Hey there new people! Are you looking for a nice, well-run server to move to? I maintain a small site that lists them at:
All of the servers listed obey the four rules of the Mastodon Covenant (https://fedi.garden/about-this-site/), but it's more than just Mastodon servers and they are all under 50k members.
I also do featured server posts introducing the listed servers.
I'm trying to encourage people onto smaller servers, but there were certain niche language servers which were over 10K so I settled on 50K as a limit.
It's arbitrary really, but I don't want to list mega-instances.
Yes, they do, and they help protect the network, and they have higher quality moderation.
I did an article over on @feditips about why this place is on so many servers:
https://fedi.tips/why-is-the-fediverse-on-so-many-separate-servers/
Your questions are not silly at all! They make total sense if you're moving here from a centralised service like Twitter or Facebook or wherever.
Fedi.Garden
AJ 
