Instances are not restricted to their theme. General use is almost always welcome. This list may be useful for curious minds and for new users who wish to choose an instance by theme (although, a better advice would be: **choose an instance by looking at its administrator's timeline!** and read local rules)
#### Notable mention
// *some are open only to particular audience, i.e., to students of university*
* https://social.lab.cultura.gov.br - by FOSS lab of Brazilian Ministry of Culture
* https://mastodon.mit.edu - for the MIT community
* https://mastodon.acc.sunet.se - by Academic Computer Club at Umeå University, Sweden
* https://mastodon.iut-larochelle.fr - by University of La Rochelle
* https://mastodon.redbrick.dcu.ie - by Redbrick, computer networking society of Dublin City University
* https://cosi.town - for current and past students of Clarkson University
* https://mastodon.latransition.org - francophone movement for ecological transition
* https://cuddleso.me - pet lovers
* https://toot.cat
* https://catgram.jp
#### Safe spaces
* https://trans.town - all trans people welcome
* https://queer.party - for queer folk and non-queer folk alike
* https://queer.town - space for queer people to be positive and have fun
* https://social.wxcafe.net - for social justice activists, LGBTQIA+ people
* https://lgbt.io - for LGBT+ and allies
* https://tech.lgbt - for tech workers, academics, students, and others in tech who are LGBTQA+ or allies
* https://instance.business - a safe place for nonwhite people on the fediverse
#### For people with a sense of self-irony
* https://i.write.codethat.sucks
* https://bibeogaem.zone - "nice place for silly people"
* https://society.oftrolls.com - mild trolling encouraged, but not required
* https://ephemeral.glitch.social - toots are ephemeral and disappear after a while
* https://dolphin.town - instance where you can only say the letter 'e'
* https://botsin.space - for bots
#### Hobbies
* https://mastodon.beerfactory.org - for beermakers
* https://mastd.racing - dedicated to motosports
* https://newtype.institute - anime-centric community
* https://weebs.moe - anime, manga
* https://occult.camp - focused on spitituality, witchcraft and various shades of woo
* https://hodl.social - place to discuss Stellar, cryptocurrencies and blockchain
#### Characters
* https://dragon.style - for dragons, and people who like dragons
* https://monsterpit.net - for monsters, demons, aliens, strange creatures, and those who love them
* https://equestria.social - for pony fans
#### Series / game / book theme
* https://tenforward.social - theme Star Trek
* https://moseisley.club - theme Star Wars
* https://wowsdon.xyz - theme World of WarShips
* https://kirakiratter.com - for Aikatsu fans
#### Notable generalistic
// *biased personal choosing of small-to-medium sized instances that may be happy to have new users*
* https://nulled.red - refuses to block or silence any instances
* https://ieji.de - no logs, has Tor .onion address
* https://tootplanet.space - beautiful landing
* https://assortedflotsam.com - instance committed to truth in discourse
* https://bigdoinks.online - a small community for jokes, goofs, and bits
* https://social.wiuwiu.de - powered by 100% clean energy
* https://mstdn.fr - by sysadmins, with a goal to provide robust experience for tens of thousands of users
* https://sn.angry.im - wise recommendation to set up own node, if possible, for healthy ecosystem
* https://scifi.fyi - runs glitch-soc, a version of Mastodon with experimental new features
* https://mastodon.fun
* https://toot.chat
* https://squid.cafe
##### Disclaimer
During this research I skipped following instances: closed registration *at the moment of checking*, running old code, theme / description not understood due to language barrier or scarce description, with long blocklists and strange block reasoning, experimental servers.
If I've forgotten to include your instance, please, don't take it personally. You can add themed instances by opening an issue or via [MR](https://gitlab.com/distributopia/masto-world-overview). If your instance already has many users, may be it would be wise to let other instances grow instead, for a healthier decentralization.
If you wish to be excluded from the list, please, kindly say so in issues.
If you speak Japanese and would like to provide categorized lists for Japanese instances, please, do. This list is for people who might or might not speak Japanese, but who for sure speak English. So it might be a good idea to ask admins to put some English description in /About first. New users need to be sure they will be understood by administrator of the instance they've chosen.
##### Possible other research to be made
- how many instances (%) provide transparent info about silencing other instances (most often info is on /About page), how many don't provide this information
- which silenced instances are in blocklists quite often and which are personal prefs of some instance's admins;
- where instances are hosted (or, may be, how much of them (%) are hosted on Amazon).
