I came up with what I think is a pretty good explanation when trying to explain the beehaw fiasco to a friend last night, here it is copy pastad

Think of it like cell service

You have TMobile, I have Google fi

But we can still talk because they both use 4g

But then Google fi blocked TMobile so I can't talk to you anymore

And if I want to be able to talk to people on TMobile and Google fi I would have to transfer my service to att

But also, the service is free to setup and run on your own

So instead of 3 or 4 big cell carriers there are thousands

Also, some added info: Also, with the fediverse, when you transfer service you can take your data with you Just like you can take your text messages and phone number with you Fediverse meaning all the apps that work this way, like mastodon and ~~Lemmy~~ (at least those ~~two~~ one have data transfers I think)

Edit: can't transfer account