Idk, it's honestly all a bit too confusing. I still don't get how this place works. I just use sync and even then some servers/instances or whatever will say I can't vote for certain posts/servers - idk, I'm assuming there's servers that get turned off at night or something

"Instances" are like islands. There are other islanders you can interact with, with their own buildings, but people can visit your buildings from other islands. You can't make another island your "home," though, and just interact with their buildings. Some islands are on good terms, and some are on bad terms, and block each other.

What this looks like practically, are that you need to pick an instance that passes your vibe check. Scrolling by local on your home instance should be fun and engaging, and scrolling by "all" should show you more stuff you want to see.

Lemmy.world intentionally defederates from the more overtly Leftist instances, as an example, so it skews more right-wing.

Have a recommendation? I only joined world because it seemed to have the least requirements for joining and was maybe more popular. I remember other instances requiring you answer a bunch of questions to join or something like that

Go to this instance explorer, check out interesting instances, and scroll locally, anonymously. See the vibe! If you like the vibe, make an account or apply for one, and start interacting. You don't have to delete your old account! I have 2, each on different instances, depending on my mood.