Pleroma – Finding the Good Instances, part 2
As Requested; Recommended Instances Suggestions
I was pleasantly surprised by the interest generated by my Discover Pleroma. An alternative to Mastodon page. Various people contacted me, interested in trying out Pleroma, and asking for some recommended instances.
So this page is intended to provide :
- some thoughts on why it is important, which instance you are in.
- general tips on looking up information for any Pleroma instance.
These topics were covered in more detail in Pleroma – Finding the Good Instances, part 1. Additionally, a couple of instances were selected.
Here on part 2, we touch briefly on the selection criteria; and provide a list of recommended Pleroma instances for your consideration.
Is it important, which instance you are in ?
Yes, I believe so. And wrote a blog page about that which is currently my most popular one — Is it Important, which Instance you are in?
To summarize that page, here's some pointers :
- size is important; a very small instance might be quiet and have a not so active Local feed.
- the Local feed is where me meet other system users, we see all their public posts, as they see ours.
- and this can be a way to get to know people more closely. If the instance is too small, there might not be much activity here.
Looking up any Fediverse Instance :
Thanks to some excellent information stored in two different sites, it's easy for us to find a lot about any particular Fediverse server; this includes Mastodon, Pleroma, Misskey and all the other services (for music, photos, file storage, etc)
One of the sites carrying this is Fediverse.Network. We see listings for Pleroma instances here, sorted by size – largest ones at the top.
Viewing Instance Details :
If you have a name from a search, or someone's mention, you can open a detailed info page for that particular one at :
https://fediverse.network/instance.name
So let's see what there is for kawen.space.
This method is quick and effective — and if you know what you are looking for, a great help in selecting a good place to settle.
And Finally — Our Recommendations !
I have really enjoyed seeing the interest caused byt my posts about Pleroma, and have been traveling the dusty lanes, looking for Pleroma instances to suggest to new users. Here are some of my findings.
Top of the List : The German Instance with the Impossible name!
I had seen people's posts before, coming from it, and I knew people who are members there. But so far, the impossible to remember German name had defeated my curiosity.
Not anymore, and I am happy to list FAB (the sane and easy acronym) to everyone.
Or, if you are a German speaker, maybe fedi.absturztau.be is not that odd to remember? LOL. Yeah, FAB is popular alternative name, and we count on our browsers and bookmarks to get it right if needed.
Meet the Mothership
FAB, which is run by Puniko impressed me a lot — on my profiles in various places, I now list my account there as my Pleroma home. That's how much; no small kartoffeln!
As mentioned above, looking up an instance is easy on Fediverse.network, here's FAB's listing.
From that page, important notes:
- Open Registrations. And a good number of users.
- A large number of Peers — well connected to Federate posts.
- Tons of Emoji for the fans, 8 thousand plus.
- Real important, 60 Thousand characters maximum Toot size. (quite a contrast to the contrived, ridiculous 500 characters imposed in most Mastodon instances!)
- Cropped out of image, but running Pleroma v.2.0.50, most recent one.
Why I felt welcome there
I visited FAB and registered, after reading the Terms and Conditions, which is cute, short, funny and sweet. Not bad at all!
My account there is yann, and I started by posting an Introductions post, as de rigueur, mentioning that I was doing research for this article. Soon I was involved in a very friendly chat with many people, some locals and others from friendly nearby instances.
And from that I learned a lot. Enjoyed the fast paced chat (Pleroma nodes react so fast to input, it's a drag to go back to Mastodon's heavy, beastly behaviour!), enjoyed the friendly locals.
And learned that FAB is not only a cool place to be — but the original home for many who today are admins of their own Pleroma nodes.
That is High Credit to Puniko and her instance, the people there, and I wanted to publish this — I loved to learn about that.
The FAB Family Tree
I heard about this in our conversation, and one of the participants pulled out a nice Search result, with a full thread where @mewmew, the cool admin of Blob.cat wrote about it. And even drew a Family tree, shown above a little cropped and resized to fit Blog size. Original image, larger size
Mewmew also posted an even larger Family Tree, for the whole Niu.moe clan, of which FAB descended.
I found this fascinating, love History and understanding how things evolved!
On to Other Noteworthy instances !
Here I will be listening to @fristi, the admin of Kartoffel.cafe's recommendations. (see section on “Associated Instances” on linked page)
If you don't think this instance fits you, or if you just want to know your “neighbors”, here's a list of associated instances:
- fedi.absturztau.be – Contrary to popular belief, it's not about pigeons. A cute and fluffy instance that is open to all.
- udongein.xyz – A digital shrine for worshipping the 2hu moonbunny. A cute and comfy instance, most recommended for comfy-posters.
- outerheaven.club – An easy-going friendly instance with no particular topic. A friendly instance that is open to all.
- princess.cat – A magical land of princes and princesses. A (very) cute and comfy instance, most recommended for cute-posters.
- blob.cat – One of the blobcats became sentient and started an instance. An instance with no particular subject that tries to be a good neighbor to all.
- weeaboo.space – A space for, as the name implies, weeaboos. A weeby and nerdy instance for weebs and techies alike.
- busshi.moe – A successor to niu.moe, a moe moe instance. As a niu.moe successor, it's a cute instance that aims to be open to all.[Mastodon]
- freespeechextremist.com – What gab.com wishes it could be. An instance centered around the principles of free speech.
- shitposter.club – 50% shit, 50% post; 100% shitpost. An instance that contains a lot of ironic humor.
- nulled.red – So retro they used the SNES logo font. An instance with no strictly defined topics. Currently requires an invite.[Mastodon]
- expired.mentality.rip – A place who's whole mentality has expired. A general instance with no strict topics, it promotes open communication.
- uwu.social – From the guys that made owo, the file sharing site. An open all-topics instance, with a sprinkle of uwu. [Mastodon]
- cofe.rocks – Yes it does. If you like cofe, this is for you. A small general instance for people that share a common interest in cofe.
- letsalllovela.in – An instance abstract enough for me to not have a description for it. [CLOSED Registrations atm]
- social.handholding.io – A very lovely handholding community. Please wash your hands after use!
Woah, Nelly — that's a Huge list !
Yes, and I actually left out a couple of listed ones, since they contain risqué things, like loli. I would not recommend this for legal reasons to start with.
From Fristi's huge list, which is wonderful by coming with descriptions and recommended by a current admin, I would select some for further research; I am looking at the instance size, and recommending medium and larger ones, with reliable uptime.
So, Look Up info on :
Blob.Cat : good numbers. US location is not ideal. But the admin is a know great guy. Recommended.
(@mewmew is also admin of Bushi.moe, but that is a Glitch-Social instance, a Mastodon variant which is much nicer, but this list is Pleroma focused)
Outer.Heaven : good numbers and an European location (!!) – ideal for privacy.
Weebspace : good info, Norway location.
Expired.Mentality.rip : smaller instance, admin is developer of Husky client, and if you like to participate in a project like that, beta test, offer suggestions, it's a cool place. English and Russian spoken frequently. Finland location.
Also Worth Considering, with Caveats :
Somewhat controversial, I have seen good posts by @P, admin of FSE, and some good comments about the second listed below :
FreeSpeechExtremists.com : as we would expect from the name, an American instance. I have met great people from there, although there's some rude users. Consider if Free Speech is your personal Flag, @P is a good admin. US location is not ideal.
Shitposters.club : If you are adventurous and have a sense of humour, it might work? US location, besides. But might be of interest to some.
And I think this can wrap it for today! Please send comments with any recommendations. Thank you.
Follow Blog via your Fediverse/Mastodon account :
@rgx@write.tedomum.net
This page created entirely in MarkDown language. Thank you for reading, feel free to comment about this post – reach me at my Writer's Lounge.
R.G. 
