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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 https://dir.friendica.social/servers hard to use and not very useful.
Advice welcome! :-)

!Friendica Support
hoergen
@Wilmar Igl, PhD have a look on https://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:
hoergen
@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.
Jerry on Friendica
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.
#friendica
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?
Jerry on Friendica
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 https://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.
Wilmar Igl, PhD
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?
end0fline
@Wilmar Igl, PhD Hello! I understand you are looking for a more friendly domain name, but @Ruud recently enabled the Bluesky addon on this server, so I think at least on Friendica.World, that part should be covered for you.

I haven’t messed with it yet however.
@Ruud
Wilmar Igl, PhD
Yes, I configured now Friendica to federate with Bluesky (atproto) and it works. Magic! :-)
Jerry on Friendica
I don't know how you can tell in a quick way which add-ons are enabled at which host. At this point, I only know for sure that Friendica.World and My-Place.social have the Bluesky add-on enabled. But I haven't made any effort to find any others. I only know by chance.

I, personally, don't know of a Friendica main server either that is run by a developer for general use in a way that Mastodon.social is the main Mastodon server run by the Mastodon developers.

I was hoping more Friendica users would help you out with their own experiences.
Wilmar Igl, PhD
@Jerry on Friendica @end0fline Thanks, I checked iinstalled addons at https://friendica.world/friendica and sent a question via good ol' email to the owner of friendica.world about the Bluesky addon. Not heard back yet.
end0fline
I have had a chance to try it out and it seems to work as intended. I have *not* been able to update my BlueSky name to my Friendica username for some reason, however. I have messaged Ruud about that to see if he had any ideas.
himself
Take a look at libranet.de, opensocial.at or loma.ml
Ruud
Hi! I will reply to your email later this morning (CET).
As @end0fline said, the Bluesky should work, but I need to look into the domain thingy.

I think I could satisfy all of the points mentioned on your opening post. If there's any addon you would like, just let me know.

As for stable / uptime: The server is quite new so might need some tuning. But for some reassurance: I'm also running mastodon.world / lemmy.world and others, so we're in for the long run and managed to get things quite stable there.
Wilmar Igl, PhD
Sounds great! Just for info, i looked at libranet.de which looks very professional (but does not offer open signup).

Please also add some info about the server at the start page that visitors will see. Many servers do not provide info, so one wonders whether this will be the right place.

Keep me up to date about the Bluesky connection, I would be very interested. So far, I find Friendica a very refreshing approach to social media. I am hooked (I think :-).
Wilmar Igl, PhD
Thanks, I virtually bought you a (pot of) coffee now as donation, to appreciate the great work. I see my bluesky posts now on Friendica, so it automagically seems to work. To solve the Bluesky domain issue could help you to benefit from the current Bluesky rush if you want to attract more users. I recommend writing a short tutorial on how to do connect Friendica and Bluesky because on Blueksky App passwords are a bit hidden (Settings > Privacy and Security > App Passwords and seemd to have moved from Settings > Advanced > App Passwords, as still described in other tutorials). Keep it up!
Andy H3
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.

https://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
Andy H3
Here an example of a node's performance stats.



@Wilmar Igl, PhD
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