So if I understand this right, you pick a server and your server account can post on that server and any servers that that server federates with.
So what happens to your account if the server you joined goes down? Yes, you could always create a new account somewhere else, but you lose all your followed communities and post and comment histories as well.
Yeah it’s the issue with this ‘middle ground’ of federation. some ideal world would be fully p2p, identities fundamentally would rest with the user’s device or backed up somewhere public and encrypted, then servers just become meeting hubs or caches of content. there’s some protocols that already do this at a technical level, secure scuttlebutt and nostr are two. there’s other issues that crop up, for one moderation and content discovery starts to be a lot more complicated.
so, not a solved problem by any means, but federation at least gives us a bit more freedom than a singular centralized service.
SSB would be great if joining it was simplified. Nostr’s problem is one of moderation. Online spaces all moved to having moderators to protect users from an onslaught of hurtful content constantly and with Nostr you’re all on your own to block each. Individual. Harmful poster you don’t want to hear from anymore.