this post was submitted on 03 Feb 2026
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Should we revisit the instance picker to have an easier default choice? (infosec.pub)
submitted 1 week ago by Blaze@piefed.zip to c/piefed_meta@piefed.social
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Source: https://old.reddit.com/r/BuyFromEU/comments/1quso40/european_reddit_alternative_piefed_users_surge/o3cfxy9/

Also found in a !fedibridge@lemmy.dbzer0.com post by @biltong@piefed.co.za : https://piefed.co.za/c/fedibridge/p/22233/post-on-r-buyfromeu-on-the-recent-surge-of-users-to-piefed

I like the way Voyager does it: image

https://vger.app/profile

DeltaChat also has a very easy onboarding process: you just put your name, and that's it. The app creates the password in the background and allows you to switch servers easily. That really helps with onboarding new joiners.

Piefed.zip could be a nice default choice. If there are others you see, feel free to suggest.

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[–] INeedMana@piefed.zip 30 points 1 week ago (4 children)

I'm afraid that icankillpenguins might be right. That most people don't really know what a server is, so when asked to pick one they freeze

My thoughts, numbered only for potential referencing

  1. I guess for now it could be managed by hand which server they get routed to. But that's not an ideal solution IMO
  2. I think that idea of checking response speeds is a good idea
  3. keeping option to read the instance's description and choose another one is a good idea
  4. theoretically, joining a general instance vs an opinionated one might not work for those that are not opinionated or are opinionated the other way. So I think it should be discussed if instances should be able to mark themselves as general or opinionated and the initial choice be from among the general ones
  5. it would be a good idea to somehow rotate between proposed instances based on MAU or some other metric
[–] weingeist@piefed.social 21 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I signed up a minute ago, and I was so confused (still am, tbh). But luckily there was the button "I dont know, help" me, which scrolled down a centimeter, which was actually not that helpful :D

[–] Sergio@piefed.social 10 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Well you made a good decision! If you still need help, look here:

[–] Blaze@piefed.zip 8 points 1 week ago (1 children)
[–] Sergio@piefed.social 6 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I was gonna say: if you still have questions after that, then just @Blaze@piefed.zip

[–] Blaze@piefed.zip 6 points 1 week ago

And if you have a language issue, !languagesettings@lemmy.zip

[–] Eyekaytee@aussie.zone 7 points 1 week ago (1 children)

maybe like p2p/torrent? prioritise based on some mathematical equation involving bandwidth, users and server stability

if this means a few big pro run servers end up taking the dominant share is this really a bad thing so long as other servers are available?

[–] EkHouVanBraai@piefed.co.za 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I'd say for the health of decentralisation we don't really want to encourage any server having more than ~15% of users.

[–] Blaze@piefed.zip 6 points 1 week ago (1 children)

If 10k new Piefed users show up tomorrow if is better to lose them or to have them on two instances that would both have 40% of the userbase?

[–] EkHouVanBraai@piefed.co.za 2 points 1 week ago

It's better to keep them for sure. I'm just saying in a perfect world.

With the servers and setup we have now it's probably best if they just end up and the most stable wel run instances (as I've been pointing then to)

[–] fizzle@quokk.au 5 points 1 week ago

I think point 4 is critically important. It's great that the fediverse has kooky instances but lets not throw new users to the wolves by referring them to "random" instances.

IMO, pre-select a half dozen good choices, discard the third with the slowest response times, make a random selection from the remainder.

[–] Nusm@piefed.social 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I’m afraid that icankillpenguins might be right.

Not something that I thought I would read today. 🤷🏻‍♂️

[–] INeedMana@piefed.zip 1 points 1 week ago

I meant only in the context of the pasted image, not that whole other thread