I've been into computers since around the mid 70s. First one was an Altair 8000. I have been selfhosting for years now, self taught and helped along of course by the selfhosting communities.

Not to speak bad of the dead, but I've really had it up to my back teeth with their bullshit. So I am in search of some self hosting brethren to chum around with. I figured I'd give Lemmy a try. It's kind of confusing, but hopefully I can wrap my 70 year old head around it.

I've seen a few selfhost forum around the fediverse but they all seem to have been abandoned with threads a year or more old, and no movement. So my question, is there a thriving selfhost/homelab type place that is active? Perhaps one of you good souls could point me in the right direction.

Is there any benefit to hosting your own Lemmy and mesh it with the other Lemmey's out there? What benefit would that be? From what I understand, hosting your own instance turns out to just be your own personal blog.

I mean, I understand the fediverse, and decentralization, I'm just having a bit of difficulty getting in with the right, active, group.

TIA

ETA: Thank you for the very warm welcome. Hopefully I will be turtley enough for the turtle club.