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.
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