Then they’re likely just auto-assigning you to a server, likely based on geographic proximity.

Although I’d agree that lemmygrad, lemmy.ml, and hexbear are far-left, with only one specifically right-wing instance that I can think of, I don’t think that most of the remaining Lemmy users on lemmy.world, lemmy.dbzer0.com, lemm.ee, beehaw.org, or any of the other big Lemmy instances are particularly extreme in their views.

On average, Lemmy users do seem to be more left-wing than right-wing, probably due to right-wing Redditors being less likely to mind Reddit’s monetization of its userbase, and more likely to mind Lemmy’s far-left instances.

While I don’t think Lemmy should encourage far-right users to join, given that racism and bigotry degrade any platform that allows such speech, I do think that those on the right who are not extreme and are capable of having thoughts independent of the MAGA cult should be welcomed on any instance, given that echo chambers only serve to propagate existing views, rather than foster discussion.

The key part in joining any instance are the instances that either block it or are blocked by it, so perhaps one that blocks lemmygrad, lemmy.ml, and hexbear by default, while minimizing the number of instances that in turn block it, would be optimal to have access to as many communities as possible.

Here’s a list of Lemmy instances by number of instances blocked and blocking, for reference. Seems to not be quite up-to-date, and can’t find the instance I’m on on the list, but it should still be somewhat helpful for comparing. Personally, I prefer being on an instance with as few blocks as possible (implementing those blocks instead on a user level as a means of curating my all feed), since the Lemmy community is already small enough as it is, but new users might not want to have to configure those blocks themselves.

Checking in from Lemmy 👋

Not if the admins of an instance want to maintain their echo chamber by shepherding discussions towards extremist viewpoints.

Not enough users left Reddit after the blackout to either make a difference there or establish communities on Lemmy that are big enough to encourage people on the fence to switch over. To turn Lemmy into a viable alternative, we need to convince more Redditors to switch over by mentioning Lemmy in the right threads, making sure to explain features of Lemmy in terms of Reddit analogs to avoid the usual complaints of Lemmy being difficult to understand. Most people won’t care, but the ones that do will be vital in bringing the userbase to the point where people will want to join Lemmy due to it having active communities rather than it just not being Reddit.

Could make use of Unicode lookalike letters (е and у in this case) to write Lemmy as Lеmmу.

The problem with federating with Threads is that then anyone who wants to join the Fediverse will just join Threads (especially the people already using Instagram or Facebook), leaving the success or failure of the Fediverse in the hands of a company whose interest is to attract as many people as possible to its platform, not contribute as an even partner in a federation.