I understand the idea of keeping them separate and not forcing them to a single instance since that defeats the purpose of decentralization. But from a UI standpoint it would be nice if you could a user could create multi-communities or groups where the content from all the similar subs you put in them show up in a feed. So if say I want to see c/aww I can have a group I created with content from [email protected] and [email protected] and [email protected] etc.

If an instance dissappear or goes rogue and gets defederated that content just dissappear. I don't think that breaks the decentralization idea but solves the user problem.

🥈 take my free award. It's yours

tl;dr I'll make my own c/aww with blackjack and hookers

Honestly i thought the point of decentralization was purely from a resoures perspective, the idea of it being a bunch of seperate semi isolated communities seems pointless. The strength of link aggregation is in having a breadth of content while allowing content people want to see to rise to the top for ease of access. I've mainly been trying to just see top for the day for all and it seems a bit inconsistent in what it displayed.

How do I search the various instances?

I like to think of it as a bunch of Discord servers (in a way). Each server is run by the owner / their moderation and can have different channels and rules in said server.

The idea of a "super community" doesnt seem like a bad one, but I'd rather have it be an aggregation of said communities then making it all one thing.

... Like maybe super list of c/aww communities that you can subscribe to at once.

Doubly awesome - not only can you subscribe to both versions of said /c/aww on (most) any server, you will see the content inline with your normal feed so it's effectively just several versions of the same thing.

Had this same complaint/concern but this is a really good explanation of it. Thanks!

Now what we need are concatenated multi-communities where I can have a linkable collection of each of these overlapping subscriptions at multiple federated instances. In RES they were "multi-reddits" and they were my primary way of compartmentalizing and consuming content.

I think two communities can live side-by-side and even develop their own culture. With federation, someone subscribed to both essentially has no downside right? I think forcing merges would cause some issues (like, who moderates?).

Beehaw seems to be coming in strong. I almost made an account on their server but for some reason they don't allow downvotes which I feel could be an issue in the future.

beehaw blocks many other instances though. I don't feel like supporting them to grow. Too centralized.

I keep having this image of the owner of a small cottage who has gradually been making his cottage lovely, repairing bits, adding cozy furniture, hanging out with his friends playing his ukulele on the porch.

The huge apartment building down the road burns down, and he invites the huge crowd of refugees into his cottage for shelter. They immediately start complaining that his cottage is too small, it doesn’t have an elevator, how come there’s no exercise room, ewww there’s cat hair on this rocking chair, that color of paint sucks, how could you be so stupid as to have a slow cooker in your kitchen, we need to add on so tell your friends to get off the porch so we can turn it into a sexy new studio…..

I work in a space adjacent to change management (ERP implementation) and honestly, be happy and kind. These questions are the absolute default ones of humans attempting to puzzle out a paradigm shift. And the fact they're here and they're feeling loved enough to actually ask for help with their new mental model of it is about eight degrees better than it could have been.

So my answer is: it's just like r/games, r/gaming, r/videogames, r/patientgamers. They are all the same subject matter with overlapping content and userbases, with potentially wildly different moderation biases and groupthinks. And that was all on one centralised Reddit! You subbed to some, or all of them, as you saw fit, you maybe even managed a multireddit to group them! It's just the same here except they're on different instances and soon, enhancements to Lemmy pending, will be just as seamless to manage.

I think it's just as simple as:

Most people want the decentralisation perk of not having a single profit driven company controlling everything, and that is where it ends.

Other than that, people would rather just have everything in one place where everyone is, but of course that is antithesis to the whole decentralised model.

People have gotten used to the convenience and ease of the silos, and people don't want that taken away.

I'm seeing a lot linking other popular similar communities in a pinned post, and honestly I'm preferring it cause you can follow them all - or a more specific 'flavour' of it without getting all the rest. I think the nicest thing to add would be the ability to make a post across communities with features like shared comments and not showing up on the feed twice, so broader topics can still be broadly posed (and not reposted)