I saw that this instance had a large number of users so I thought “more users->more content->more fun”. Apparently, I had to prove my value by answering 3 questions that showed my interest in their community and my value as a potential future member.

What could possibly be my value to a general purpose instance besides money? I’m a software/cloud engineer so I guess there are things I could help with, but my guess is they were expecting me to say “I can donate”.

I get it, they need donations to exist, but this upfront? And to a community I don’t even know? Maybe I’m imagining things and they were looking for something else?

Do all instances rely on donations? I’d like to contribute to the instances I enjoy at some point. But only if I feel at home with them, not as a prerequisite to join.

  • @[email protected]English
    20•1 year ago

    Beehaw is notoriously strict with their content and philosophical approach to federation. Last I checked they banned hundreds of instances. That’s not my style. I looked for a well moderated instance that left the banning to the user and kept the server up to date and running. In fact I think they still have no instances banned yet. VLemmy did make me register and wait for approval which happened that same day and it’s been a real pleasure.

    I have accounts on other instances and Kbin and all instances seem to carry about the same posts when sorting by All. The fediverse requires the user to search a bit more for the community that fits them best, and that’s a good thing.

    Try a few instances and platforms. Kbin is pretty cool but not really my thing, I love Mastodon and my instance (shout out to mas.to and @[email protected]).

    • archomrade [he/him]English
      2•1 year ago

      It’s nit-picky but you don’t “ban” instances, you just de-federate with them. Individual users in a de-federated instance can still see posts, and can participate if they move to another instance.

      It’s a way of preventing brigading, if a single instance is the source of a lot of problematic users. With better moderation tools, defederation well become less common.