So, I noticed something interesting while writing and testing a script.

The intent of the script is to connect to the API of your home instance, then list all of the communities for all instances that the home instance is federated with, sorted by number of subscribers.

The API endpoint to do this is “/api/v3/community/list”

My understanding is as follows:

• The argument “sort=TopAll” indicates that it should sort by number of subscribers
• The argument “type=All” indicates that it should show communities from the local instance and all federated instances.
• The argument “limit” indicates how many results to return (up to 50)
• The argument “page” indicates which page of “limit” items to return

So I should get more or less the same results if I run the same request against lemmy.world or lemmy.ml So I ran these two requests:

• https://lemmy.world/api/v3/community/list?type=All&sort=TopAll&limit=50&page=1

• https://lemmy.ml/api/v3/community/list?type=All&sort=TopAll&limit=50&page=1

With the first one, I get a mix mostly of lemmy.world, lemmy.ml, and beehaw.org communities. That’s what I’d expect. However, with the second, it’s all lemmy.ml communities.

So, like, what’s the deal?

Edit 2023-06-14T16:03Z

Seems something similar when I request for the endpoint on breehaw.org. The first page is a mix of breehaw.org and lemmy.ml results, but no other instances.

Edit 2023-06-14T16:12Z

It’s like they’re all different and all seem to favor their home instance? Some more than others, though.

• Lemmy.world is pretty well balanced.
• Lemmy.ml is all Lemmy.ml
• Beehaw.org is mostly Beehaw.org and Lemmy.ml
• Lemmy.ca is mostly lemmy.ca and lemmy.ml, with some beehaw.org mixed in
• Midwest.social is mostly midwest.social, lemmy.ml, and a little beehaw.org