EDIT: Just crossed 26000!
Almost! At the time of this post, lemmy.world has a whopping 25733 users and is growing fast.
Since my last post yesterday, it has added 4000 new users, making it the clear second-largest lemmy instance out there. Also quickly catching up to lemmy.ml's 36000 (not taking new signups).
beehaw.org (3rd largest) sits at 12500 users, partly because of more restrictive registration requirements.
Source: https://lemmy.fediverse.observer/list
Exciting to see all this growth!
Except BeeHaw as defederated lemmy.world - which is a shame. Step in the wrong direction IMO. That's going to be a huge problem because now if you're a BeeHaw member you no longer see anything lemmy.world related - you're suddenly, overnight, cut off from thousands of people and posts.
Having these larger instances owned by 1 person like they all are now is a shame, but unavoidable at the beginning I suppose. One of them gets bitter and you have thousands defederated. I guess over time as things splinter up more it may get better.
I'll likely just spin up my own instance so I can federate with everyone and never be dropped (at least from my side).
Yeah, defederation is not the answer. We are few and we need to stick together. That's the whole point of the fediverse after all, many connected together.