this post was submitted on 28 Jul 2026
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In the graph above I've arranged the 28 Threadiverse instances with at least 200 monthly active users (MAU)—orange instances running Lemmy, green Piefed, and red Mbin—on the basis of which instances they defederate.

Each instance has its MAU count listed below it, sourced from the latest MAU figures at Fediverse Observer, with adjustments made to the totals for Piefed (due to undercounting by outdated instances, as noted here; I used @Vicinus@piefed.zip's suggested estimate of 7,200 Piefed users) and Mbin (due to tardigram.com having a duplicate listing).

After adjustments, there are an estimated 43,287 monthly active Threadiverse users (35,184+7,200+903), of whom 87.84% are on the 28 largest instances. The percentages listed alongside the MAU figures correspond to each instance's share of the total MAU count.

Defederation data was sourced from Federation Checker. The tool doesn't support Mbin instances, so I left fedia.io in its own category. If any defederations are missing, feel free to let me know. Ideally such a chart should also include community blocks to better illustrate which instances block what, but that data doesn't appear to be as easily searchable.

I also noticed cases of some instances being listed as being defederated by another instance, despite not appearing on the defederation list for that instance (i.e. reddthat.com and lemmygrad.ml are listed as being mutually blocked, despite neither having the other on their block lists). In testing that federation, I noticed that !wholesome@reddthat.com did not federate to Lemmygrad while !memes@reddthat.com did, so clarification on that matter would be helpful.

While I'll update my generalized chart as needed to correct errors, perhaps at some point an automated federation mapping tool similar to the one feddit.de formerly hosted could be developed to more completely illustrate instance federation.

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[–] AlteredEgo@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

Thanks for the work, really interesting graph! I think it *might be easier to read if the rectangles were ovals or some morph between rectangle and oval, so that the overlapping groupings are a bit more distinct.

[–] Zedstrian@sopuli.xyz 1 points 2 hours ago

Thanks for the feedback; I'll try to make the groupings more distinct in the revision.

[–] brognak@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

Ok, I'll be the one to ask: What happened that 6 instances with 13% of the population combined blocked the porn instance?

[–] Zedstrian@sopuli.xyz 3 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago) (3 children)

As many instances were already blocking the original lemmynsfw.com, I suspect most do it as a means of moderating the feeds of new users who might not want to see porn. An alternative to this (as mentioned by @Cricket@lemmy.zip) would be blocking access to its communities (versus the instance itself) by default, allowing users to see replies from fedinsfw.app users and unblock the communities should they wish to. In either case, I think user retention is better served by limiting access to such content to those who are specifically interested in it.

For Multiverse and apparently Blahaj specifically, they defederate it over CP concerns due to it hosting a 'Fautbait' community.

[–] brognak@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 3 hours ago

Makes sense, thanks for the background!

[–] Cricket@lemmy.zip 1 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago) (1 children)

An alternative to this (as mentioned by @Cricket@lemmy.zip) would be blocking its communities (versus the instance itself) by default, allowing users to see replies from fedinsfw.app users and unblock the communities should they wish to.

Hey thanks for tagging me, but let me clarify because that's not exactly what I meant. Lemmy.zip doesn't block any communities by default (as far as I can recall, at least). It blocks a couple of instances by default, and each user can remove those blocks if they wish. This is different from defederating from those instances because defederation cannot be controlled by users, only by admins, but it's still an instance block, not community block.

[–] Zedstrian@sopuli.xyz 2 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago) (1 children)

Thanks for the clarification 👍 Clarified with italics that what is being blocked is access to the communities, rather than a direct blocking of individual communities.

The key distinction I wanted to highlight—aside from unblocking being an option—was that users from the blocked instance can still interact with communities on the blocking instance, compared to defederation.

[–] Cricket@lemmy.zip 2 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago)

No problem 👍

[–] rumba@lemmy.zip 1 points 3 hours ago

I always felt it was strange that it didn't just happen at the client level. Should have had flags in the initial design and moderate to enforce. Just turn the default off on all clients people can turn it on if they want.

The fautbait stuff is obviously a deeper problem

[–] MonaySimpson@lemmy.ml 3 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

What's the number and oercebt next to the arrows though?

[–] Zedstrian@sopuli.xyz 3 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago)

The number is the number of instances within the box blocking the instance in question, whereas the percentage is the percentage of overall Threadiverse users that those instances represent. For instance, at least 64.01% of Threadiverse users (the actual figure is higher as the 12% of users on smaller instances are not accounted for) cannot access Hexbear communities or interact with Hexbear users.

[–] leadore@lemmy.world 9 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago) (1 children)

OK I think I get how to read this, once I understood the concept. Very nice work.

Maybe it would be a little clearer if the lines where boxes overlap were just slightly offset -- it would help see and distinguish them. For example if the blue box was moved down by just a little more than the width of the red lines, instead of being directly on top of them. If that makes sense.

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[–] Ripley_Tripley@lemmus.org 3 points 9 hours ago (2 children)

The instance I'm in is definitely the odd ones out, we got no one here😅

[–] Zedstrian@sopuli.xyz 3 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

102 monthly active users, so if I expand the limit to 100 next time it would be included. Ideally all instances would be represented, but when doing it manually in a chart like this, at some point I have to draw a line.

[–] Ripley_Tripley@lemmus.org 1 points 6 hours ago

Yeah, I understand, it would be ALOT to record.

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