I have not had so much fun and hope since joining the Fediverse as what I experienced this week with the Forkiverse.
The Forkiverse is a deliberate experiment by the Search Engine and Hard Fork podcasts. They created a Mastodon instance for themselves and their audience with an ambitious but familiar goal: try to fix what feels broken about the internet. I joined the bandwagon quickly. I already have accounts on other instances, but the experience here felt immediately different. The feed felt fresh, curious, and genuinely fun.
There is also something quietly genius about the idea itself. Podcasts and other large content creators creating their own social platforms, where their audience can interact not just with the hosts but with each other, feels like a natural evolution. This idea has been discussed for years, but rarely tested. It worked. Within 48 hours of releasing their episode, the Forkiverse had already attracted around 2.5K new accounts. That is not just excitement is some kind of proof of demand. Of course, their audience was mostly techie, and they have thousands of followers, which makes this a low digit % conversion, but still, it is interesting.
That does not mean everything was frictionless. Almost immediately, people began debating why it is called the Forkiverse, whether it is trying to compete with the Fediverse, or whether it is creating yet another Fediverse inside the Fediverse. These questions led to discussions about identity and structure. Is the Fediverse a single social network, or is it a collection of independent social spaces connected by shared protocols? Not new discussions, but old ideas surfacing. The point is the friction.
After a few years in the fediverse, I am in the second camp. Each instance is its own social network. Federation connects them, but it does not flatten their cultures, values, or social norms.g
This brings me to a belief I have held, and often repeated, like a parrot, for a long time. We used to say that it does not really matter which instance you choose when joining the Fediverse. Pick one, get started, and move later if you want. I still think this advice is useful for lowering the barrier to entry. But I no longer think it tells the full story.
Choosing an instance matters more than we tend to admit.
I have what Mike Cue called maxifediversed. I maintain multiple accounts across different servers, mainly to test features for BadgeFed, but also to observe how each space feels. What I noticed is that the differences go far beyond software features or moderation rules. The experience itself changes.
My main account is on hachyderm.io. It feels curated and thoughtful, but it also carries a lot of political weight. My account on mastodon.social feels faster and noisier, closer to what X used to feel like, and often better suited for shitposting. The Forkiverse feels new, friendly, and optimistic. At the same time, I already see signs of people who are enthusiastic about AI and who are looking for a more mainstream experience. That energy will inevitably clash with parts of the broader Fediverse, and that tension is part of the experiment, not a failure.
If you join an instance like infosec or dotnet.social, your experience will be different from the very beginning. The first people you interact with will shape your early network. The tone of conversations, the shared references, and what feels encouraged or discouraged will influence how you participate. Those early connections matter more than we usually acknowledge.
Of course, you are still you. Over time, as you follow people across instances and build your own connections, many experiences begin to converge. You find familiar voices. You establish your rhythm. But that convergence is never complete. The instance you call home continues to shape what you see, who discovers you, and how conversations evolve.
The Forkiverse makes all of this visible because it is unfolding in real time. We are watching a community take shape, with excitement, disagreement, and inevitable growing pains. Whether or not it fixes the internet is almost beside the point. What it clearly shows is that in the Fediverse, community is not abstract.
Community matters more than algorithms. Community is what makes the Fediverse diverse and resilient. It is intentional, contextual, and deeply shaped by where you choose to belong. And there is space, even if you have too many faces.