As wonderful as such a sudden boost of interest is, it also means fedi will… change.
It used to be a rather small network with strong culture around certain things. The number of new people is almost certainly *larger* than the number of people who had been active here until now. This strains the cultural norms quite a bit:
https://www.hughrundle.net/home-invasion/
It's time for fedi to get a bit of a respite, a breather, a moment to collectively take stock of the situation and changes it brings.
2/🧵
This kind of sudden boost of popularity strains the infrastructure a lot, too. Most of instances are volunteer-run.
The good news is: the number of instances went *up* by over a *half*. That's fantastic.
This is a way more reliable number than MAU simply because for an instance to show in these stats requires work: getting a domain, setting up the software, etc.
So we know with more certainty that fedi expanded its infrastructure quite a bit! Which means more readines for future waves. 🎉
3/🧵