World was already the biggest by far when I first started lurking back in July, and it's just getting more dominant. Before, there was quite some diversity in the distribution of generic communities, but nowadays the vast majority of posts that reach the top are from over there.
I really can't see any specific virtue that it has; uptime is not the best (or so I've heard), the moderation is quite lacking (which is demonstrated by the fact that Beehaw defederated them), they make some unpopular moderation choices (like blocking !piracy@lemmy.dbzer0.com), and overall the atmosphere is a lot less... nice than those of smaller instances.
I also feel like it goes against the idea of the Fediverse that one instance has control over most of the platform. Especially on Lemmy, where communities mean that building community within an instance makes so much more sense than elsewhere, and upvotes are federated near perfectly regardless the size of your instance, decentralisation makes a lot of sense. It really just doesn't make sense to me that Lemmy World is where people are going.
Since nobody mentioned it, I will. It has a cool, short and easy to remember name.
Curb appeal and convenience are extremely powerful drivers of human behavior. Moreso than time-consuming, complex, rational processing in a world of nearly infinite options.
I remember when I joined, there was a list of suggested default instances. I don't remember the actual list, but it was something like:
Lemmy.randomletters
Radical.politics
Jimbos.diy.server
Swearword.motherfuckers
Lemmy.world
Yeah. I continue to be confused by the names of some of them. Wtf is a blaja or whatever
It's an Ikea stuffed shark that's become a mascot for trans people because it happens to be pink and blue. lemmy.blahaj.zone is an instance for LGBTQ folks.
(I'm aware of this mainly because !196@lemmy.blahaj.zone often has content near the top of "all", but I sometimes hesitate to comment on it because I don't want to intrude.)
196 is its most popular community which sucks because their mods are rabid anti-communists, it's a really bad look for the instance.
Blåhaj is the Swedish word for "blue shark" (blå haj). It's the name of an IKEA plushie of a blue shark.
That just raises further questions!
Other people that replied already explained that the colours of the plushie resembles the one the trans community uses, so it ended being a representation/icon or something of the trans community. I believe the owner of the instance is transgender, so there's the connection.
I know, I just like that line.
Thanks!
blahaj is a trans rights icon sort of.
sh.itjust.works is barely a swear
Sure, but if I want to share a link with my kid's 3rd grade teacher, it's nice if it doesn't say "shit" in the middle of it.
Why you sending memes to your kid's third grade teacher? Also its "sh.it"
Teachers don't like memes? Mostly I send them greentext.
Also, I stand corrected. It's a good thing that period is in the middle, or people might figure out that it means "shit."
"Sh, it just works" doesn't work for you?
Also you forgot ShItEjUsTwEr.K.s