- From a quick browse, I've seen hundreds of servers. What are them?
thunk servers are like email domains, if you have a yahoo email you can talk with people using outlook just fine
in instance 1, can users from instance 2 find the same subreddit?
yep
Are servers privately run?
yes, maybe in a future companies can create their own instance i guess, but right now most servers are running by people
Is there any failsafe in case a server owner decides to close it in a fit so all the thousands of users aren't left hanging & their content deleted?
no, in mastoson you can migrate from servers easily, but it's need to be implemented here(the devs are working on it)
- Is there a global lemmy instance run by the owners of the site?
i guess lemmy.ml, but it's like everyother instance, it's the same code
you can check this repo that i that i think is very helpful