OP here: IMO choosing an instance is mostly a big decision about nothing. What I mean is its an annoying barrier of a decision you gotta make to play that’s both cheap to change AND probably will have very little impact on your experience.
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In two weeks you probably won’t care which instance you picked. 90% of instances are going to be relatively generic: same posts, same communities, same federation.
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If for some reason you do regret your first pick in a couple weeks, you’ll know, and you probably won’t feel like its a big deal to switch. There’s no karma, and losing your account’s link to a couple weeks of post/comment history is, at least to me, a little 🤷♀️.
My advice would be: pick any semi generic instance to start (e.g. lemmy.world), and if you’re curious about more curated instances (there’s a lot less of these, most notable is beehaw.org) make an account on them a few days later just to check out the vibe.
The only wrong decision is to waffle lol.
YSK: how to painlessly migrate you and us from reddit
Signing up
Pick an interface. Do you prefer to browse Reddit with:
- apollo: try https://wefwef.app
- old.reddit.com: try https://lemmy.world
- reddit.com: try https://kbin.social
Flip a coin, pick an instance. Are you:
- indecisive: use https://lemmy.world
- decisive: see https://github.com/maltfield/awesome-lemmy-instances
- using https://kbin.social: you already have an instance
Building momentuum
- Jumpstart your subscription list using https://redditmigration.com
- Try commenting or posting. Just try it! Many people who stopped engaging on reddit find the community more rewarding here.
- Try sticking with Lemmy / Kbin for a few days. Until your fingers learn to get their fix a new way, and you get your subscription list built up a bit.
What next?
Many people are happy at this point… but what to do if you want to help the switch to fediverse but you’re still jonesing for reddit after a few days? A few ideas….
- Its OK! Reddit simply has more volume and a bigger stack of communities as of Jun 30, 2023. Its /probably/ (?) not going to disappear overnight. Its not an either/or, you can use lemmy / kbin more and more over time.
- Start your internet browsing time on lemmy / kbin first. If you’re “still hungry”, supplement with reddit.
- Consider instituting a “read only reddit” policy: no posts, comments, or upvotes. Its MUCH easier to stop adding to Reddit than it is to quit cold turkey. If you don’t like reddit’s behavior, this is a good way to collectively switch momentum toward the fediverse without making big personal sacrifices.
Along similar lines, I’d like to offer a relatively easy and “organic” approach for Lemmy-ings that want to help the fediverse grow, but aren’t ready to cold turkey quit Reddit’s admittedly still larger pool of posts and comments:
Suggested approach to switching with minimal pain: ** Read-Only on Reddit, Read-Write on Kbin & Lemmy **
Reddit was made by all/many of us (with special nod to mods). Reddit wants to be a media company instead of a community? Fine: switch to consumption only.
This is a LOT easier an approach to follow than principled “I’m only reading Lemmy even if it really doesn’t have the community/posts that I miss” approaches, and in the long term it should still result in a transition of interesting thoughts, memes, etc moving to Lemmy.