The beta for groups will release later this week, which won’t be federated initially. Federation will be added afterwards.
Looks like it will have some interesting features like videos, polls, and events, as well as moderator tools like limiting what a user can do.
Some links:
https://mastodon.social/@dansup/110931821965407984
https://mastodon.social/@pixelfed/110931868347117511
I hope we get more instances thats more art focsed rather then tech. I see a lot of protential with that.