I don’t want any users on my instances but I would like to have the freedom to choose how to run a community.
Large and reliable instances like Lemm.ee, lemmy.zip, lemmy.dbzer0.com are usually a good choice
Lemmy.world is too large at the moment
Lemmy.ml hold specific political positions
Feel free to have a look at !fedigrow@lemm.ee for a community about growing communities
I’d argue perhaps the opposite: if you want full moderation and admin freedom, running it on your own instance is the only way to do it.
If you run it on someone else’s server, you’re subject to someone else’s rules and whims.
Granted, I have zero reason to think the admins of any of those listed instances would do anything objectionable, but that’s today: who knows what happens six months or a year or two years from now.
Though, as soon as you start adding stuff to your personal instance, you’re biting off more maintenance and babysitting since you assumably want your stuff to be up 100% of the time to serve your communities, so that’s certainly something to consider.
