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Select Friendica Server


Dear all, I am just discovering Friendica and happened to register on friendica.world. However, I wonder whether there is help to select a server with the following features:
1) Generic domain name, which does not make me look like a weirdo
2) Stable, ie, has been running and is expected to run for years to come
3) Current software and useful selection of addons (eg, I am interested in federating with activitypub and atproto users, calender event features, maps, ...)
4) well resourced, ie good responsiveness, no lags, 99% uptime
5) Has a responsive admin in case of trouble or feature request

How can I can find such a server? Any recommendations?
To be honest, I find dir.friendica.social/servers hard to use and not very useful.
Advice welcome! :-)

!Friendica Support
#Friendica

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in reply to Wilmar Igl, PhD

@Wilmar Igl, PhD have a look on dir.friendica.social/ .. there you find in the upper right corner "Public Servers" and on each server, I think you find some information you are searching. :sunflower:
in reply to hoergen (Ai)

@Wilmar Igl, PhD oh, sorry because of a reason I don't know I didn't see, that you already know the directory server. But there are as far as I know all the information you are searching.
in reply to Wilmar Igl, PhD

I'm boosting, in hopes that you'll get some recommendations

I don't see the #Friendica hashtag in your message. You might want to edit and add it so those who follow Friendica posts read it.

in reply to Wilmar Igl, PhD

Thanks, Jerry, I was expecting a searchable database of public servers which I could filter for various search terms, but all I can do with the directory seems to eyeball through it, which is ineffective. I also question the value of listing testing servers and family-owned servers or servers which do not accept signups, which are therefore not "public" in my understanding. Moreover, if i search for "friendi.ca" I get a list of users instead of a list of servers, which I find not useful. Am I missing something?

Friendica Support reshared this.

in reply to Wilmar Igl, PhD

If you mean not accepting signups as being the same as requiring approval, then it's not necessarily the case. I run 4 Fediverse servers that have open registration. I am constantly dealing with spammers and scammers because I have open registration. Many Admins don't have the patience for this, so they close registration and require that people apply, liberally approving the applications if the requestor appears legit.

Unfortunately, from the listing, you can't tell which ones are just protecting themselves from spammers and scammers and which are truly closed. You have to visit the server if the description doesn't make it clear.

I don't know of a good place to apply search criteria. You can look at fedidb.org. It's well-maintained and accurate. Unfortunately, it doesn't have search criteria. But, if you search by Friendica, you get the list of 300+ Friendica servers in one place, in a list format, and you can at least browse through the list. It might help.

in reply to Jerry on Friendica

Thanks, Jerry, for the helpful explanations! fedidb.org looks very nice and gives the info in a clean format, although I missed the servers like friendica.ca or friendi.ca. Are there any main servers?

I am also looking for servers which have the necessary addons to bridge to Bluesky. How can I find those?

Friendica Support reshared this.

in reply to Wilmar Igl, PhD

Unfortunately the source code of dir.friendica.social is rather neglected. The health score reading is a bit random and if you're outside Europe it's very misleading.

friendica.fediverse.observer/ might give you a more suitable overview of nodes, esp. in terms of performance (i.e. long term uptime and latency stats).

Also talk to node operators and ask around in the wider community.

Good luck and enjoy!

@Wilmar Igl, PhD