Lemmy claims decentralization, but once you join a community on one instance you’re still subject to that instance’s rules and moderators. Being banned from c/community@instance still means you can’t post there unless you make a new account elsewhere. That isn’t real decentralization, it’s just fragmentation where every instance ends up replicating the same centralized moderation power in a different place. Federated instances don’t stop this, they just scatter the same problem across multiple servers. If the goal is escaping centralized control, the reality is you still get banned, silenced, or cut off the same way, the only “freedom” is signing up somewhere else. That’s not decentralization in practice, it’s decentralization in name only.
well us just having a alternative keeps it being in one place and then there are other things like slashdot or any other competitors. piefed does a good job of grouping things (kinda comics seems to be split in at least two topics). Personally I don’t want to be in one place with everyone on the planet as I don’t like many people. I want a place with somewhat like minded folks just like I would with a club or bar or whatever.