The biggest surprise for me was the https://hexbear.net count, an instance I hardly interact with.

Community Count Community Subscriber Count
beehaw.org 6 133450
hexbear.net 33 663204
lemdro.id 1 17052
lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 15907
lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 53006
lemmy.ml 14 356460
lemmy.one 1 16257
lemmy.world 39 851950
lemmynsfw.com 2 33586
sh.itjust.works 1 16006
sopuli.xyz 1 14093

The data this is based on comes from https://lemmyverse.net where you can just download a full json of the data they have (I excluded all communities marked as “suspicious”)

EDIT: The data if you sort by active users last month:

Community Count Community Active Month Count
awful.systems 1 2616
feddit.org 2 7363
feddit.uk 2 5289
hexbear.net 1 2952
lemdro.id 1 2898
lemm.ee 3 8898
lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 11422
lemmy.ca 3 14910
lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 13752
lemmy.ml 10 54949
lemmy.world 57 338384
lemmy.wtf 1 3602
lemmy.zip 3 12020
mander.xyz 1 11469
sh.itjust.works 5 37365
slrpnk.net 3 10897
sopuli.xyz 2 10070
ttrpg.network 1 4107

Community Count:

Community Users:

  • JackbyDev@programming.devEnglish
    0·
    5 months ago

    Your comments are stored on both. The “canonical” version would be on your home instance but every instance that is federated with your instance would get a copy of your comments. I think it’s even possible to have your content removed from one instance but not another. One of my posts shows as removed in the mod log but isn’t actually removed.

    • Natanael@slrpnk.netEnglish
      0·
      5 months ago

      So by default your instance respect mod removals.

      You can change that as a server admin, so comments would remain visible to other users on your instance.

      I think your instance is authoritative for content of comments, but the community hosting instance is authoritative for which comments are approved (other instances respect such removals by default)

      • JackbyDev@programming.devEnglish
        0·
        5 months ago

        That’s a good way of putting it. While my instance holds my canonical comments and the communiy’s instance holds the canonical list of comments on a post, if the community’s instance isn’t federated with my instance (or the pair temporarily cannot communicate) then my comments won’t show in the list.

        • pseudo@jlai.lu
          0·
          5 months ago

          If you want to run some more test, here a community dedidacted to that: [email protected].

          You can be as thorough as you want without worrying about spamming people (^_^)

      • JackbyDev@programming.devEnglish
        0·
        5 months ago

        Alright. I wanted to verify something to double check. Here is the flow of how my comment gets to your instance and is visible by you. It helps when you realize that all communications you do are with your instance. I might get inbox/outbox terminology reversed or wrong.

        1. I post a comment to [email protected], but it is done through https://programming.dev/c/[email protected]. this goes to programming.dev’s inbox.
        2. Because lemmy.world is federated with programming.dev, they scoop up my comment from programming.dev’s outbox
        3. Because jlau.lu is federated with lemmy.world, they get my comment from lemmy.world.
        4. When you view [email protected] through jlau.lu/c/[email protected] you will see my comment from your server’s copy of it.

        I say the canonical copy is on my home instance because imagine a scenario where lemmy.world is NOT federated with programming.dev but for whatever reason programming.dev didn’t defederate back. I could still see and comment on [email protected]. Other users of programming.dev could see my comments and reply, but nobody else.

        This is how I understand federation to work but it might be incorrect. It’s a complicated topic. It might be that your instance directly gets the comment from mine.