I started a new KBIN instance. It has one magazine, random, because I created it. Anyone coming here will find no interesting magazines. It will be boring.
How do I find interesting magazines on other instances? Say, I want to find a magazine about Linux, somewhere on another KBIN or Lemmy server and add it here. If I search in the magazine search, no magazines show up. If I search using the topmost global search, no magazines show up.
How does a new instance get the list of magazines that are available from the other KBIN and Lemmy instances without visiting each one and creating a list to use for a full name search?
Or is my instance just broken?
Sounds like federation does not work for you.
No this is how federation works. There’s no way for a new instance to know about any other instance or community. A user has to search for communities to notify the instance of external instances/communities. Once it knows about them, they’ll show up in the community list