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 (5 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 (3 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?

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[–] 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.

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[–] Grail@multiverse.soulism.net 24 points 1 week ago (2 children)

We should add a button that says "I don't care, choose for me" that chooses a random server. Some of them will end up on Chinese Piefed, but most will be happy with their choice, and hopefully we can give the other two buttons good names that help people choose.

[–] cabbage@piefed.social 28 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

Judging by the discussion OP links to the text should probably read something like "I don't understand the question, just sign me up".

And those users need to be signed up to the site they are currently on, because that's where they will return to to sign in later on. If you forward them somewhere else they'll have no idea what's going on.

It's incredible how terrifying the prospect of a choice can apparently be to people who have grown up without any.

[–] cile.sb@piefed.social 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

The problem isn’t the choice itself – it’s that we don’t understand what we’re gaining or losing when picking a server. There’s no explanation of what a server is on the selection page. Does it really not matter which server I choose? Are the communities the same across all servers? If someone posts something on one server, will it be synced to all servers? My wife doesn’t know what the word “server” means, and I think most people are the same. Or are we expecting only IT folks to use the platform?

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[–] wjs018@piefed.wjs018.xyz 20 points 1 week ago (4 children)

Something like that could be a good place to utilize "trusted instances." So, instead of just choosing a random instance of all of the piefediverse, it chooses a random trusted instance.

The feedback in this thread overall has been helpful.

[–] Natanael@slrpnk.net 9 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Asking "what topics are you interested in" / "what communities do you like" and "what's important to you" would also help.

Also, "I'm a returning user who did not like the first choice X because of Y" should be an option.

You didn't like the moderation? Too many defederations? Wrong kind of weird? Bad server performance?

Then try to pick something for them that fixes those problems

[–] Skavau@piefed.social 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

This would also require many instances to set out in detail their location, focus etc and have a category system that recognises that.

[–] db0@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

The fediseer can help here both with the trusted instances and with finding servers based on tags

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[–] lemmyng@piefed.ca 21 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Mastodon is working on addressing this on their side, by trying to recommend instances geographically close to the user. Perhaps a similar process could be used here?

[–] rimu@piefed.social 4 points 1 week ago

Yes, that's what PieFed does now.

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[–] Skavau@piefed.social 19 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

Sorry, but some of the people in that thread arguing about federation (something they still don't understand) are not interested in finding out how it works.

You could literally make them an account on piefed.social, and they would still be confused on account of all of the communities and usernames from different servers.

I truly think it's best to not put too much stock in one obstinate user arguing about it when 10 others quietly sign up and try it out with no hand-holding needed.

[–] Blaze@piefed.zip 10 points 1 week ago (2 children)

There is definitely some bad faith among a few of those commenters.

However, we should probably try to still improve the signup process. As I said in the OP, Voyager's works already better, and that's a Fediverse app.

[–] Skavau@piefed.social 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

One user in particular. And nothing will ever satisfy them.

"I don't want a solution. I just want to be mad" if you are familiar with that mini comic

[–] Blaze@piefed.zip 6 points 1 week ago (14 children)

I just skimmed through the whole thread. That one user was the most vocal, but there were dozens of other people making similar comments.

We all have families that are not tech-savvy. My sister or my parents can use email just fine because the onboarding was easy, with defaults values that can just be used by most of the users without them having to make any choice.

I used Voyager's as an example, but DeltaChat works the same: you just put your name, and then you can start chatting. And it's federated and self-hostable, but it just hides it by default to make the sign up process easy

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[–] JackbyDev@programming.dev 3 points 1 week ago

Yeah, realistically, just get people onto a server (we can bike shed about which is best for that later) and then when they learn more about what they are/imply and what different ones are like they can move if they want to. I'm sure I'm preaching the choir here, but everything can be pretty easily migrated to your new account. The only thing that won't be is your old posts/comments and replies to those won't end up in your new inbox, but that's pretty minor.

[–] ICastFist@programming.dev 19 points 1 week ago (4 children)

I think the "it doesn't matter which server you pick" default reply should also be done away with, because it does matter. However, like e-mail, it allows you to communicate with every other server (unless you're in a server that's been widely banned for reasons) and can be online while other servers aren't.

[–] pelespirit@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 week ago

I think there should be a review page for instances that allows comments. That would help immensely. The person reviewing has to have been, or is currently a subscriber and it's listed how long. The longer, the higher the review.

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[–] moonshadow@slrpnk.net 16 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Keep it as-is specifically as a barrier to entry for reddit user "icankillpenguins"

[–] Crozekiel@lemmy.zip 8 points 1 week ago

Is there a way to make it easier for literally everyone else but conversely making it significantly more complicated specifically for reddit user "icankillpenguins"?

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[–] socsa@piefed.social 14 points 1 week ago

Honestly if this extremely low barrier keeps out the Facebook crowd then it's doing God's work.

[–] SatansMaggotyCumFart@piefed.world 14 points 1 week ago (1 children)

It should just default to the last instance cm0002 commented from.

[–] nocturne@slrpnk.net 7 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Unsure which I have more of on my block list, *moe communities, or cmbots.

[–] HubertManne@piefed.social 5 points 1 week ago

even way back when there were less and people asked about people you blocked it was like. well half of them are alternates of one account so should really just be counted as one.

[–] illi@piefed.social 12 points 1 week ago

I'm an European so I shouldn't agree I guess but I do. There should be a basic explanation on why a server has to be picked and having a "recommended" choice to pick could ease people in.

[–] RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world 7 points 1 week ago (2 children)

This person is bordering on willfully obstinate. Any time you sign up for a service there are choices to be made. Social media will ask you to pick people or subjects to follow, sites will want you to pick communications preferences, etc.

Pick one server. Make the account. Don’t like it? Pick another. It doesn’t matter, there’s no karma here to hoard. Abandon that account you don’t like. Pick three. It’s like people can’t handle the freedom of choice.

[–] Croquette@sh.itjust.works 6 points 1 week ago

Modern Web has spoiled the average user. You never have to choose a server.

Need an account? Link your gmail/meta/whatever.

If there is a little bit of friction, the average user won't use it because corpos made sure that everything is a one click setup. And Lemmy is different in that regard, a bit old school.

[–] ManaYoodSushai@feddit.org 5 points 1 week ago

Making choices is inherently stressful. Particularly if you don't know how much the choice matters. If your goal is to onboard as many people as possible (which it may well not be) then reducing the number of choices is always preferred.

[–] rimu@piefed.social 7 points 1 week ago (1 children)

The default choice is whatever instance you're currently on.

From https://piefed.social/auth/instance_chooser:

image

"I don't know, help me" scrolls you down to look at the instances (about 1cm, lol). I'm sure THAT could be more helpful!

[–] Blaze@piefed.zip 6 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Maybe the default join should be bigger, and leave the other options for people who really want to have a look.

Actually, now that I think about it, and based on the Voyager screenshot above, maybe it should be something like

  • Big visible button "Join CurrentServer"
  • Less visible button "Pick another server"

And then only if people pick the second option, then then list appears.

That would make it less confusing for new joiners (they would just go the default path), and still gives people the option to look around.

[–] rimu@piefed.social 5 points 1 week ago

Yes, I agree

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[–] laranis@lemmy.zip 5 points 1 week ago

Gonna say it again, but I like there being a minor barrier to entry on Lemmy. Like, if you can't even be bothered to pick a server then we don't want you here. If you want your social media to be spoon fed to you, fuck right off. If you want a reddit or Facebook clone, you're part of the problem.

Having a basic understanding of the Fediverse should be a prerequisite. Having to choose a server is a feature, a bare minimum. And as much as I want to see more content and more engagement here, I don't want to see it dumbed down either.

[–] pinball_wizard@lemmy.zip 5 points 1 week ago

I don't like the idea of a default server, because someday it will be the wrong one.

Much like recommending Linux I'm sure to specify "Linux Mint" and when I recommend XMPP I'm sure to specify jabber.org.

But it sounds like we could just be pointing newbies to Voyager or Piefed for awhile? I like various apps having a default, because we can always start recommending different app, if there's issues.

[–] artyom@piefed.social 5 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (16 children)

The problem with your suggestion is that it creates centralization. See Mastodon.social, matrix.org, etc.

The solution, I have posted before, is to ask instances to be opted into a directory, and then present the user with a random suggestion from that list. There should be some basic criteria like uptime and a proper set of rules laid out of course.

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[–] cabbage@piefed.social 4 points 1 week ago (2 children)

I think parts of this could be addressed through design, by making the option to sign up for the current instance a little bit more visible on the sign up page.

It could maybe also link a little information about why one should consider signing up elsewhere, which could also be the place to document things like speed and reliability.

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[–] eleijeep@piefed.social 4 points 1 week ago

The Fediverse doesn't need to optimise for appealing to the lowest common denominator.

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