OptimusPrime

Yeah, couldn't agree more.

https://browse.feddit.de/

I would prefer something pre-made for convenience but that can be modified by each user to adjust to their preference. I'd rather have a generalist solution forced on me than have to spend countless hours grouping communities from hundreds of instances.

There could be conflicts between hashtags, as a hashtag for one community may not have the same meaning for another community. This would result in mixing topics and potential confusion.

Oh, I thought it was about tagging the communities and merging them based on those tags. Are you suggesting tagging the posts instead, and displaying all posts tagged the same from all communities across all federated instances in the same location?

But this can already be accomplished with the search feature. You only need to select 'Local' or 'All' and search for a word. People shouldn't be forced to hashtag every post, so the result would be the same as it is now.

I think conflicts can arise with hashtags just as easily as with community names, so it might be better to have an updatable and moderatable link instead.

Lol this is a very good point. I'll give it some thought.

Cross-instance "multireddits", that are also automatic and topic-based. #1113

TL;DR: The suggestion is to implement an automatic multireddit feature in Lemmy that displays all posts from communities with the same name across federated instances. It aims to promote decentralization, avoid echo chambers, and ensure high availability. Community moderators would have the option to opt-in or opt-out their communities from being displayed. There are discussions about potential issues such as community name collisions, duplicates, abuse, and practical implementation. Some propose using a new link format, while others suggest providing users with a list of related communities.

Combining communities should be a front end feature… Allow users to merge their views if they want. But it should not be enforced at the backend or federation level.

Eventually there will be third party apps which can do this merging in their interface if someone wants it.

I agree with this. The grouping should be a front-end feature based on hashtags, as someone else mentioned, instead of the community names. Alternatively, there could be lists that you can simply copy and paste to create your own multireddit, eliminating the need for hashtags. However, considering that the original issue was already on the lemmy-ui, I'm not sure why you brought up the backend.

Every moderator would have control only over the content displayed on their instances, and not on everyone else, as it should be. The argument about having one or two large communities is a recurring one. There is no reason to have federation if we are going to centralize communities in a couple of instances. Then, if one of those instances shuts down, everyone in those communities would have to migrate. The main benefit of federation is decentralization.

I don't know why you are bitching about rules and frustration.

I believe the best approach would be to have these multireddits automatically created for convenience. However, users should have the option to choose whether they want to see only the content from their instance's community or from any number of communities, instead of being forced to view all of them.

The proposal does not necessarily imply merging all small communities with others. The implementation can provide an optional choice to community moderators, allowing them to decide whether they want their community to be included in the multireddit. This approach respects the autonomy of individual communities and acknowledges the reasons why new but similar communities may emerge, such as issues with community mods or server admins. By offering this flexibility, the feature can cater to the diverse needs and preferences of different communities while still providing the benefits of consolidating posts from communities with similar topics.