Maybe the largest difference for me is how the federated nature changes the social dynamics. For instance, people from Instance X don’t like those from Instance Y, or may even ban them.

This was prevalent on Reddit, buuuut banning can be instance or node based compared to subreddit.

I likely have some opinions or takes I wouldn’t post on lemmy.ml because lemmy.ml has a particular bent. I agree with a lot of it, but I wouldn’t want to offend with what doesn’t align or would get me banned. The ban cascades further out, and how servers interact as wholes with one another in terms of federation is similar.

The social platform mechanics are also different. Upvote has a different impact compared to Reddit (I don’t fully remember the specifics). I think saving has its own relevancy or something?

It’s mostly the same though.