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Like on all fediverse services, as a Hubzilla user you have the choice between different servers, called hubs. Some of them are not open for registrations (these are also called "private" hubs), others allow registrations only by approval through the administrator, and again others are completely open for registrations (these hubs are also called "public").
It is primordial for a Hubzilla user to choose the right hub. It may take some time to find the hub you can rely on and trust its administrator, to be sure your data is safe. Best is if you know the administrator's character and how he works. After having selected potential public or approval-requiring hubs which might fulfill your needs, try to contact their administrators and ask them about their commitment: What's their purpose to run that hub and how do they get a remuneration for their commitment? Observe their communication style: How do they announce updates and changes concerning their hubs and how do they handle support requests by users? Of course these questions are answered best when you know the administrator in person.
When not knowing an administrator in person, it might be best to start – before building up your channel, profile and connections seriously – as a reluctant / guarded user to test the hub's functionalities, while being still careful with your sensitive data.
Make sure you have checked these points before registering on a hub:
- What are the terms of service? They are indicated under the page /help/TermsOfService of any hub, i.e. hubzilla.org/help/TermsOfService. The same way you need to be able to trust an administrator, the administrator needs to be able to trust you. That's what the terms of service are for.
- Who is the administrator of the hub? You see their contact information under the page /siteinfo.json of any hub, i.e. hubzilla.org/siteinfo.json.
- What's the uptime of the server? The higher, the better. For that information, the sortable list hubzilla.fediverse.observer comes in quite handy. Be aware that running a good public hub is a tough job, so public hubs might have lower uptimes. hub.fediverse.de is a hub administered by a larger team of several well-known Hubzilla actors, so this might be the most stable public hub at the moment.
- Is the software always kept up to date? You can always compare the latest release number announced under zotlabs.org/channel/hubzilla-announcements with the version of the hub you're looking at, indicated on its page /siteinfo, i.e. hubzilla.org/siteinfo
- Beside the built-in protocol Zot, do you want to use other protocols? The provided protocols by a hub are always listed on its page /siteinfo.
- Which apps do you want to use? Hubs usually provide only a specific set of apps. These are always listed on the page /siteinfo.json of the hub.
Beside hubzilla.fediverse.observer, there's also the sortable table the-federation.info/hubzilla, which doesn't provide infos about the protocols the hubs use and the uptime though.
You also find less detailed lists of hubs which are open for registrations under
- the page /pubsites of any Hubzilla server, for example hubzilla.org/pubsites
- the page /sites?project=hubzilla of any Zap server, for example z.macgirvin.com/sites?project=hubzilla
When you have chosen your hub, read the basic concepts and start with the registration and setting up your channel. See the tutorials for how to do that in detail. You can also read the user guide which you always find on the page /help/member/member_guide of any hub, i.e. hubzilla.org/help/member/member_guide (although some aspects in it are not up to date anymore, i.e. the mention tag).
If you're concerned about loosing your data due to a not premonished out-of-service of your hub, you can regularly perform manual exports of your channels as local backups or clone your channels. See the tutorials or the documentation for how to do that.
If you have questions, connect to hubzillauserssp@zotum.net, then go to their channel zotum.net/channel/hubzillauserssp and enter your question there into the "Share" text box, and send it.