There is one MAJOR difference: here you can make not only your own sub/community, where you can be your own mod, but you can spin up your own whole entire instance, and become your own admin. Oh Reddit, you serve The Man (spez) or you can GTFO - so we did the latter:-P (some perhaps due to being kicked out of their former mod role bc of the protests) - but here, nobody can tell us what to do, in the end.

Ofc there are limits even there, like someone can defederate from you if you refuse to control yourself, even unintentionally like if you don't follow basic security and constantly get hacked.

It's like being able to own your own home. When you visit a community on someone else's instance, you are their GUEST, and you have to follow THEIR rules. The homeowner owns the community while the mayor or governor or President or Prime Minister or whatever controls the entire city / state / country or in this case "instance". Right or wrong, it's THEIRS, so your options are limited - you don't get to just walk into someone else's HOME and tell them what to do!?

But here, unlike Reddit, on your own personal computer (desktop machine even, doesn't need a whole "server") you can make your own place. From there, you could invite others... or not, as you choose. Inside your own home, unless you do something that may cause the police (like FBI) to come knocking, you control yourself, and also you have the responsibility and right to kick off anyone you choose who refuses to play by the rules that YOU set forth.

So do whatever you want. Ofc others have the same freedom too.