Let's say I have 2 instances that are federated: instanceA and instanceB.

These instances have many communities, and two of them has the same name. The "c/comX". So there is comX@instanceA and comX@instanceB.

I know that if I have an user in instanceA, I can see content from instanceB in the "All" view of the Lemmy UI. But what if I only want to see the "comX" posts?

I went into the community view for comX in instanceA and could only see posts from that same instance. Is there a way to see posts from a specific community but fetching posts from federated servers with the same community name?

Like a view in which I can see all posts from comX@instanceA and comX@instanceB, and all the other instances with comX that are federated with instanceA too.

I saw that this instance had a large number of users so I thought "more users->more content->more fun". Apparently, I had to prove my value by answering 3 questions that showed my interest in their community and my value as a potential future member.

What could possibly be my value to a general purpose instance besides money? I'm a software/cloud engineer so I guess there are things I could help with, but my guess is they were expecting me to say "I can donate".

I get it, they need donations to exist, but this upfront? And to a community I don't even know? Maybe I'm imagining things and they were looking for something else?

Do all instances rely on donations? I'd like to contribute to the instances I enjoy at some point. But only if I feel at home with them, not as a prerequisite to join.