Did you try these searches while logged in or anonymously? Lemmy (and probably other platforms) don’t allow searches for remote objects unless you’re logged in, this prevents abuse of server resources. The fact that you’re getting replies and you can see them and reply to them means it’s probably all working fine.

https://github.com/LemmyNet/lemmy/issues/4406

oh btw 3rd party apps aren’t working with 0.19.0 yet, because of changes to the authentication API

Well now you can use :0.19.0-rc.5 :)

it’s in alpha currently, but you could still run it

I think you might have to use the :dev tag to get this update, a bit risky to stay on that tag though, maybe wait for the next docker image of an alpha release

in v0.19.0 Lemmy will automatically delete entries over 7 days old

https://github.com/LemmyNet/lemmy/issues/4113

https://github.com/LemmyNet/lemmy/commit/cb01427dcff14b3d88e30220695fc97978786a9a

currently it waits 3 months before deleting

yes you’re right, also that config flag was renamed to cache_external_link_previews

in v0.19.0 you could try disabling pictrs caching https://github.com/LemmyNet/lemmy/commit/1d23df37d86cc5cb6d7d9efaaf4360ecc9a9796f

    cache_external_link_previews: false

I don’t think that will clear the existing cache though

I setup Gogs once like 6 years ago or something lol, I remember it being pretty easy and it is nice. Although if Gitea is more actively maintained then it’s probably worth giving that a shot first.

Many years ago I ran my own Gogs and it was pretty good, would recommend

work in progress

https://github.com/LemmyNet/lemmy/pull/3897

This is really great, it’s basically the same effect as what OP is doing when browsing c/All on a large instance, except you can do it on a small instance and without using an insane amount of system resources on your server

for 2. maybe just say bring your own games? BYOG