I saw that this instance had a large number of users so I thought "more users->more content->more fun". Apparently, I had to prove my value by answering 3 questions that showed my interest in their community and my value as a potential future member.
What could possibly be my value to a general purpose instance besides money? I'm a software/cloud engineer so I guess there are things I could help with, but my guess is they were expecting me to say "I can donate".
I get it, they need donations to exist, but this upfront? And to a community I don't even know? Maybe I'm imagining things and they were looking for something else?
Do all instances rely on donations? I'd like to contribute to the instances I enjoy at some point. But only if I feel at home with them, not as a prerequisite to join.
Rejected me too during the initial reddit exodus a month ago. I said I was looking for a reddit alternative, that I mostly lurk but occasionally post on tech subs as I am a software engineer. No response for a week then rejected around the same time they defederated. Figured they were just mass rejecting people at that point. Was already actively using accounts on lemmy.one and lemmy.world by then. I just use lemmy.one if I want to see Beehaw content.