In the graph above I’ve arranged the 28 Threadiverse instances with at least 200 monthly active users (MAU)—orange instances running Lemmy, green Piefed, and red Mbin—on the basis of which instances they defederate.
Each instance has its MAU count listed below it, sourced from the latest MAU figures at Fediverse Observer, with adjustments made to the totals for Piefed (due to undercounting by outdated instances, as noted here; I used @Vicinus@piefed.zip’s suggested estimate of 7,200 Piefed users) and Mbin (due to tardigram.com having a duplicate listing).
After adjustments, there are an estimated 43,287 monthly active Threadiverse users (35,184+7,200+903), of whom 87.84% are on the 28 largest instances. The percentages listed alongside the MAU figures correspond to each instance’s share of the total MAU count.
Defederation data was sourced from Federation Checker. The tool doesn’t support Mbin instances, so I left fedia.io in its own category. If any defederations are missing, feel free to let me know. Ideally such a chart should also include community blocks to better illustrate which instances block what, but that data doesn’t appear to be as easily searchable.
I also noticed cases of some instances being listed as being defederated by another instance, despite not appearing on the defederation list for that instance (i.e. reddthat.com and lemmygrad.ml are listed as being mutually blocked, despite neither having the other on their block lists). In testing that federation, I noticed that !wholesome@reddthat.com did not federate to Lemmygrad while !memes@reddthat.com did, so clarification on that matter would be helpful.
While I’ll update my generalized chart as needed to correct errors, perhaps at some point an automated federation mapping tool similar to the one feddit.de formerly hosted could be developed to more completely illustrate instance federation.
That guy was brash, but I somewhat agree with him. This place is full of people who left reddit for a multitude of reasons. Just think about that. Reddit didn’t suffice for the vast majority of people here, and now those same people are circlejerking each other in an echo chamber the size of McDonald’s PlayPlace tube. This is why Lemmy, in my opinion, won’t last long.
That and McDonald’s PlayPlace tubes smell like socks.
I also don’t think the Threadiverse should be an echo chamber, nor do I think that user deserved a temp ban for expressing their frustration with it. Ultimately, fewer defederations, more acceptance of differing opinions, and being welcoming of users who aren’t interested in politics are the primary viable means for the platform to grow beyond being a niche echo chamber.
The problem is those two are strongly tied to the idea that the people who come here have to be respectful enough. The people who first populated these places did it to escape from things like capitalism, right-wing nutjobs and the like; saying only “oh we have to be more accepting of difering opinions” basically puts the blame on the victim.
As for the subjects that are not politics, we have cats and beans. That should suffice.
Agreement with differing ideas isn’t necessary, but willingness to tolerate difference is necessary if the Threadiverse is to grow beyond 40,000 MAU.
Given that we’re already at a disadvantage due to the network effect, as long as new users aren’t racist, homophobic, transphobic, fascist, or otherwise exclusionary, they shouldn’t be pushed out for having differing political beliefs to the group norm. Instances need not enforce rigid orthodoxy to a broad set of beliefs to avoid becoming a Nazi bar.
Beyond politics, many potential users would rather see non-political content in any case, something that is largely lacking compared to the broad availability of content on Reddit. Many users are unfortunately not willing to switch over without a greater proportion of such communities active here from the get-go. Even if such users join for different reasons than existing users, a greater MAU count would help reverse the user count hemorrhaging than has gradually occurred since the initial mass exodus from Reddit in 2023.