@sim @Pawlicker it's not really that complicated. you basically choose to follow somebody and optionally choose to let them curate for you.

in the case of aether, their equivalent of a subreddit has some 'default mods' based on the most popular subscriptions. but you can unsub those, and they can be fired if many people unsub them.

aether is based around a reddit model--where you may have topical rooms, so topic enforcement is a thing. the other project tries to fit more in an open forum model where the OP has some limited say in admitting people to the thread (at least, by default.)