HACKER Q&A
📣 PaulHoule

What Mastodon server should I choose?


As I've posted a lot to HN you can get an idea of my interests and style. I agree very much with the HN guidelines with the exception that I have a few interests, such as sports, that aren't welcome in HN.

What I don't like is continuous breathless posting about our political system being in a state of crisis and it doesn't matter to me if the crisis is that "they" want to take away your AR-15 or that "they" want to kick Disney and NASA out of Florida. (What both sides seem to agree on is they'd prefer to live under one-party rule like China)

I certainly like free software but I use Windows on a regular basis and don't want to be a pariah because of this.

On my current server I find some people I like but the "explore" page is 90% people I want to mute. I'm wondering where would be a better fit for me?

  👤 runarberg Accepted Answer ✓
Unless you have your own niche (say you are a climate scientist [https://fediscience.org, https://climatejustice.rocks], a radical anarchist [https://kolektiva.social], a union organizer [https://union.place], a train nerd [https://rail.chat], or a bot [https://botsin.space]) and there just so happens to be a server around your niche, or if you are otherwise a member of a small localized community (say you live in Hessen [https://hessen.social] or Iceland [https://lodfill.is]) then it doesn’t really matter which server you choose. By far the majority of the people you interact with are in your follower list, your local server mostly functions for discoverability (unless you are on the smaller more niche servers).
👤 1MachineElf
I use Mastodon Green and recommend it. I haven't seen much of the issues you describe - probably because it is hosted in the EU. I chose it because it is a paid membership-based instance, which gives me confidence in it's sustained availability.
👤 fmerian
hi Paul, based on your latest stories, I'd recommend Fosstodon (1) or Hachyderm. (2)

1 - https://fosstodon.org/ - open to anyone who is interested in technology; particularly free & open source software.

2 - https://hachyderm.io/ - safe space primarily comprised of tech industry professionals worldwide.