are 63 instances according to Jerboa.

The DB migration at the end of this upgrade is significant, I was surprised how long it took when I upgraded my instance. Lots of room for things to go wrong considering the size of their DB.

Of course I have one or two other accounts, but I personally like Lemmy.world. They serve as a necessary stress test that shows the devs and admins how to optimize further, and I just like learning admin practices at this scale of a userbase from a work perspective. Plus I don't want to be on an instance so small they can't or don't know how to handle compliance stuff and evaporate if something like that comes up. Not saying I know how to handle all of those situations, that's the job of someone else at work.

Lemm.ee is amazing with a top admin

Smaller instances are usually worse, in my experience

I said that in a support post on lemmy.world, and got accused of pushing an agenda 🙃