

I created this tool and have been using it in my instance since the very beginning. My instance is almost 2 years old and it’s total database size is 60.2GB.
The thing is:
- If a community is generating enough activity, it’s likely that someone from your instance is already following that community.
- If a community isn’t generating enough activity, it won’t create much of a network/storage burden anyway.
Sure, it will make a small difference, but it’s nothing compared to the benefits it provides.
Lemmy Federate doesn’t do anything special. It searches and follows communities just like normal users do. The only difference is that it does this from every (registered) instance, for almost every community. The reason I didn’t explain it in more detail is that it has evolved into an admin tool rather than a user tool. Generally, admins know what this tool is for.
However, I can explain a few things that will be useful for you outside of the “All” tab:
Discoverability
Lemmy Federate enhances community discoverability by allowing users to search communities from their instance. Instead of relying on an external site, you can discover new communities while staying within the context of your own instance.
Crossposts
Let’s say that technology@lemmy.world is federated in your instance, but technology@lemmy.ml is not. In this case, you won’t see crossposts from technology@lemmy.ml sharing the same link as technology@lemmy.world.
Initial post count
When a community is pulled for the first time, only a certain number of recent posts are pulled with it. If you are the first to follow a community you are interested in from your instance, you will not be able to see all posts from that community.