They are gone, just like normal forums, except for copies stored in instances federated to yours.
So once an instance is federated by another, those posts also live in the 2nd instance as sort of a backup?
Part of what I enjoyed about reddit was that I could find things that are 10 years old with a quick google search and still expect them to be there 10 years from now. If all this can go away at any moment, it sort of just feels like a chat room or something. Im not saying that is a bad thing, it just makes it difficult to build long term communities and a strong user base long term if its possible.
Do most people browse within their "local" or "all?" When browsing "all" I see some duplicate content from communities in other instances which I guess is to be expected. Again, not a bad thing - but if I have to search 15 other "news" to see discussion on something I am interested in, isnt that kind of cumbersome?
Enjoying the site so far, dont take my comments as criticism. Just doing my best to learn how to use this type of site and get the most out of it I can. Appreciate the replies from you all.