Pop!_OS is quite good. If you want a solid distro try Fedora too.
They are both equal for programming. Just learn to use command-line, docker, pick your text editor/IDE and then go programming on whatever distro you find comfortable on.
They all can read your e-mail. Whoever claims the contrary, is lying. Pick the one that offers the best features. A good one which doesn’t cost much is mailbox.org
Too much people not knowing what they talked about. Too much noise. Too much people criticizing everything. Lame comments under every post. Lame posts too.
Ethics, privacy and decentralization were the least aspect for me.
They avoided updating their apps on Apple devices for months to avoid revealing how much data they get from people.
They care about security, but as long as it’s not in contrast with their business model.
I would love them
I don’t know if two different communities are needed, I would start with “Photography” and only if things become very big and unmaintainable I would create another one for pictures only, and keep the first one for technical discussions only.
It is April Fools :P