To me, it’s mostly how an instance is ran. How it makes its decisions: defederating or not, and with whom, how they handle complaints, how they handle bans, etc. makes a difference in both the communities it hosts and its members.
There’s also the matter of user culture. Some instances, like Beehaw, Lemmygrad, and Hexbear are known for a certain user culture. Some users might steer clear away from certain instances because of that perceived user culture.
And then there’s the issue of defederation stance. It might not be readily apparent, or affect your user experience in a big way, but for some users, it’s a factor. This is also where lemm.ee made its mark. It basically used defederation as a last resort, and some users were drawn to that.
To me, it’s mostly how an instance is ran. How it makes its decisions: defederating or not, and with whom, how they handle complaints, how they handle bans, etc. makes a difference in both the communities it hosts and its members.
There’s also the matter of user culture. Some instances, like Beehaw, Lemmygrad, and Hexbear are known for a certain user culture. Some users might steer clear away from certain instances because of that perceived user culture.
And then there’s the issue of defederation stance. It might not be readily apparent, or affect your user experience in a big way, but for some users, it’s a factor. This is also where lemm.ee made its mark. It basically used defederation as a last resort, and some users were drawn to that.