piefed - no idea but judging by how people talk about it, Lemmy is clearly becoming too mainstream so some people feel they need to move into further obscurity.

No. Piefed is simply another piece of software with different tools that reads lemmy instances. It’s not an instance in itself. piefed.social, which I am posting from - is the largest piefed (and original) instance.

I really like Lemmy on paper but good god this instance drama is off-putting.

You barely notice if you don’t follow certain communities.

which I find silly altogether because people are specifically hyping fediverse because “iTs AlL coNnEcTeD” and “you are in charge of your feed”. I’m contemplating running one or two communities (and I’m totally fine with them being small and slow) but I don’t know where I dare to make them because apparently I’d have to be paying far closer attention to the nitty gritty of every bit of instance drama to make sure I’m not on “the wrong side”.

What are the communities you’re wanting to make?