The instance list has a couple of recommended sites at the top. They are defined in this file and seperated by language. For most languages there is only one recommendation or none at all, so you can simply add yours by making a pull request.
In case of English, the situation is a bit different. The current recommended instances (beehaw.org and sopuli.xyz) are already quite large and would be shown near the top of the list anyway. So it makes sense to recommend smaller instances instead.
To be recommended, an instance should meet these requirements:
- It should be a general purpose instance
- At least one member of the admin team needs to be in the Instance admin chat to coordinate with other admins
- The admin team needs to be prepared for a large influx of users, both in terms of hardware and moderation
We can use this thread to discuss which instances should be recommended. There is no maximum number of recommendations, but it should be an even number to work with the desktop layout.
On a side note, the instance list itself could use many improvements such as showing more details about instances or using different sorting methods. If you are a programmer or web designer, you can contribute to improve the website.
Edit: If you are a Lemmy admin and want your instance to be recommended, go ahead and open a pull request for this file. Developers can also contribute in the same repo to improve join-lemmy.org.
There is horizontal scaling through federation. Even if lemmy.ml, beehaw.org and lemmy.one go down, users can still join instances like sh.itjust.works. The instance list on join-lemmy.org works as a load balancer.
That just creates a problem of choice overload, I use to manage a forum, managing a community is hard, If there is a instance that is really good (possibly one that is “democratic”) Most people would like it to scale, Just figuring out the rules for every instance and what other instances it blocks is hard, I already saw complaints on reddit about having to pick a server.
I also think it is a good idea to have paid moderators, what happens when some gets pissed decides to post some terrible picture to punish the mods? on facebook they have a therapist for the people reviewing reports .
Regarding sh.itjust.works , in my culture i think swearing is considered more of a bad behavior compared to the US, are we sure that is not cultural blindness having that listed as a recommended instance?