For those new to Lemmy, think of instances as countries

I’ve seen a lot of people who are still confused about instances and the various communities in them. Think of the Fediverse as Earth and the instances as countries. Countries have constitutions that establish the values of the country. Instances are the same.

Suppose we have NoStupidQuestions on Instance1 and Instance2. Instance1 is like the USA, and Instance2 is like Canada. Instance1 will be more lenient on free speech than Instance2, which is more inclined to civility (this is just an exaggeration). Mods of each instances need to abide by the values and rules of their instances.

This means that even though it technically looks like we have two duplicate communities, they are actually different because the mods have to abide by the values and rules of the community’s instance.

That is the beauty of the Fediverse. You’re free to follow any community on any instance you want. The Fediverse is your adventure.