FWIW I’ve found mstdn.social to be generally well (strictly) moderated against abuse, no-nonsense about yeeting dogwhistlers into space, and technically solid. I like big instances because they help with the gaps in federated UX.

We’re defederated by a few instances for various philosophical reasons, and our main admin briefly defederated from another big instance over a disagreement a few weeks back, but then went back. Overall, I’ve had a good experience with the way the instance runs.

@kissane
so I am a part of https://cyberfurz.social/about it's been very pleasant it is administrated by @hack13 and I like my instance because it's really small and there's a good sense of community especially the social VR community it feels really comfy and nice

and I believe it has a zero tolerance Policy towards sexism, racism, discrimination, and hate speech.

but unfortunately it is on a acceptance basis but members can invite people

@kissane phpc.social is populated by PHP developers, who tend to be pretty good folks. We have a mod team of 10 or so, in theory, including me. Most reports are acted on before I even see them. The other mods are fairly on the ball.

We generally only defederate for harboring hate groups. No plans to get into the whole FB kerfuffle until/unless FB actually does something.

@kissane I'm not entirely sure whether this fits your intentions, but your post just inspired me to write a thread about self-hosting your own instance instead of joining an existing one:

https://social.mei-home.net/@mmeier/110640996983349070

@kissane My partner and I are on our own self-hosted Mastodon (and also Lemmy now) instance.

It's obviously not for everyone, but I personally think the self-hosted route is a pretty good way to go if you have the aptitude and have a bit of experience w/ the fediverse.

Gives you complete control of who you're associating with.

@kissane

The various big infosec focused ones are really solidly run, I would recommend them even to friends who aren't part of that professional community. @jerry's instance is pretty much the gold standard for what I'd look for if I ever decide that self hosting isn't worth it

@kissane I'm a mod at heads.social so biased but fyi

It's a music freak/psychedelic oriented group, lot of deadheads and bluegrass, jazz, psych rock, weirdo music style fans and counter culture folks, but all good people are welcome. Very small instance, very stable, patreon supported. Open with approval.

No tolerance for haters, racists etc. abuse = yeet.

Absolutely pro queer/trans with love ✊🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

We follow fediblock convos and lists & defed obvious loser/abuser platforms

@kissane

scicomm.xyz
musicians.today
sunny.garden

scicomm.xyz as my "main" is the one I've seen most of, & their moderation seems sound so far :-)

They all have themes, and when you request an account, you say a little bit about your connection to the theme. Taking the three in order,
- scicomm obviously
- playing music inc for enjoyment
- creativity in general iirc.

I think last I looked, all three were open to new sign-ups. (Mid-sized instances do shut intermittently if getting too full.)

@kissane
chaos.social. It is well moderated, from people in the chaos sphere (CCC) who are opinionated.
Ofc I know the admins from events and they try to stay small. They hope for others to start instances as well and support them.

There is no BS with emotional defedaration and refederation from mods as this breaks connections, as other big instances sometimes do.

The instance is run by a e.V.
https://meta.chaos.social/

I believe in smaller instances and hence would avoid bigger ones.

@kissane

For those peeps who live in Canada, I highly recommend mstdn.ca. It’s well run, well moderated, and stable. A great community here on the fediverse.

Also, for people who decide to make Mastodon their new home, please donate what you can to your admins to help with server maintenance costs. Admins volunteer a ton of time to keep us up and running. Show ‘em some love! 😀

@kissane I'm on indieweb.social, and love it. It's an extremely groovy mix of technical, policy, generally OSS-involved or adjacent, generally progressive-minded people. It tends to rely on moderation, and employs defederation very selectively. I've never seen hate speech or other nastiness.

Also impressed with hachyderm.io and infosec.exchange, and I support all three instances financially.