Hashtags do not replace groups.
No one moderates them. They’re easy to hijack and spam. And there’s simply no permanence to them.
Which is why, if you actually want to discuss something, it’s better to tag a group. For example, if you want to be part of an actual PC gaming community on the Fediverse, it’s better to tag @pcgaming@lemmy.ca than #pcgaming.
This needs to be common knowledge because people new to the Fediverse do not know about groups. Hell, I’d say people who have had Mastodon accounts for years still don’t know. And that’s a shame.
@fediverse@lemmy.world
@Steve also, I just reread your earlier comment. Sure, it’s important that these different areas of Fedi have decentralised servers, but that they can cross the barrier between different apps is going to continue to be very important. Especially for real world friendships. If you can get over the barrier of getting people to try Fedi at all (we all know a TON of people that didn’t use any social media before Facebook, and now they won’t use ANYTHING except FB messenger or sms to talk to people) then you can demonstrate that “look! It’s like I’m posting on Twitter and you’re reading it on Facebook!”. I think that’s going to be quite important for adoption, once normies hear enough about it to give it a try. We don’t have a ton of active celebrities here but there are a few, and quite the concentration of SF writers, and they are always the ones to see the future 😊