I suppose this may make sense in the case of something like Mastodon. But something as versatile and customizable as lemmy, which allows for the existence of separate topic-based communities, makes topic-based instances of lemmy not necessary.
Instead of making a new instance for a certain topic, it is usually a much better approach to just create a new community on my current lemmy instance. At least from my perspective as a user.
I find the only exception to this is censorship and moderation. If I, for any reason am unhappy with an instance’s moderation and censorship, then that is the only potential reason I can see to change and make my own.
What does everyone else think of this?
@cyclohexane@lemmy.ml @fediverse@lemmy.ml IMO Topical #lemmy instances work best, it helps provide an identity and focus. Visitors to the instance see a local timeline of like minded posts, like minded communities e.g https://mander.xyz/ (Nature/Sci).
There’s simply not the same tension with feeling the need to post relevant content to a local timeline as there is with Mastodon, because you are sharing directly to communities on connected instances as well.
And because of the connected nature, instances can be small e.g. a knitting instance with only 10 users, connecting to a motorsport instance connected to lemmy main.
I agree. A knitting group, or a group dedicated to a TV show, would really benefit from having a lemmy server, with their own collection of communities. Having a small number of people, who you know well and actually want to interact with, can be one of the benefits over reddit, and hearkens back to the days of smaller, more focused forums.