I had not realised this before, that there are multiple versions of the same community on different instances. For example there are multiple meme communities on different instances.

I wonder how this affects engagement considering that although there might be one large community there are several smaller ones. Perhaps not everyone assumes that there's a larger community on a different instance.

Also how does this affect niche communities where it may be that due to high fragmentation these communities might seem unusually small.

Further, if these niche communities remain unusually smaller than there Reddit counter parts would users leave do to perhaps lack of content versus their Reddit counter parts.

This is kind of a chicken and egg - users migrate or engage the more activity there is and it may lead to discouragement if their first impression is that there isn't content.

I don't know I'm probably rambling and don't know what I'm talking about.