PieFed Meta

PieFed.zip would make an excellent default (as long as the admins are okay with such).

Later, additional work could be done as people are suggesting - picking based on user ping, weighted by things like overall stability (itself influenced by aspects such as newness), and with a trusted filter to avoid bad actors - but we don't seem really close to a need for that, I would guess, with the current levels of traffic? (It currently reports having only 164 MAUs, compared to PieFed.social's 1775 and PieFed.ca's 601.)

If PieFed.zip starts to become overwhelmed (although lemmy.zip never did? despite it being like the #5 instance with multiple thousands of MAUs, see https://lemmy.fediverse.observer/list and then the sidebar of https://lemmynsfw.com/ making it the real #2 despite not showing on the former list), then we could pick another instance to recommend as the default.

I suppose the main question, besides whether PieFed.zip's admins are okay with this, is whether other instances would feel unfairly discriminated against? The other chief alternative, at least if the goal is to entice users from Reddit specifically, might be PieFed.world, although there are only 4 Topic areas listed at https://piefed.world/topics (and until recently I thought there were none) so I wonder how ready they would be for an influx if it were to happen immediately. Feddit.online gives me pause to see "Stability: Medium", others such as PieFed.ca are more regional, quokk.au and Blåhaj PieFed etc. are more topical than general-purpose, and so on.

So that is why I think PieFed.zip seems a nearly unquestioned winner for now (though PieFed.world and Feddit.online might become more ready very soon), and then perhaps additional filters could be added at the top, to aid in picking e.g. regional or topical themed instances, like a series of questions asked of the user rather than having to simply read through the listing one by one.

Also, yeah remove the unhelpful I don't know help me button, and I would add an explicit acknowledgement that those instances are sorted by ping? It really helps to know that one detail!! (Especially if someone is using a proxy, they may want to change those settings in such case.)

Edit: another thought, perhaps replace the icons that are not explained with more standardized and immediately recognizeable indicators, such as 2 green up arrows for rocketship 🚀, 1 up arrow for lightning bolt ⚡, etc.

I really don't get folks that can't handle choosing something. I kinda feel I may be happier long term with the fediverse if that keeps them from signing up and engaging in it. Sorta of a you must be this tall to ride. You must be this competent to engage.

"It's like email" should lead, because it's not like reddit, and people have a general understanding of how email works - that it is decentralized, even if they don't know that word.

I chose the first one on the list because I had no idea. Then, a month later, it shut down and I had to remake my account.