One thing I’m not clear about is the impact my home instance has on me. I joined lemmy.world and am currently using the connect for lemmy app. I know when I sort by Local it will only show me posts from lemmy.world, but beyond that are there any things to keep in mind?
I have read that lemmy.world has been hit by DDoS attacks but I’ve never had any problem using connect for Lemmy during those times as far as I know.
I dont have my account on lemmy.ml because my opinions do not align with theirs.
Also choosing an instance with servers close to you is a plus as well for loading times
I do wish there was a convenient way to move your account from one instance to another.
When I chose my instance I didn’t really know what I was doing so I just picked something at random, and unfortunately the instance I picked isn’t exactly physically close to where I lived so the load times are a bit slow. Although they’re still faster than Reddit so 🤷
I don’t know, but I keep trying to comment on posts federated from other instances and half the time I get some obscure error and it fails, and it’s fucking irritating.
I hosted my own for now :3
Quick plug for any “The Big Lebowski” fans, join us at https://lemmy.world/c/achievers@lebowski.social
Hi there! The links in your text lead away from the user’s instance, here are fixed links that stay on each user’s instance: !achievers@lebowski.social
Largely, I’d say it depends on the sort of engagement that you’re looking for. I went with mine because I’m passionate about FOSS and think that, long-term, it’s only sustainable by organizations that do not have a profit motive.
Some instances have a tight thematic focus and, if you want to create communities, you should probably do it on an instance where it will be on-topic. That’s the reason my main account is on midwest.social instead of the first instance I signed up for: slrpnk.net has a tight focus on environmental sustainability.
Another important thing to consider is governance and privacy/security. You’re trusting the admins to not missuse your data, to not read your messages, and that they agree with you on how federation should work (ex. Who they choose to federate / defederate with). There’s also the side of donations and how upfront they are about costs, where they choose to store your data, etc.
If an instance is being run transparently like a non profit, with good governance and regular updates, then that’s amazing. Not all instances can do that