EDIT: we just crossed 30K 🥳

We are now at 28.5K users (see https://lemmy.fediverse.observer/list). The top 10 instances also got a decent boost in user count. With the exception of beehaw.org which defederated, the Fediverse is thriving 🔥

  • SickIcarusEnglish
    251·
    2 years ago

    It’s gotta start somewhere though. It makes sense that as refugees flock over they’ll gravitate towards the largest instance, because the expectation is that’s where the usage is and they don’t yet grok how the Fediverse works. As they settle in, I’d expect a number of them to spread out a bit. Once we can migrate accounts I’d expect the load to be distributed even better.

    • pzza@lemmy.worldEnglish
      10·
      2 years ago

      Load would not be distributed though right? Because all the user data / activity would just be copied to every federating instance. Fediverse is more about redundancy & lack of centralized control, rather than load balancing.

      • SickIcarusEnglish
        5·
        2 years ago

        Yes and no? Maybe? I’m still figuring out how all this works lol. I know that instances take on the load of their users and communities.

        • pzza@lemmy.worldEnglish
          7·
          2 years ago

          As I understand it the federation protocol is copying all the data from instance to instance. I think data is probably going to be the most taxing part of running a social media site, but since all the data is replicated, there wont be much load sharing there. Each instance will be taking care of the cpu/load requirements of rendering/serving the pages for their users, so there is some scaling benefits there to distribution. Anyway, I’m also still learning as well! I think we all are lol

    • Corhen@lemmy.worldEnglish
      61·
      2 years ago

      When I signed up to lemmy.world, I thought I was choosing one instance to use. I didn’t intially realize they were ALL available from RVERY instance.

      Since then I’ve joined Lemmy.ca, lemmynsfw, and beehaw.

      • tias@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
        14·
        2 years ago

        But then you’re still not getting it? You don’t need to join other instances, you can subscribe to communities from any instances in the Fediverse without joining another instance.

        • Corhen@lemmy.worldEnglish
          31·
          2 years ago

          That’s what I’m saying, when I joined I thought I HAD to, since I didn’t understand federation.

          Now I know how it works