I want to see a list for each popular server (e.g. the top 10 lemmy instances) and I want to see - for each instance - with whom they federate. How can I do this? Any sure-fire way to know if a instance like HexBear.net is being federated with lemmy.world? How do you know?
“ It’s actually kind of disturbing how many federated instances there are that don’t seem to be active - possibly just slurping data?”
Pretty much. That federated list includes every instance that your server has ever seen. From the giant instances that have a bunch of communities and thousands of users to the small single user instances that really just make the occasional comment. They’re all there.
It does not include the servers that have been defederated. That’s a different list.