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.
- local filter for posts in communities you’re not subscribed to
- defederated and blocked - of the instance and from the instance
- hosting, updating, performance, uptime, sustainability, risk of disappearance, security, responsiveness on issues
- settings, UI, additional hosted tools
- rules and focus for local communities
IMO there’s nothing to keep in mind on everyday use. But these things are things to consider when deciding what to use in a mindful manner.
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
The only way it matters is if/when it is defederated by/from other instances.
That being said, some may or may not be more reliable than others, but that’s a separate issue
Sometimes syncing of comments/posts in communities between instances can be delayed or missing. I noticed some communities on Lemmy.world would be missing posts if I view them from my Lemmy.ca account.
However, these issues aren’t as prevalent for me as they were a month ago. I imagine it’s been better after the upgrades.
If it goes down you can’t get on your regular account, but I made a backup account on another server for when that happens.
A backup account like a second account? Or does your main account back up to the other one?
Like just a second account, I can’t be bothered to do anything fancy.
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.
