this post was submitted on 28 Jul 2026
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Fediverse

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A community to talk about the Fediverse and all it's related services using ActivityPub (Mastodon, Lemmy, Mbin, etc).

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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the latest MAU figures at Fediverse Observer, with adjustments made to the totals for Piefed (due to undercounting by outdated instances, as noted here; I used @Vicinus@piefed.zip's suggested estimate of 7,200 Piefed users) and Mbin (due to tardigram.com having a duplicate listing).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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[–] MonkderVierte@lemmy.zip 5 points 20 hours ago (9 children)
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[–] taiyang@lemmy.world 15 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Things that pop out to me:

  1. The Internet was made for porn, both in users and less defederating.
  2. The main blocks really are mostly the Triad (grad, hexbear and ml) which I get. I personally don't mind tankies despite the instance I'm on, but they can sometimes echo Russian propaganda that's demonstrably false. Communism as a concept is ok, though.

The Beehaw thing predates me, I heard they're nice people, though. I also agree with the sentiment that more fringe groups and random porn might scare away newbies, so I get why things are the way they are.

[–] Auster@thebrainbin.org 4 points 19 hours ago
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[–] CovertOperative@piefed.zip 6 points 22 hours ago (3 children)

What's the beef between beehaw and lemmy.world?

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[–] JRaccoon@discuss.tchncs.de 14 points 1 day ago (4 children)

Kinda eye-opening, thx for making the chart. I hadn't realized it had gotten this bad. In my opinion, defederation should only ever be used to combat spam, not because of ideological differences or disputes between individuals.

One of the most common tips for people looking to switch over from Reddit has been that the instance you choose doesn't really matter. But it clearly does. Choose the "wrong" instance and you may suddenly find yourself cut off from a sizable portion of other users because someone else decided they know better than you what you should and shouldn't see.

I'm lucky to be on an instance that has "only" defederated one instance in this chart (lemmygrad.ml). I don't really follow the drama around here, so I have no idea why that instance is banned. All I see is that there are 558 active users I'll never be able to interact with just because someone I don't personally know (my instance admin) made that decision at some point.

Wasn't there just a big drama because some app developer built-in their own opinionated blocklist into their app or something? How is this any different?

My point being, why not leave these kinds of drastic decisions to individual users, who can and should block whoever they want, instead of dividing threadiverse into silos at the instance level?

[–] Zedstrian@sopuli.xyz 12 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (7 children)

Note that defederations with smaller instances (representing 12% of users) are not represented here, so there are even more defederations than what is listed here. Hopefully that will come across better with more data in the next version of the graph.

As requiring new users to implement multiple blocks off the bat can be a big ask for those still on the fence about leaving Reddit, defederating known NSFW, troll, and tankie instances can improve new user retention. For those who prefer more hands-off moderation practices, specific instances can cater to them, but I think a more tailored experience is better for users arriving from Reddit.

[–] JRaccoon@discuss.tchncs.de 10 points 1 day ago

I think the main issue is that this isn't communicated clearly. Most people joining a random instance listed on join-lemmy.org won't know what defederation means and they have no way of knowing that by choosing that particular instance they'll be cut off from a certain number of other users.

[–] spinning_disk_engineer@lemmy.ca 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I'm not so sure, I'd rather have a prepopulated blocklist that I can further configure myself, as opposed to instance level blocks that I can't reverse.

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[–] OpenStars@piefed.social 7 points 1 day ago (7 children)

Many fantastic instances do exactly that.

But in answer to your question, you may want to research The Intolerance Paradox. In short, when people refuse to follow the rules it kinda becomes spam. Even if you were okay with CSAM or pictures of pigs actively showing the poop falling out of their anuses (sadly, I bet you think I am being hyperbolic here? nope, this is kinda Hexbear's major schtick), the fact remains that it scares away newcomers.

I will note that if you self-host your own instance then you have perfect control over every aspect of your experience, being able to fine-tune it to perfectly suit your precise needs. Otherwise you will want to choose an instance provider that aligns with whatever your needs are. Some people will choose one of the instances that defederates from almost nothing, while others actually want an experience that is more what they are used to and would expect coming over from the overly bot-modded Reddit, i.e. they want (even outright demand) that censorship be done for them.

This is why the instance pickers need to carefully explain what each instance is about, since there is not just one audience with a single set of needs & expectations.

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[–] NaibofTabr@infosec.pub 6 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

This is what organic growth looks like. It spreads in fits and starts, bits of it clump together and pile up, pieces of it separate and take on life of their own or die. When part of it rots (hexbear) the larger organism cuts it off to limit the spread of disease.

Lemmy (and more generally, ActivityPub) is growing, not like a rose bush, but like a field of grass. Some pieces of it are blooming, some pieces of it are dying, some pieces are adapting to different environments, but the spread is inexorable and the horizon unlimited.

If you want to see what the field is like on the other side of that hill, well it won't just come to you, you'll have to get up and go to it.

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[–] basxto@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 20 hours ago (5 children)

Does that mean that discuss does not federate with lmmy.ml, lemmygrad, programming.dev and hexbears?

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[–] Grail@multiverse.soulism.net 3 points 20 hours ago

Wow, infosec.pub is based!

[–] birdwing@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

Graph is very big resolution-wise, it lags. Do you have a slightly smaller one?

[–] Zedstrian@sopuli.xyz 10 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

Here's a version exported at 150 DPI instead of 300:

[–] birdwing@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 22 hours ago

Thanks, that works! :3

[–] pruwybn@discuss.tchncs.de 12 points 1 day ago

This is cool, thanks!

[–] Shadow@lemmy.ca 7 points 1 day ago (3 children)

Hmm, piefed.ca is supposed to follow the lemmy.ca defed list, I'd expect both to be the same.

Use of colors for software is confusing, since I expected it to be based on the % or something. A legend would be clutch for those of us that look at pictures and get confused, then read the text...

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[–] CubitOom@infosec.pub 5 points 1 day ago (7 children)

I like the info, but why are you calling it the threadiverse?

Is this somehow the official name and I just never heard it called that in the 3 years I've been here?

Is this meta propaganda?

Are instances getting dethrederated?

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