The instance list has a couple of recommended sites at the top. They are defined in this file and seperated by language. For most languages there is only one recommendation or none at all, so you can simply add yours by making a pull request.

In case of English, the situation is a bit different. The current recommended instances (beehaw.org and sopuli.xyz) are already quite large and would be shown near the top of the list anyway. So it makes sense to recommend smaller instances instead.

To be recommended, an instance should meet these requirements:

  • It should be a general purpose instance
  • At least one member of the admin team needs to be in the Instance admin chat to coordinate with other admins
  • The admin team needs to be prepared for a large influx of users, both in terms of hardware and moderation

We can use this thread to discuss which instances should be recommended. There is no maximum number of recommendations, but it should be an even number to work with the desktop layout.

On a side note, the instance list itself could use many improvements such as showing more details about instances or using different sorting methods. If you are a programmer or web designer, you can contribute to improve the website.

Edit: If you are a Lemmy admin and want your instance to be recommended, go ahead and open a pull request for this file. Developers can also contribute in the same repo to improve join-lemmy.org.

  • veroxii@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    Controversial idea: I think we should remove the “users per month” number on the instance list. It’s confusing to newbies and encourages people to join a “large” instance when the number doesn’t really correlate with actual server capacity.

    Edit: And don’t display the ones with 1 or fewer users. They are obviously private single user ones. If someone wants to start a public one, they’ll be able to come get 2 or 3 others to join up and they’ll pop onto the list.

    • Heimchen@lemmy.mlEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      Yea, when I looked for an instance to join, the activ user number discouraged me and I thought that these instances are basically dead. Maby just a baar without numbers just saying very activ - unactiv would be better.

      • AnonStoleMyPants@sopuli.xyzEnglish
        1·
        1 year ago

        Same here. The numbers looked sooo low that I was thinking that everything is dead, but it is not. Though I did go to sopuli due to being Finnish but anyway.

      • veroxii@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        1 year ago

        Exactly. Or allow the instance owners to specify large, medium or small, depending on whether or not they have the capacity and resources for more people.

      • veroxii@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        1 year ago

        Okay, I’ve made the changes locally, but before I put up a PR, do you agree to these changes?

        • nutomic@lemmy.mlOPMEnglish
          1·
          1 year ago

          I already opened a PR to remove instances with less than 5 users. Anyway go ahead and open a PR to remove the active count, it makes sense to me.