Resources for choosing the right fediverse instance (REVISED DRAFT)

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A lot of people leaving the fascist hellscape of Xitter these days are checking out the fediverses. A lot of good stuff is happening in the fediverses! and What kind of social network experience are you looking for? discusses, the fediverse offers a lot more flexibility and variety than traditional corporate social network, where Apartheid Clyde or Mark F***ing Zuckerberg sets the policy for everybody and you can't communicate with people on other social networks. So there's a good chance that you can find what you want somewhere in the fediverses – and if not, you can also create your own small social network for friends and family, colleagues, or people who share your interests. Yay!

But the fediverses are also more complicated than corporate social networks, and different enough that it can be somewhat confusing for newcomers. So depending on what you're looking for, it can take some work to find it.

If you don't want to deal with the complexity at this point, fee free to skip ahead to the section If you just want to get started as easily as possible .... But if you've got the time and energy, please read on!

Contents

• Decentralization makes many things more complicated. Welcome to the fediverses!
• What kind of functionality are you looking for?
• What kind of social network experience are you looking for?
• If you just want to get started as easily as possible ...
• Instance directories
• Instance catalogs
• Finding out more information about a specific instance
• Some important questions to ask
• Remember: you can have more than one account

Decentralization makes many things more complicated. Welcome to the fediverses!

One key reason for this is that the fediverses are decentralized. A fediverse isn't just a single social network like Xitter or Facebook. Instead, it's an ecoysystem of thousands of different instances – each with their own policies, norms, culture, and software. People on different instances can often (although not always) interact (at least to some extent) with each other just like on centralized corporate social networks: following, liking, resharing, replying, mentioning, blocking, etc etc etc.

The fediverses' decentralization is a huge strength. As well as leading to all the flexibility and variety, it creates an alternative to big tech companies' dominance. But decentralization also makes many things more complicated.

It sucks that Apartheid Clyde and Mark F***ing Zuckerberg can prevent everybody on Xitter and Facebook from using them communicate with people on other social networks ... but at least it's simple to understand. The fediverses' approach, where people on different instances can often (although not always) interact (at least to some extent) with each other is a lot better ... but "although not always" and "at least to some extent" are doing a lot of work, and only give a small taste of the complexities of software incompatibilities, differences in norms, boundary violations, and a lot more.

If you don't want to deal with complexity, If you just want to get started as easily as possible ... discusses an easy route: sign up for a large instance like Bluesky or mastodon.social and think of it mostly like a centralized network where some things just don't make sense. Why aren't there private accounts on Bluesky? Why do different people on Mastodon see different versions of the same conversation depending on what instance they're on and what apps they're using? It's complex, and if you've got better things to do with your time and energy than wallow in the details, it's completely legitimate to just shrug 🤷🏻‍♂️, shake your head sadly 😞, and accept that's just how things work around here and maybe it'll get better over time.

But if you want a social network experience that's different from corporate social networks, you'll need to deal with some of the complexity of the fediverses. Choosing an instance is a key part of that. As Erin Kissane says The affordance loop

"[T]he instance you’re on will, through its moderation actions and policies and its federation and defederation choices, define much of your experience on the fediverse"

The good news is that this choice isn't irrevocable. Many people (including me!) have accounts on multiple instances. Moving isn't uncommon (although it can be a hassle). So if you're new to the fediverse, think of this as your initial choice. And people on different instances can often (although not always) interact with each other, so even if you're initially on an instance that isn't so great you're still likely to find interesting people and content.

Terminology note: instances are also called sites, servers, service providers, hubs, and platforms – and all of those words have other meanings as well. And people mean different things by "the fediverse".

See, I told you it was complicated and sometimes confusing. Welcome to the fediverses, you'll get used to it after a while. There are many fediverses has more on the terminology if you're interested, but it's completely legitimate to just shrug 🤷🏻‍♂️, shake your head sadly 😞, and accept that's just how things work around here.

Still, it's worth putting in some effort up front to increase the chance that you'll have a good initial experience. Unfortunately, most of what I've seen written up about the fediverses doesn't give a lot of help choosing an instance. The most common pieces of advice are "it doesn't matter" (which is completely and totally wrong) or "start on mastodon.social" (which isn't a particularly good choice for most people). And a lot of the information that you really need to make a good choice isn't easy to find.

It would be great to have some kind of portal or tool to help people find and evaluate potential instances ... alas, that doesn't exist yet. 🤷🏻‍♂️😞. Still, there are some useful instance catalogs and directories, and ways to get more information about instances you might be interested in. It just takes a little work to find it. Hopefully the resources in this post will make it a little easier.

Before we get to that, though, let's start with a couple of important questions.

What kind of functionality are you looking for?

Different fediverse software is good at different things. If there's a particular kind of functionality that you're looking for, you'll want to find an instance running software handles it well. Per Axbom's The many branches of the Fediverse and Join the Fediverse's If You Like / You Should Try have links to dozens of different projects. Here are a few examples:

• For browsing or share videos,PeerTube is likely to be your best bet.
• For Instagram-like photo sharing, you might want to check out Pixelfed.
• For reddit-style link aggregation, options include Lemmy, Mbin, and Piefed
• If you're a blogger, choices include micro.blog, WriteFreely, and WordPress
• For Twitter-style microblogging, consider Bluesky, Mastodon and forks (varients) like Glitch and Hometown, GoToSocial, Akkoma, Friendica, Misskey and forks like Sharkey are all options.
• For a small to medium size community where you can also participate in broader conversations, Glitch, Hometown, GoToSocial, Akkoma, Friendica, Hubzilla, Sharkey, and Mastodon are all options. So are forums like NodeBB and Discord.

"If they’re motivated, tooled up, and plugged into communities of support fediverse server teams can provide context-sensitive, high-touch local moderation for their members—while also connecting to a broad landscape of other well-governed servers."

– Erin Kissane, revealing the fediverse’s gifts, October 2024

The networked communities model Kissane describes is a good example of something that only exists in the fediverse – and not on centralized corporate social networks. But since Mastodon has historically been the best-known fediverse software, and most of the largest Mastodon instances aren't communities, most people don't know about this model. Still, many long-running instances running Mastodon and forks like Glitch and Hometown, or other software like Akkoma, very much are communities ... and at least in my experience, those are the instances where people are much more likely to have really positive experiences.

Networked communities tend to be relatively small – dozens or hundreds of people, sometimes a few thousand. Some are invite-only; others ask potential new members to fill out a form. They aren't always easy to find. If you've got friends on the fediverses, they may be able to suggest one or more that matches your needs. Otherwise, your best best is to to use the resources below to find and evaluate instances that might interest you. It's a time-consuming process, but I don't know of any short-cuts.

What kind of social network experience are you looking for?

Of course, functionality isn't the only thing that matters ... in fact, for many people, functionality is far from the most important factor in their social network experience. For example, what languages are common on an instance? If you don't speak Japanese, misskey.io might not be the best choice for you no matter how much you love the user interface!

Similarly, the possibilities of the fediverses for people in communities that are often marginalized, targeted, and/or exploited on commercial social networks go far beyond the functionality.

"As a Blind person i never thought i would be on social media savoring photos. But the communal Mastodon alt text game is so strong that sweet, poetic or silly descriptions abound on my timeline. Thanks to legions of people who take time to write a meaningful description of the ephemera they post, i learn so much about insects, plants, buildings, memes — all dispatches from a dimension of the world that i otherwise wouldn't experience. If you're wondering whether anybody reads these things: YES."

– Chancey Fleet

In a poll I did a few weeks ago, almost 40% said alt text on images was something they're looking for in the fediverses. This is a really good example of how it's not just about the technology: most social network software these days supports alt text on images. But how many people actually use the functionality?

On Mastodon and compatible software like GoToSocial, Akkoma, and Friendica, the number is a lot higher than on corporate social networks. And as Alt Text Health Check's leaderboards highlight some instances that are particularly good on this front (although since you can follow people on other instances, once you find the right people you'll see plenty of alt text wherever you are).

Of course, the software itself needs to be accessible,and the official Mastodon web user interface and apps aren't great on this front. Fortunately, there are other options – see Accessibility resources for Mastodon and compatible software for more.

Public service announcement: please help strengthen this wonderful aspect of fediverse culture! You can help by adding alt text to your images – and by not boosting or resharing images which don't have alt text.

"Trans people talk and post here openly about their lives from a position that has never existed on social media before. We talk openly with cis people reading our posts and replying, friendships, understanding, experience, normalisation.

Every other social network this is impossible because the continual existence of anti-trans agitators is implicit."

– CJ Bellwether

Roughly two-thirds of the respondents to that poll said that they wanted "a place where people agree that trans rights are human rights". There are a lot of very pro-LGBTQIA2S+ instances in the fediverse; The Trans Fediverse and the LGBTQ pages of the instance directories I'll discuss below are good places to look. On the other hand, Bluesky's moderators don't ban people for transphobia, and the recent wave of new signups from Xitter include a lot of anti-LGBTQIA2S+ bigots; I've recently seen several trans people announcing that they were leaving due to the lack of safety, and at the very least you'll need to find the right blocklists and labelers if you want to limit your exposure. And Threads allows anti-LGBTQIA2S+ hate groups, doesn't moderate against hate speech, and has much weaker tools to limit your exposure than Bluesky.

A caveat: The fediverses aren't utopia for LGBTQIA2S+ people. There's plenty of hate speech and harassment, and entire instances of terfs and fascists, so it's important to be on a well-moderated instance! Not only that, many instances in the fediverse – including many LGBTQIA2S+-focused instances – are very white, and may not be great choices for people of color.

"As Black users, aka Black Twitter, flee X in unprecedented numbers, a grassroots developer is building what many see as the future of Black social media culture. His platform, Blacksky, gained over 750,000 users in months without venture funding or promotion, operating as an open-source project on the decentralized Bluesky social network."

– Tarik Moody, Could Blacksky emerge as Black Twitter’s spiritual successor on Bluesky?

"[T]he opportunity to build out an extensible Black social network that can be controlled by community instead of corporations, that doesn't require being segregated from the broader social space, and reflects the many aspects of the diaspora (not just whatever is trendy at the time or what a corporation is pushing on me) is too important to pass up.:

– Rudy Fraser, Blacksky: Expressing the Black Everyday in a New Digital Space (Part 3)

Roughly two-thirds of the responses to my poll said they were looking for an anti-racist environment. There's plenty of racism in the fediverses (see for example Marcia X and Ra’il I'Nasah Kiam's Blackness in the Fediverse, and Dr. Johnathan Flowers' The Whiteness of Mastodon), but there's also Blacksky – an ambitious project that currently includes custom feeds, a starter pack, a moderation service, and a work-in-progress personal data store. And there are also Black-led instances like diaspora.im, blackqueer.life, blacktwitter.io, bantu.social ... and Indigenous-led instances, Latine-led instances, Japanese and Korean instances, and pretty much everything else you can think of.

Two more examples from that poll that aren't just about functionality.

• Many people are looking for specific topics – fandom-related news and discussions, anarchist perspectives, bird and nature photography, and so on. Of course, since you can follow people on other instances, you can find all of these topics anywhere in the fediverse. Still, you're likely to see a lot more of them if you're on an instance that focuses on that topic. For example, blorbo.social, fandom.ink, gaypirates.club, and startrek.website are all fandom focused; kolektiva.social and todon.eu have a lot of anarchists.
• Almost 90% of the responses said they were looking for "a social network that's not run by a corporation making money from my data". You're not going to find that on Threads (which is owned by Facebook's parent company Meta) no matter how good the functionality is. And Bluesky is a venture-funded big tech company, so even thought they're not making money from people's data yet

If you just want to get started as easily as possible ...

If your eyes have glazed over at this point – or if you skipped directly here because you don't want to deal with all that complexity right now – I've got good news: there are some options in the fediverses that are very easy to sign up on and let you ignore most or all of the complexity, at least at first. In particular, if you're looking for a Twitter alternative, you may want to consider

• Bluesky, if you're okay being on an all-public social network that's run by a venture-funded startup. Bluesky's changing rapidly, and the huge influx from Xitter over the last few weeks has also included a lot of anti-trans bigots, racists, trolls, and fascists, so it'll be interesting to see how things evolve ... but it's very easy to get up and going, and the software's very usable.
• mastodon.social (the default signup for Mastodon's mobile apps and landing page), if you want a social network that's not run by a venture-funded startup and are willing to put up with moderation that's not so great and an experience that can be somewhat clunky than the others. Most people don't have a great experience on mastodon.social – historically 85-90% of the people who sign up there don't stay active – but it can be a good base for exploring and finding another instance that's a better fit. If you use a screenreader or other asistive techologies, see the tips in Accessibility resources for Mastodon and compatible software.

Of course, even though it's easy to sign up and get started on either of these, you'll still need to deal with complexity as you get up and going. For example, Bluesky relies on people using labelers and blocklists to protect themselves against all those anti-trans bigots, racists, trolls, and fascists – but it's not easy to find blocklists and labeler let alone which ones to trust, since there aren't yet any good ratings or reviews

Still, if you're okay with it's all-public nature and being on a platform run by a venture-funded startup, Bluesky's probably the best option at this point for most people looking for a Twitter alternative – especially because of Blacksky; see Tarik Moody's Could Blacksky emerge as Black Twitter’s spiritual successor on Bluesky? for more on that front. If you do sign up on Bluesky, Debbie Ridpath Ohi's Unofficial Guide to Bluesky is a useful resource for getting up and going.

At least right now, even at its simplest Mastodon's somewhat more complex for most people than the other options. The official apps and web user interface aren't great; there are better options, but that mean you have to research find them. Different people see different fragments of a conversation, and searches and hashtags don't include all the information from the whole network. It can be challenging for newcomers to find people and content; account recommendations and looking at hashtags can help, and so can directories like Trunk, fedi.directory, and the academics on Mastodon list-of-lists ... but this is already starting to get complicated.

So, since you can't completely avoid dealing with these complexities, if you're going to try Mastodon – or compatible software like Glitch, Hometown, Akkoma, GoToSocial, or Friendica – you might well want to deal with the additional complexity of picking a good instance.

Instance directories

Most fediverse software platforms have some kind of directory – usually on the official "landing page" – that lists various instances. Find a PeerTube platform, Pixelfed's list of instances, and joinmastodon.org's server page are three good examples. Most let you search by region or topic; here's joinmastodon's LGBTQ+ page,

These sites typically only have a single-sentence description for each – and they don't provide any information about how well-moderated an instance is (which makes a huge difference, especially for marginalized people) or what percentage of images on the instance have alt-text – but they're useful starting points.

To the Fediverse, fediverse.party, fediverse.observer's map, and instances.social all much longer lists of instances, aren't restricted to specific kinds of software, and support various kinds of search – here's To the Fediverse's LGBT category. mastodon.help's instance search tool is Mastodon-only, but provides more information than some of the other tools. Keep in mind that these directories also include instances that don't necessarily have good moderation, so may allow hate speech and harassment. You'll want to find out more information before signing up! Also, the directories sometimes take a while to update, so may include some instances that don't exist any longer – and may not include the newest isntances.

fedi.garden takes a different approach; it's a "small human-curated list of nice, well run servers on Mastodon and the wider Fediverse", run by the same person who runs fedi.tips. Instances are categorized by topics, countries, languages and type of software; for example, here's fedi.garden's lgbtqia page. All of the sites listed on fedi.garden have promised to obey specific standards of reliability and responsible moderation.

The Anti-Meta Fedi Pact is a list of instances that have committed to block communications with Meta's Threads that can be useful if you want to stay as far away as possible from Mark F—ing Zuckerberg. Many of the sites listed here are run by trans and queer people (if you're not sure why, We're here, we're queer, fuck Facebook (or whatever they're calling themselves these days has some of the history). Note that these aren't the only instances that block Threads; the https://fedipact.veganism.social/ instance catalog (described below) has more.

Instance catalogs

The Bad Space is an instance catalog that provides information about instances that house bad actors or are poorly moderated. The project is a collaboration of communities committed to actively moderating against racism, sexism, heterosexism, transphobia, ableism, casteism, or bigotry directed at any religion. Of course, just like any review or recommendation site, opinions differ; some people think that some of the instances on The Bad Space shouldn't be there. So don't assume everything you see here is 100% accurate. Still, checking The Bad Space is a good way to avoid from accidentally signing up for an instance that's got a really bad reputation.

The Fediseer is a public space where people running an instance can specify approval/disapproval of other instances, as well "guarantee" other instances as spam-free. Again, don't assume everything here is 100% accurate. When I was researching Compare and contrast: Fediseer, FIRES, and The Bad Space I found an endorsement on Fediseer for "good moderation" about an instance that's widely-known for harassment, trolling, and hate speech! Still, especially for Lemmy instaances, it's a useful resource.

https://fedipact.veganism.social/ is an instance catalog that lets you see whether or not an instance communicates with Meta's Threads. If there are accounts on Threads that you want to follow from the fediverse, you'll want to be on an instance that federates or has limited communications (although even if you are, you can only follow them if they've turned on the Threads Fediverse option). If on the other hand you want nothing at all to do with Threads, you'll want to be on an instance that's a fedipact signer or has blocked threads.

Finding out more information about a specific instance

Once you narrow down your search, there are a few ways to find out more information before you setting up an account.

Instances typically have a page giving an overview of what the site's of the site and list the site's policies (as a list of rules or a code of conduct), and what version of the software the site is using. Many instances show this by default on the main page to people who aren't logged in. Others don't so, you have to go hunting around.

On Mastodon, it's the About link in dark purple text on a black background (ouch!) next to the instance name near the bottom of the left-hand side of the web interface (but not the other About link below that, which gives you information about Mastodon). On the Mastodon mobile web interface, you'll need to scroll to the bottom to find the About links.

It's also worth looking at what version of software the site is running. Mastodon forks (variants) like Glitch and Hometown have several improvements over the official release, and are often (although certainly not always) a sign of an instance with a good local community. On the other hand, if the software is out-of-date, that's not a good sign. As of November 2024, Mastodon most recent releases are 4.3.1 and 4.2.13; if you see numbers signifcantly lower than that, it may well be a warning sign that the site's administrator and moderators aren't really active., and theyre might also be some security risks.

Another important thing to look for is the site's policy about hate speech and harassment. On Mastodon and Pixelfed instances, the Server Rules section (on the main page or the About page) typically has an overview; some instances also link out to more detailed explanations. Of course some sites with good policies don't actually enforce them in practice, so there's no guarantee, but sites with bad policies are big red flags.

If the policy talks about "free speech" in their description, rules, or code of conduct, that's often (although not always) code for an almost-anything-goes attitude.

Also useful: many sites include a list of instances they've blocked or limited, along with explanations; on Mastodon, this is the Moderated Servers section. If this is present, this list is one of the best ways to see if they're moderating actively – and what they consider cause for blocking (although publishing a list of blocked instances can potentially open moderators up to harassment many instances intentionally don't publish the list). If you want to take the time, you can spot-check to make sure that the "worst-of-the-worst" instances on IFTAS's DNI ("do not interact") list and the receipts section of Seirdy's blocklist page, are moderated; if an instance you're looking at doesn't block all of them, run away.

Instances should also include a link to their privacy policy and terms of use. A lot of these are fairly boilerplate; a recent research paper reported that only about 10% of the Mastodon instances they looked at had changed the default policy. Still, it might be worth checking. And if they don't have a privacy policy, that's a big big red flag.

Many instances let you look at some of what's going on even without logging in. On instances running Misskey and forks (variants) like Sharkey, the home page not only shows the local timeline but all the emoji and images people are using, so it really gives a feel for the vibrancy of the user interface as well as the content. On some Mastodon instances, you can see the timelines by clicking on Live Feeds or the globe (on the right of the web page – the mobile web UI only shows the globe); This server shows public posts from people on that instsance. Many Mastodon instances also let you see the Profiles directory; the link's near the bottom on the left, just to the right of the About link.

Bear in mind though that most conversations aren't public, and many people prefer not to having their profiles included in the directory. So this is only a partial picture. Still, it's better than nothing!

Some important questions to ask

Some of the key information you might want to know about the instance often aren't available on about pages.

• Do they have limits on how many users can join the instance, or are they trying to grow as big as possible?
• Do they have a dedicated team of mods? How diverse are they?
• How active is the instance?
• What is the policy about content warnings (aka CWs)? Some instances ask for CWs on discussions of food, alcohol, or photos with eye contact – which makes them a more pleasant environment for some (but by no means all) people with eating disorders, people in recovery, or autistic people who are triggered by eye contact. On the other hand, others might well find these requirements too burdensome.

Note that while content warnings can be useful, they're also a source of conflict. For example, some instances expect users to put CWs on "political" content, or have policies that require "civil" discourse. In practice (no matter the intent) these often leads to people asking Black, Indigenous, trans, and other marginalized users to place content warnings on their day-to-day lives – or to be "less angry". Shel Raphen's excellent On Content Warnings includes a detailed discussion of content warnings on Mastodon.

One option to get answers to these questions is to try to contact the admin before signing up – many instances have an email address or a contact form somewhere. Another option is to sign up without knowing the answer and then send a message to the admins or moderators.

Several of these questions originally came from RadioAngel's suggestions about what to look for when choosing an instance, and are quoted with permission. And thanks to Damon for suggesting the question about CWs!)

Remember: you can have more than one account

There's only so much you can learn about any social network without actually being there. Are people friendly? What gets discussed on the local timeline? Do the norms match what you're looking for? Is it diverse, or is almost everybody active there white and/or a guy? How good are the moderators?

So your first choice might not work out as well as you had hoped. Most long-timers in the fediverse have more than one account. Including me! Back in 2017 my first account on Mastodon was not a good experience, but just as I was about to give up somebody I knew invited me to another instance which was much much much better. I still have that account and use it with long-time friends, but in 2022 I decided that I also wanted an account that would follow a lot more people. These days my primary account is on blahaj.zone, a small instance for queer folk and their allies. blahaj.zone runs on Sharkey (a fork of Misskey), which has a very vibrant user interface – quite a different experience from Mastodon.

Similarly The Nexus of Privacy's account started out on another Mastodon instance before I shifted to infosec.exchange – which runs Glitch, so allows for longer posts with formatting and polls with more options, both of which I use extensively. The Nexus of Privacy also has a Lemmy account (on lemmy.blahaj.zone, which as you can probably guess from the name is run by the same people that run blahaj.zone). There's some interaction between Mastodon and Lemmy but I wanted to set up my own Lemmy community and you can't do that with a Mastodon account.

Mastodon and Glitch (as well as a lot of other fediverse software) supports a limited form of account migration: you can automagically move most of your followers over to your new account, although not your posts – and there are some gotchas. If and when you decide to migrate your account, make sure to read Cutie City's guide to Migrating Servers and Erin Kissane's Notes From a Mastodon Migration. I didn't actually migrate my account; I just made a pinned post saying I was moving, then exported the list of who I was following from my existing account and imported it on my new account and hoped they'd follow me back if they were interested. Some did, some didn't. Oh well, such is life.

And keep in mind that you're not locked into your initial choice. If the instance you've chosen isn't working for you, find another one!

Update log

Ongoing: minor fixes, including typos, cleaning up wording, and adding links

November 2022: originally published as How to choose the right Mastodon instance? (with a focus just on Mastodon)

June 2023: Revised version published on We Distribute as When Moving to Mastodon, How Do You Pick The Right Instance?

November 17, 2024: draft of new version, now focusing on the fediverse as a whole!

November 28-20: revised draft, including new sections on What kind of functionality are you looking for? and If you just want to get started as easily as possible ...