You don't have to. You can, if you want. You have options in your life. You could always just go plant tomatoes instead. 🍅

This is how the world works. On Reddit there were multiple subs that covered the same topics, but the mods developed different cultures and vibes through moderation tactics and sub policies.

If you want a car, there are different companies who all provide one but with different options. Same goes for ISPs, TV networks, restaurants, and schools.

It isn't at all a new concept and I'm not sure why people coming from reddit continue to get stuck on it. Subscribe to them all and as they mature unsub from the ones that develop into something you don't feel like you need.

Posting to all of them will be easier when cross posting is possible on Kbin (it is already possible on Lemmy) but developments like that often take time.

Adding an edit as I've thought a bit more: I think it's important, for those coming from reddit, to truly understand why the Fediverse exists. The intention is to be open source. To ensure that there is no single source of power. There are 'unlimited' options (instances, magazines, etc.) to ensure that it cannot be swayed, corrupted.

This is why people are coming from Reddit - you are seeing what happens when one corporation has the power and sets the terms.

I think it's lovely to dip your toes here, ask questions, and see if you'd like to stick around. But please do understand the intention is not to be Reddit 2.0. We should not try to turn it into that.

No, just subscribe to the most active one.

you fundamentally misunderstand lemmy. These are all independent communities, hosted by different admins.

It's fine.

As the philosopher Macho Man said "The cream rises to the top"

It'll take time but eventually everyone will merge into one major one unless some admin/mod shenanigans.

At least I think.

Everyone's going to say No, and "just subscribe to the most active one", but if you're a 'Fediverse completionist' and want to ensure that there's not a single thing you miss anywhere at any time, then the answer is Yes.

If I send an email to support@microsoft.com, it should be copied to support@gmail.com because it is the same thing, right?

Lemmy isn’t Reddit. It has similar capabilities, but it is fundamentally different. Think email or web hosting, not one stop shop.

So? Reddit has about 10 sizeable Subs that are just a variation of "Ask Any and All Questions". That's not even counting speciality subs like "MedicalQuestions" or "ITQuestions" or "DermatologyQuestions" or "AskTrangender". Or the different language ones like "FragReddit" (German). In the end 1-3 will become the major ones, all will be a bit different and everyone will find the ones they like most.

It would be cool if from your subscribed communities, Lemmy would let you group the ones that are the same but are on different instances.

So if the same article is posted on two or more of the grouped communities, then it would merge the comment sections into one.

No. You don't have to. But if you want to throw a wide net and not just wind up with a singular place with a unified mentality, it's good to have multiple places focused on the same topic. For perspective.

Ask yourself if you subscribed to /r/tech or /r/technology or both or neither (or /r/pics, /r/pic etc., whatever you jam is) and you will have your answer.

A community name is just an address, both on Lemmy and on Reddit. It never mean that that address had the exclusive rights to a topic.

I mean, are you really that concerned that you might miss some random question on one of the less popular ones?

You have stepped through the Looking Glass, Alice. Welcome to the ~~Multi~~Fediverse.

You don't have to if you don't want to. Subscribe to the one you like best, and help grow that one.

Personally, I find myself only subscribing to and browsing communities on the local instance. The idea of the Fediverse is cool and all, but it's just way too much information for one person to process.

Some of these duplicate communities are just placeholders. But sometimes, the differences are obvious, where one community Is populated by jerks or modded by power-trippers.

Over time, the more popular community will become clear by the number of subscribers. (Or the real, topical one will give itself a different name to avoid confusion with the jerks).

There are 5 different forums on the internet about this topic.

You don't have to join all or any of them. But they are each available to you.

They don’t get the message that a similar community already exists because they are on separate instances. Due to defederation, it’s possible that not all of those communities will be visible from all other instances. This is one reason why it’s useful to have the same community across multiple instances.

Just subscribe to the most active one, just like with copycats on Reddit.

A client that aggregated like communities would be nice.

I think there will probably be a natural selection of which one prevails. But each instances may have different rules and different mods. So follow and unfollow the few that have what you like. It would be nice in the future though to ability to create aggregate subs or find aggregate subs like a multi-subreddit for a given topic.

For now yes, but over time probably no. Multiple communities around the same subject are created on different instances. They'll compete to become the most active one. Then everyone will subscribe to that one, and it will grow even more. However, if over time you don't like that one any more (e.g. don't agree with the mods) you can start a community with the same name somewhere else and compete again to become the most active one (or not, and stay small if that is preferred).