An instance hosting a community might

become unstable
disappear forever
defederate or become defederated from/by my instance
same for the instances of other users of that community

I kind of get this, but:

• it seems premature to split the community “just in case”
• this is largely a technical problem. IMHO communities should be federated in the sense that losing the instance shouldn’t automatically mean the community is lost.

Communities can have the same topic, but differ in moderation style policies regarding if and how bots are allowed

Also possible, but in most cases a large majority of community members can certainly agree on some compromise.

Why are communities split? If you’re right and there’s really no good reason, then how comes this phenomenon occurs so often?

• the lack of community federation
• “my instance is better than yours” - which IMHO originates again from the lack of community federation
• some mods just like the unrestricted power over their fiefdom

Hmm, what was the reasoning for the force reopening?

I think the mods of the duplicate communities should join forces, agree on uniting the communities and close all but one (the other pointing to the united one).

I don’t think there’s really a good reason to keep communities split. (there are of course contingencies where it makes sense, like rogue mods etc.)