Maybe it is more than an instance. Maybe it is an idea, a world-historical vanguard, light itself.
actual attempt to answer (cringe)
We’ve been around for three years on a lemmy fork before federation. The lack of federation for years as well as the place we splintered off from (/r/chapotraphouse) already having a unique microculture within Reddit has given this instance, in my opinion, a distinct culture compared to general-purpose and even other hobbyist instances.
Regarding specifics, Hexbear is a vehemently queer-friendly/intersectional anti-sectarian socialist instance. Check us out
I'll be honest every time I see a meta thread about hexbear I just picture
"oh you know the mods/users there? They force you to [insert current meta topic here] all the time! When I was still there I was forced to use PPB on every thread I saw, I even had a daily PPB quota too. I heard those that failed to meet the PPB quota were forced to use reddit for the rest of the week!"