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.
It matters. The admins mater. They control federation, styling, upgrades, security, performance, and admin-level moderation things. Also, some instances try and cater to certain communities (e.g. lemmy.zip tries to focus on gaming and tech).