Lemmy.world is the largest instance, for what it’s worth.

Same here, which is why my Bluesky feed is much better. Everyone wants to be where everyone else is (that isn’t X), and it seems like that’s Bluesky.

I’m gonna echo what others have said here. The mastodon signup process is too complex, and searching for instructions just leads to “what is the fediverse and/or activitypub” explainers.

I created a mastodon account a few years ago and it was my first introduction to the fediverse. It was frustrating and I only persevered because I REALLY wanted to replace twitter.

Once I got it set up, I realized that no one who I followed on twitter was there. My feed is currently like 2 people, plus a bunch of dead accounts from people who dipped their toe in but didn’t stay.

Joining Bluesky was simple, and there were already a bunch of accounts I wanted to follow. The recent influx has increased that, and it feels a lot like old school twitter without the nazis.

People originally joined twitter (and stuck with it for so long) because that’s where everyone else is. Mastadon is too clunky join and use, so people aren’t.

Because the US doesn’t have a federal identification card. At the state level you can use the id number of someone’s drivers license or state id for identifying them, which is marginally better since it changes with new id cards.

SSNs weren’t intended to be used for identification, but since there’s no other national option they effectively are.

Beehaw had been around for a few years before lemmy.world launched. They have a specific sort of space they want to create, so good for them for being able to maintain it.

The yield is small enough that it isn’t a threat to the soldiers launching it. Still, I wouldn’t want to be the one tasked with firing it.

Yeah, it’s quieter so there’s fewer overall responses even in “popular” posts, but it doesn’t feel like anything gets ignored. If a post is interesting, you’ll get at least a few replies even if it takes a few days.

That part is kinda nice - the lower turnover on the “front page” means you’ll have people reading and commenting on discussions for days. If you reply to a 1-day old post on Reddit the only person who might see/reply to you is the person you replied to.

As annoying as it is to lug a bag around and find room for it, I much prefer this to checking it. There’s the small but nonzero chance your bag doesn’t make it to your destination, plus the added time waiting at baggage return.