I joined this one because I just followed the obvious ways to sign up after looking up what Lemmy was about. I didn’t know about instances until I tried to sign in and had to find mine.

Is there a way to mess up making an alt by joining an unfit instance? From what I’ve read, it doesn’t really matter outside of an instance going down and your profile going with it.

Any help is appreciated.

    • TheFogan@programming.dev
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      4 hours ago

      The super simplified version of it is.

      some instances block other instances. Either due to political differences or because too many spammers are in one etc… Bottom line, if it’s not linked or blocked, you won’t be able to see posts to them, and people on those instances won’t see posts you make from your own, (creates kind of a shadow ban, where you think you are posting, but no one over there can see it).

      you can see if you go to

      https://thelemmy.club/instances

      you can see a list of instances they’ve linked with, and blocked.

      compare that to say beehaw

      https://beehaw.org/instances

      You’ll see there’s a big difference in what they do and don’t federate with. Which could be good or bad depending on how you look at it.

      If you have a community or 2 that you really care about, it’s worth checking to make sure their instance you want to post to and read the posts of, is friendly with the one you don’t

      • Michael Douglass@thelemmy.clubOP
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        3 hours ago

        I want to make an alt for music, video games, general television, and anime. Do I just search those terms and check their sidebars?

          • Michael Douglass@thelemmy.clubOP
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            25 minutes ago

            It seems a bit heavy for what I’m looking for. Politics in my time outside of the Internet already gives me a pounding headache.

        • TheFogan@programming.dev
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          3 hours ago

          90% of instances should be fine, but, if in doubt while you are using this one, do a search for communities for the topics you care about, and either join the community that has the most of what you want, or check their linked/banned list to know which ones not to join.