Which instance do you prefer, and why?

I'm from feddit.nu, the swedish instance. Or at least one of them, there might be more swedish instances I am not aware of. I like it because I can find local content and post in swedish.

I think everyone should aim to find a smaller instance where they feel like they belong to and create their account there.

There's no reason to have a federated system if everyone uses the same 3 large instances.

I think everyone needs to do their own sightseeing to see which instances are around - if there's a one-size-fits-all solution then that's actually a bit of a problem for the fediverse. Figure out who's running it, what their donations/transparency plan is, what their rules are, what their goals are, etc. I'd say at least in these beginning phases, applying a negative bias towards larger servers will benefit the community as well.

Why are all the answers here from FMHY? It was like 20th on the list in terms of popularity when I joined. I chose it because it had fewer restrictions - users can create their own communities and, most importantly, downvote (the chart I looked at said some didn’t have downvotes??). Also I assume pirates know how to run a server.

Think something is wrong, why do only fmhy users see this and no one else?

Fmhy. For one thing, most of my reddit usage was related to Linux, datahoarding, self hosting, and torrenting. So coming here is the natural choice. The great thing about us pirates is that we aren't hated by very many people (and therefore aren't banned by the big instances), aren't generally extremists, and yet strongly support free speech. In fact, one of the only major instances to allow nsfw content at all and to not defederate a whole bunch of instances for no apparent reason