predicatble: lemm.ee is reliable: on the other hand shi.tjust.doesn’t.work, and feddit.de have the beehaw vibe: with tight moderation, and trying to be the next walled garden. i would predict discuss.tchncs.de would grow if it maintains continued uptime. also external factors could affect ranking like legal prosecution when caching legal content and ddos’es, like the other instances cant do much about those too