I'm very curious how instances can have some unique features and personality.

I think something like r/place would start as something not federated, only for local users. What would it mean to federated it? If there was demand then federation would be added and instances could opt-in to the app.

I hope instances come up with these little widgets to make their place more unique. Right now every lemmy instance feels like all the others.

Yes, if lemmy.sdf.org defederates from the Threads server, you wouldn't be able to follow Threads users using your SDF account.

I think Threads is Mastodon-like, even with federation it's not currently easy for the two to interoperate. Threads users could subscribe to a community and post replies, but how I've seen it on my Mastodon account is that it's super hard to keep track of discussion.

Personally, I like the "wait and see, defederate after first offense" approach that some are taking.

The lemmy.world instance had been having trouble, could be a problem on their side.

Tell me more about the preconfigured image for the shinden. I'm very interested in light gun games! Time crisis 2 in the arcade was my jam!