After looking at this aussie zone Post i realise a fun functionality, that could also help new users understand the constellation of instances and how they're connected yet disconnected, could be another option in the level of instance engagement selection.

So we currently have,

• Subscribed
• All
• Local

Would it technically be feasible to introduce to that list a feature like below,

• Visit Instance

    - midwest.social ^
  
    - lemmy.ml ^
  
    - aussie.zone ^
  
    - feddit.org ^
  
    - jlai.lu ^
  
    - lemmy.ca ^
  
    - mander.xyz ^
  

....etc

^ denotes a text box expansion button with the about page for each instance.

Its very clear that the melting pot/reddit-esque environment in All is maybe similar to what someone from lemmy.world might see in their Local feed, but for more specialised instances like aussie.zone is completely different.

The Experience from my Local to All

To explain, my local instance (AZ) is full of instance specific posts, Australian specific mostly, and it's own familiar community of users. Most of this smaller scale activity is buried under all the other activity feeding into All, leading mostly to a totally different set of curated aggregated links between Local and All.

This functionality is so great, i can go on All have a look at whats happening in the wider lemmyverse/fediverse, when i get sick of the horrible shit (joke, kinda) happening in the world i switch to Local and see all the horrible shit (joke, kinda) happening in the instance i'm most related to.

The thing is i get curious about other instances. I get glimpses through All of whats happening on their servers, but not a very clear picture. This could be solved through being able to visit these other Local feeds of instances.

Leveraging the Difference of a Decentralised Platform in a fun way.

This would leverage the key point of difference between the fediverse architecture and centralised platforms like reddit.

Each instance to a more or lesser degree have their own communities and culture building up across those specific communities. I imagine Local on instances like lemmy.ml or jlai.lu, etc are quite different than sorting by All. As i say above, aussie.zone is a very different experience to All and it basically doubles the enjoyment of the platform.

Being able to easily explore different instances in their entirety might be analogous to going on a trip, especially with the location based instances.

It could also help with sorting and navigating communities for subject specific instances like mander.xyz, (an instance dedicated to nature and science).This could help with community discovery problems often discussed over on c/fedigrow.

New User's Understanding

At the moment new users, especially going on to sites like lemmy.world, seem to be having an experience largely analogous to that on reddit, maybe with a few more communists in the mix ;).

This is good because its familiar, but as the post at the beginning illustrates, probably doesn't help with understanding the network and its qualitiative difference.

Being able to select and visit feeds from connected Instances to your Local could help bridge that unfamiliarity gap, as new users can select and focus on a single instance and its foibles rather more clearly than the rat-run between different communities hosted on these obscure things called Instances.

This is just Jerboa

I understand that this would just be a change in functionality for Jerboa users, but if it were to be rolled out, tested, and liked on Jerboa, it might lead to wider adoption of the function.

If you read this far, thanks for being patient. I know i'm a wordy writer.