1: Even big instances start out small.
2: Also having other instances besides the big ones helps prevent a monopoly over the fediverse.
3: Bigger isn't always better. Nothing wrong with a small Cozy community.

I run an instance focused on the needs of trans and gender diverse folk, because big instances run by cis folk tend not to deal with transphobia as well as I would like.

Centralised instances not dealing with transphobia is why I left most other social media platforms, so you can imagine I'm keen not to just repeat that experience here

I think you've correctly identified a problem, but misidentified the solution.

It's true that there are many redundant communities of which everyone would be better served if there were an easy way to group them together. The solution, however, is not to reduce the number of instances, but rather to provide more tools for instances to group communities together. You want communities to be spread across many instances because this maximizes user control - it's kind of the entire point? But of course, the lack of grouping makes it very difficult to try to centralize discussion, which is important for the community to grow. This service is still a work in progress, so these kinds of things - I hope - will come in time, as both the technology and culture develops.

tl;dr: centralized control bad, centralized discussion good, the current system does a bad job of reconciling these two positions

People say that a few large instances would be easy pickings for the profit motive, and monetizing.

There is a lot of handwringing over on mastodon about how people should not be directed to the large instances by default. And that people need to join the small instances to make sure mastodon (or fedi-verse) is not taken over by a few who want to profit off it. They mock those on large instances. They tell people they should join small instances.

But I have seen many small instances close and leave people in the lurch. I have seen a few people have to move several times.

I have seen users be abandoned and left with a broken instance that doesn’t work, and the admin nowhere to be seen.

I agree. But maybe the medium ones aren’t too bad.

The small intestine is actually the longest segment of the gastrointestinal tract — the long, continuous pathway that food travels through your digestive system. In the small intestine, food is broken down into liquid and most of its nutrients are absorbed. The waste is passed on to the large intestine.

A lotta folks host their own instance simply to have a bit more control over what they personally see since until 0.19, only instance admins can block an entire instance. It also allows you to see metrics you can't otherwise; such as the actual users who voted up and down on a specific post.

XKCD 927

I think you've missed the entire point. Like, completely missed it.

Then just don't start a community on a small one.

I'm a minuscule instance. That's fine. I like that I have control over it, how it's maintained and updated. If I want to convert it to Mbin because I like it more, I can. I know for sure it's going to live at least as long as I'm interested in the fediverse. Nobody can take it away from me.

Big instances are expensive to run, and in a way, they're not exactly immune to shutting down and big instances shutting down have a much bigger impact than a small one with few communities when they go poof.

So who should be in charge of deciding who can have an instance and who can't?

We only need a few big instances

Who is this we? Who are you speaking for?

Why do we need so many smaller ones?

Why do you care?

How are smaller instances impacting you?

You are not on the largest instance. Why not?

Why are you hanging out on a small instance...

When cars first started being mass produced it wasn’t just Ford doing it. There were like 50 manufacturers, big and small.