the strong-arm bullying by popular instances was easily the most annoying thing about the "Lemmy-verse". The auto-defederate list that those instances controlled was an obvious example of power-mad witch-hunting people being in charge. I've even heard once or twice of smaller instances being forced by the popular instances to follow their rules and subscribe to the list if they don't want to be added to the list themselves.
I share your sentiment that Sharkey has been much more relaxed and fun! Only a week after I started using it, I stopped caring if Lemmy Burggit would even come back online. The users are more playful and friendly, and there's none of that circlejerk/hivemind moderation cult over there. it helps a lot that sharkey itself feels much better put together than lemmy does. so with that, I too say goodbye to Lemmy, and hello to Sharkey.
wow! that's a concrete example of exactly what I mean. despicable behavior.