I really wish the Mastadon README had some more discussion about what exact problem the system is designed to solve. Closest I can find is "A decentralized solution to commercial platforms, it avoids the risks of a single company monopolizing your communication."

Which is great and all, but... what does that mean exactly?

@esnyder
- Free (Libre) Software - Everyone can contribute to it (you can, for example, create an instance with a design you love)
- If Twitter closes, everything is lost. If a Mastodon instance closes, you just have to transfer your messages to another instance
- Respect for privacy: everything does not belong to a company
- No advertising
- And what I forget

(sorry for my english)

@Yannicka so, you said "If a Mastodon instance closes, you just have to transfer your messages to another instance" but it doesn't look to me like that is possible right now? Did I just miss it?