I've been kicking around the idea for a while of moving to another instance for a while for two reasons:
We're primarily on lemmy.ca because there was already a skeleton community here (around 80 subscribers pre-July migration)
I believe that whose local feed we're on has a significant impact on the overall tenor and level of interaction here.
This post is definitely not intended to suggest we've had any issues with lemmy.ca, but it always seemed like an odd fit. So my question to y'all is this: If you could choose any instance to have an outsized effect on this community, which would it be?
The only real reason I can think to move is if your current instance is regularly down for extended periods or if a lot of other instances defederate it.
Some other instances that have come to mind: https://slrpnk.net - Seems like something of a natural fit considering they are also the home of [email protected] which is roughly the same size and number of active users https://lemmy.world - This is a fairly general community and so it makes some sense to be on a fairly general instance
I'm a user on https://slrpnk.net and thoroughly enjoy my home feed. Climate, nature, solarpunk futurism, memes, soil, activism, creative pursuits, anarchism, different kinds of liberation.
If you do decide to move; I'd be pleased to have you as part of my home instance
My lemmy "philosophy" is that generic centralization should be discouraged. I prefer more "category-like" centralization. This is not just to support my preferred usage pattern (browse and participate "local" on multiple instances), but to ensure that lemmy doesn't evolve toward major centralized instances that end up just being just another clone of the various commercial platforms.
Centralization means less diversity in rules, less diversity in enforcement, and higher instance costs. I think the loss of diversity is just a bad idea, because it leaves less room for widespread experimentation. Higher instance costs could be a problem if instance owners find themselves needing to monetize the instance in order to remain solvent. The outcome is a generally less resilient system.
I enjoy a lot of communities on lemmy.world, but I'd recommend against moving a community into it. Centralizing more communities there doesn't feel productive, and I don't think it would help with user numbers.
If you do want to move, slrpnk is cool and I think this community could succeed there. Personally, I think the best solution would be to promote this community around the Fediverse regardless of if you stay on this instance or move to another one. Places like [email protected] and the other ones listed here: https://lemmy.ca/post/5581032.
Thanks for thinking about these things and for working on the community!