I use the webpage. I've been here since May. I've never seen it down/slow. It sounds like your ISP is prioritizing preferred networks. Which is why people were fighting so hard in 2018 for Net Neutrality.
The media never covered it. Most people didn't care. This is the result.
Maybe it's just API traffic then, I only use Boost and there are certainly times when it slows down a bit. Usually around the busier times of day and it usually doesn't last long (I assume it's probably scaling ramp up time) so that's why I am unable to break the cycle LMAO
I had to set up a server to test something. It was surprisingly simple. That being said the documentation for setting up Lemmy is often outdated due to the rapid development and the amount of large/breaking changes. So it might be difficult if you don't know what you are doing.