this post was submitted on 04 Jan 2026
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If they gravitate to 3 others that's an improvement. Breaking up the 'too big too defed' instances is the only way to fix it.
Lemmy.ml isn't the second largest anymore.
In terms of actively hosted communities or userbase?
Active users.
A quick count on piefed's active user column indicates that only 5 out of the top 100 communities originate from lemmy.ml
Well that's reassuring to hear.
Hehe, sort by (Monthly) Active Users (MAUs) at https://lemmy.fediverse.observer/list - lemmy.ml has only 2k of them in total.
Lemmy.world has >14.1k, so is 7x larger. I seem to recall that at one point Lemmy.ml was the #6-7 instance, though now after much shuffling (including the enormous loss of lemm.ee) it seems to now be #3, behind sh.itjust.works with 2.5k. lemmy.zip (even after making PieFed.zip) and feddit.org are each nearly as large as Lemmy.ml, and Lemmy.dbzer0.com and lemmy.ca are not far behind.
PieFed has roughly as many MAUs as Lemmy.ml, with PieFed.social alone having 1k.
I blocked lemmy.ml a year ago and haven't missed it in the slightest. Granted, some communities such as "Firefox" are much smaller outside of it than on it, but that mainly affects niche content, and I still see so MANY Firefox posts on technology communities, that I don't find that I am missing anything. Occasionally I view content from other instances, and I cannot recall in nearly that whole year's time ever once regretting missing out on a comment from someone on Lemmy.ml - quite the opposite actually, some of the most batshit insane and even just commonly banal and self-serving comments all tend to come from that instance, and I find the Threadiverse on the whole a much nicer, more friendly, helpful and interesting place after having blocked it.
Of course, depending on what communities you are interested in, ymmv. Many people in communities located on Lemmy.ml are fine with turning a blind eye to everything going on ~~around the world~~ on that instance, and that's their decision (although in that case, if the content creators are allowed to hold their audience hostage, then why wouldn't we all still be on Reddit?), but for myself I have chosen the version of the Threadiverse that suits my own needs the best, and moved on. So I wanted to clarify that it is indeed very possible to do so, if you wanted.
Right, and there will just be another .ml and another .world. The problem won’t have been fixed, it’ll just be moved.
Those instances got big because they were the earliest ones and had the benefit of being the first people found.
People gravitate to where there’s people. Think of them the same as you would matter forming in an early solar system. They gravitate towards larger masses and the leather they get, the more pull it exerts.
Wherever the most people are, that’s where everyone will go when .world and .ml are gone, because nothing attracts a crowd like a crowd.
There will never be an evenly divided fediverse. It’s just now how people are.
The nature of the fediverse renders that moot, it doesn't matter what your home instance is you can still interact with the same masses.
What matters is that Lemmy.ml is home to many of the most active communities because it was there before others. They got an early foot in the door and that gave them a stranglehold on content.
Meh… I’d like .ml to vaporize simply because I have a thing against propaganda mills, aside from that, I’d say lemmy’s population is pretty evenly divided.
Personally, I don’t usually even look at who’s hosing the communities I comment in. I generally don’t care that much.
Currently Lemmy.world dominates with about 45% of community and user traffic. They are in slow decline relative to the fediverse.
Beyond them now, it's very even.
🤨 The .world duo are Zionist propaganda mills tho?
I personally try to avoid posting in any .ml because I don't want to give them content and a reason for others to visit them.
I don’t really see .world as being near the hive that .ml is. They moderate mostly fairly as I’ve seen both sides of that debate taken out if you break the rules.
Hell, I’ve had my shit removed for calling out tankies in .world so I’d say they’re far less biased.
.ml is like a kindergarten full of propagandized children.
Not equally so though, and while .world has a mod problem (making the admins enablers, although they do move on things, just exceedingly slowly), .ml has the opposite issue where mods are cowed by the admins doing the stuff directly by themselves.
So those two instances are not nearly equal. I sympathize more with .world's plight: it's really hard to get mods who can be fully fair (likely those very people involved would agree with that) while putting up with all the crap that people spew at them.
Also, you may have issues with the mods & admin of .world, but the normal people on it are more or less okay, on average - at least, what I would expect from the largest Lemmy instance (holding the laziest people, etc.). The people who remain behind on lemmy.ml on the other hand... are those who have adapted to exist inside of the echo chamber maintained by their admin team. I generally find their "arguments" and overall word vomit to be wasteful of my time, but aside from some trolls here or there I do not feel nearly the same way about the people on Lemmy.world, on average.
You are of course entitled to your own preferences about all of that:-) - I just wanted to point out that those two might be of the same kind in your eyes, but even if so I don't find them nearly on the same level as each other.