It's nice that both parties are discussing here.

I read all of the discussion, I think it may be useful to point out that here are two different issues at hand here:

1. The debate around the question: should we not have or not have multiple similarly-themed communities since we severely lack users to make them thrive. That's technical consideration that's easy to debate, imho.
2. The other one is more related to a question of ego (No blaming here, my own ego is the size of the Eiffel tower ;), and is about deciding if it's ok to ban someone because they're doing something you don't agree with but technically is not against the rules AND AT THE SAME TIME it's about deciding if it's ok to keep bothering the admin/mods of another and similarly-themed community once those mods made it clear to you they prefer you stop doing it but you think they're wrong?

Those two issues should be dealt with separately, if anyone is hoping to reach any agreement.

Could the two communities thrive? Maybe, maybe not. They could both die, too.
Could they merge? I think so (because I don't see large enough differences between them).
Should they merge? I think so but not if one of them doesn't want to merge, it's simple. It's called freedom and respect.
Should they discuss a merge even if they don't appreciate each other, instead of banning and/or spamming? I think so too. At least in the interest of the two communities. Failing to do so would only reflects we're not better than some of those elected clowns we call our representatives... And seeing how crass stupid some of them are, I'd rather try my hardest to never look like them :p

A few more general considerations, keep in mind they're coming from an old fart that probably doesn't understand much:

• If I go to some place and the owner tells me they don't like I what do at their place. I will either stop doing it, or stop going there depending the situation.
  If I really think they're wrong, I may ask other persons around me but if none agrees with me, well I'm back to square one and I will either stop going there or stop doing whatever I was doing.
• As a member of both communities, I find it a pain to have two similar communities even more so when both post the exact same content because it creates more noise in my feed and because it forces me to waste my time and energy deciding where I will read said duplicated content and maybe post a comment. The solution is obvious: I will unsubscribe from one (for the time being, I still follow the two communities).
• Fediverse is about networking and non-centralization. It should not be about owning and dictating what one should or should not be allowed to do... which is what Reddit turned into and why I quit using it entirely.
• I know it's somehow trendy 'to be right' and to present the other dude as being 'the bad guy' the one that is wrong and that should be punished. At best, it's naive. Simply put, no one is the asshole because we all are at one time or another—and if anyone needs help understanding that, consider the following: we all need to poop and once we've pooped we all need to wipe our dirty ass clean. So, yeah, not only we're all assholes but(t), no matter how briefly, at one time we also all have our ass dirty. What matters is not that it's dirty it's how we clean it.
• We don't own communities or their members. If we're anything special it's their janitor, trying to keep it working and clean.
• I'm old enough that I've learned to not give a crap about sensibility, be it my own or other's.
  I try to not be mean but I will also say what I have to say and I'm fine with some people not liking it (or not liking me) as I'm fine with me me not liking what they say.
• I'm not fine with people insisting on convincing me I should change my mind and I should (dis)like what or who they (dis)like. My answer to that behavior is to block them. Am I wrong or excessive in doing so? I could be, sure, but why would i want to waste my time discussing with someone that doesn't want to discuss and only want to convince me I'm wrong and they're right?

Honest question: why can't both communities just exist separately? Isn't this the magic of the Fediverse?

Your biggest point is that the communities are identical in content and I disagree. Just looking at the top posts of the week, the feddit.uk version has a bunch of memes, while feddid.org seems more news focused. The Fediverse allows us to moderate these communities differently and to have different styles of communities, perfectly shown with this example. They are not identical.

We shouldn't build up just one community all the time. That just runs into the same problem why people disliked reddit: centralized moderation. It's not a problem now, but if it ever will be, why can't there be alternatives. Let's not try to become the next reddit, but become something better.

Also some people left reddit because it all became to big, they want small groups that actually feel like a community. If people prefer a smaller lemmy community, let them have it. They voted against merging, so let them have it. !buyeuropean@feddit.uk is already linked in their sidebar. Everybody that wants to can switch the community or subscribe to both (which is a possibility!!).

I think you're in the wrong here, at least on trying to grow the uk community over the org one.

the android community moved instances and then randomly split

PTB, banning people for sharing alternatives is shitty and comes off as you trying to gatekeep your community and prevent people from learning about alternatives.

Also since @a887dcd7a@feddit.org decided to comment, it doesn't matter if the Rest of the team agreed with you or not, that just makes all of you PTB as well. The fact this was even considered as a good idea and implemented to suppress knowledge of alternatives makes it PTB.

If anyone is reading this, stay away from that mod's shithole and go to !buyeuropean@feddit.uk instead. It's more active and isn't run by PTBs.

Hi, the critizied, accused and power-tripping mod here.

Not adding something to the debatable merging discussion, which sure can be a talked about and is even talked bout at other places, and now here again.

The perspective missing is, that a team of mods, even of other communities talked about the course of action. Reason is, that I'm quite new to moderation, and I did not want to overreact. People native to the instance decided to stick with the community, and the debatable vote added weight to that sentiment. One guy brought the topic up over and over again and tried to position an alternative community instead of adding content to both communities.

Other mods recommended to ban him for a week or for good. I decided to engage in communication and asked to postpone discussing that issue in that particular community. Also I asked to stop gurilla advertising another commiunithy while that community was in a built up phase.

After futile mitigation attempts a 3 days ban, coordinated with about 3+2, mods was applied.

This is my whole power trip, and I'm so addicted to it, that I onboarded more mods and employed a voting system, so that banning only happens, when no other way of settling an issue can be achieve.

Edit: The full ban reason was. "Recurring egress linking without providing content for siphoning users. Promotion of community dissolvement." The textfield was a little small.

Not PTB, and not quite YDI.

your history of trying to consolidate communities to external instances (such as our wonderful privacy discussion) may irk moderators. You are the number 1 community dissolver on lemmy. Especially when you cross post someone's post from community A to community B and siphon the user activity by being the more recent post.

A moderator may not agree with your consolidation choices (i.e. they like the TOS on a different instance) and reasonably see your actions as a net negative.

I think its more fair to do community competition through better and more frequent content. Reposting content to your favored community (i.e. top post content jacking), and going into other communities to direct users to your favored community isn't very nice.

Finally, feddit drama! Now I feel right at home.

Some people can't gey away from the centralised mindset. Why not both instances? That's the essence of the Fediverse!? It's not a zero sum game, unless I'm missing something...

PTB. Leaving a comment like this doesn't hurt anyone, even if it's on every post. The mod just doesn't want to lose power.

Yeah I'd say PTB. They're more interested in maintaining control, than what's good for the users and community.

After reading from thier mod, you just seem to be acting out. Delete this post because it really makes you look bad to the informed.

PTB.

Ideally the communities should be consolidated in this case. But if they aren't (e.g. they're geared towards different target audiences), there's no harm on linking one from another.

But here, the feddit.uk mods and admins have been good, no such issue to be reported.

Phew.

It's recommended in the sidebar? And you got banned for quoting that??

With all due respect to the other mod, i'm going with PTB.

YDI.

Not because you're wrong about consolidating communities, and not even because you were trying to get people to move to the other comm; but because you're doing it in the least communal and democratic way possible, and for your disregard for the mod team and community's collective intent. I think the mod team handled this pretty well.

These kinds of crusades are antithetical to the spirit of the fediverse, and I really wish this community didn't attract so many Don Quixote-types fighting windmills.

Well I mean it's Reddit, that's half their MO now. The other half is being thought police.

YDI, aggressively trying to stifle a community like that leaves a very very poor impression IMO, people have their reasons for choosing certain instances and that should be respected.