It seems like any platform that features link aggregation is soon overrun by bots and self-promoters trying to drive traffic, and pages and pages of link posts versus pages and pages of people talking.
Are there any lemmy instances or other defederated networks that focus on Q&A, niche communities, and people conversing, instead?
No.
HC is its own thing, and its purpose is for fun. Whatever fun means to you as long as it’s not illegal.
The primary reason HC was created is for the purpose of having fun.
For some, posting political removed is ‘fun’, so you will see some political posts.
We are pretty strongly adamant about not having a political bias in our instances.
So we don’t care if you post left or right removed. Upvotes and down votes are there for a reason and our community can decide what they like and don’t like with those functions.
We do not take posts down or ban users based on our own personal ideologies.
There will be no favoring of either political side. Right and left are allowed.
I think this is why people have that assumption.