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.
Someone on Mastadon could reply to a comment here directly from there and you may not notice unless you look at their instance.
Usually, you notice it, as Mastodon automatically adds an @username@instance for everybody the commment replies to, Lemmy doesn’t.
True, good point